The Story

This completely unauthorized collection of essays edited by Herbie Brennan focuses on a subject that is very near and dear to my heart – C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. I have been eyeing this book since it came out, but it wasn’t until I found it available on BookMooch that I actually had the opportunity to get my grubby little hands on it.

Included in the book are the following essays:

• Just Another Crazed Narnia Fan (Deb Caletti)
• Forgotten Castles and Magical Creatures in Hiding (Brent Hartinger)
• King Edmund the Cute (Diana Peterfreund)
• Reading the Right Books (Ned Vizzini)
• Missing the Point (Sarah Beth Durst)
• The War of Light and Darkness (Herbie Brennan)
• Eating in Narnia (Diane Duane)
• Serious Action Figures (Kelly McClymer)
• In the Kingdom of Calormen (Lisa Papademetriou)
• Going to Narnia (Sophie Masson)
• Prince to King (Elizabeth E. Wein)
• Waking Up the Trees (Susan Juby)
• It’s the Little Things (Susan Vaught)
• Being Good for Narnia and the Lion (O.R. Melling)
• Mind the Gap (Zu Vincent and Kiara Koenig)

All of these essays have one thing in common: a deep appreciation of, and love for, Lewis’ Narnia books. But that is where the similarities end. These essays talk on everything from how awesome certain characters are, to how WWII would have had an influence on the Narnia books, to how the Narnian books had influences on certain author’s lives.

The Response

Oh, I would definitely recommend this to any Narnian fan! It was, for the most part, a lot of fun!

My largest annoyance with this book, and I want to get it out of the way first, was that it seemed like SO MUCH of it related to Caspian. Caspian is one of my least favourite characters, and Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are both my least favourite books… so the fact that three of the essays about Caspian were all gathered together in a row, it made it feel like there was NOTHING but Caspian, and that dragged onnnnnnn and onnnnn and onnnnnnnnnn…. goodness!!

But there were some complete jewels in this one collection as well – ESPECIALLY the essay by Diana Peterfreund. Oooohhhhh, I DO love Edmund Pevensie so much! I didn’t realize it until I read what Peterfreund wrote about herself, but Edmund HAS formed the love I have for most other fictional characters – the completely reformed bad boy.

I found Herbie Brennan’s and Diane Duane’s the most interesting – theirs were the ones that spoke about how real-world events would’ve/could’ve influenced Lewis’ writings… in Brennan’s case, it was about WWII. This essay specifically focused on the “light vs dark” – which, even though I completely 100% agree that what Hitler did was totally evil and not cool, this essay seemed a little bit too… black and white at times. Duane’s essay, on the other hand, talked about how the rationing of food was the reason almost all of the books have such a huge focus on feasts and delicious food – about how even the simplest of fairs (toast and sardines) are made to seem to taste so amazing.

I know a lot of people who read the Narnia books later in their lives find that the Christian message is MUCH too obvious and seems to be shoving Christianity down their throats. Sarah Beth Durst’s essay talks about how children usually don’t get the same message from the books – at least until they are older and reread them … or until those messages are pointed out to you.

Ah, there were so many good ones, but those I already mentioned were my favourites.

The Bottom Line

Will definitely be keeping this book. Highly recommend that Narnian fans add it to their collection. Yay fun!

Other Reviews

Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.