Despite the fact I read a lot as a child and read a lot of fantasy novels I never read any of The Chronicles of Narnia. When the movie of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came out I made sure I read it first and started to read the whole set but got distracted. I always try and read it before seeing the movie though and since this is on the Children's fiction book list for next year and the movie is out in 3 weeks I figured I might as well get it out of the way.
To me it seems like a simple quest narrative. King wants to go see/find/do/fight something. King goes off to do it bringing with him loyal subjects. King does it. THey all return home and celebrations occur. In this book the quest is to rescue the seven missing lords and to see the end of the world. Returning to Narnia are Lucy and Edmund Pevensie to help King Caspian and coming through the painting was their cousin Eustace. Eustace possibly shows the biggest growth in the book going from irritating spoilt brat to a decent human being (by way of a turning into a dragon - literally).
There's not much to say about the book beyond I liked it. I can see why the Chronicles are considered classics of childrens fiction and I really do love Lucy and Edmund. I think my problem getting through some of the other Chronicles was the lack of Pevensies but before they do the next movies I'll have to at least try them again.
It's hard not to compare this to the trailers for Dawn Treader that I have seen over the last couple of weeks and I think they've added a lot of story to it. I'm just hoping they haven't cut a lot of the good stuff to make way for it.
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