The Chronicles of Narnia
One nice thing about all the flying is that I have plenty of time to catch up on some reading. Right after the movie came out, I picked up a copy of the paperbook collection and started reading. As is usually the case, I didn’t finish.
So I picked it up again and resumed during the flights. In short, it’s an amazing read. The stories are easy to read, not bogged down with alot of details, and entertaining. What would take most writers pages to develop properly, battles and war scenes mostly, are instead “glossed over” and then covered in retrospect. This leaves alot to the reader’s imagination, which makes for a uniquely “personal” interpretation.
Also, I can now see why so many people call it a “christian fantasy”. When you read the rest of the material (outside of the Lion, the WItch, and the Wardrobe), you really start to see the parallels between Aslan the lion and Jesus or God. Worshiped by all who inhabit Narnia, he is responsible for both the creation of the land and eventually it’s destruction. His famous line of “I tell no one’s story but their own” is repeated again and again as an implication of a “grand plan” for the world. The story comes in 7 books that chronicle the creation of the world & the introduction of the white witch, through the most famous “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, and eventually through to the “armageddon” the ends the world.
It seems to me that this collection of books would be perfectly suited for a movie adaption, even moreso than the Harry Potter books. The stories are entertaining and colorful, each with important lessons and adventures. Unlike other stories, tho, the main characters vary somewhat from book to book. The 4 children of the main book return in a later book (the 4th: Prince Caspian), but the 3rd book (A Horse and his Boy, a clever play on who is actually the pet) contains none of them. The later books replace main characters with new characters until the final book reunites them. Such a story somewhat bypasses the problem of aging actors that is confronting Harry Potter.
In conclusion, go pick it up. It’s an easy read, so long as you’re familiar with british terms like bivouac. [tag:narnia][tag:book]
