Since Netflix is attempting to ruin The Magician’s Nephew, I have made a video ranking every book in The Chronicles of Narnia, as a bit of fun but also as a reminder of what is great about each one.
I reread the entire series this year, and there were so many things that surprised me. As a child, I doubt I’d have fully understood Lewis’s disdain for the Experiment House school, for example, or the implications of Shift the ape using poor old Puzzle the donkey as a fake Aslan.
It is extremely hard to rank these books, as they all have something unique to offer. The Silver Chair has Puddleglum’s defiant speech, the The Magician’s Nephew contains perhaps the most moving scene in the entire series, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe offers magical moments that have stayed with many of us since childhood.
I have weighed a number of factors before coming up with my final list. But the video is not just about ranking, and will hopefully give you some new insights or at very least facts about Lewis and Narnia.
Watch below and let me know how you would rank them. But please don’t be rude about my choices or you will be sent to the stable to face Tash.
And if you understood that reference, congratulations: you are a Narnian.
Best,
Nick
I'd love to watch this video as the Narnia books are my favourite childhood reading and I've read them all several times. However as soon as you started with Prince Caspian I thought, I don't remember this book so well (although I do seem to remember loving it almost as much as TLTWATW) so I'm going to read them all again before coming back to this video. I still have all my childhood copies, age 63.