3/5 stars | Genre – Fantasy Adventure
This one took me a litttle while to get through and looking back on it I’m not entirely sure why. With everyone on lockdown you’d think I would have more time to read. However, I’m still trying to get into a good routine that incorporates reading. Now with that out the way, here is the review of this book…
Lucy and Edmund, stuck with their awful cousin Eustace, suddenly find themselves on board the Dawn Treader – and realise they have fallen into the magical land of Narnia. Reunited with old friends, the young King Caspian and Reepicheep the mouse, they gladly join the voyage to the World’s End. Eustace, however, is not so happy… (synopsis from the blurb but heres the Goodreads link anyway)
Initial thoughts…
I was quite looking forward to this one as there was more focus on Edmund and Lucy, who I find to be my favourite characters. However, I found myself not enjoying this one as much as I enjoyed the previous books. The pace of the book seemed to really slow-down against hte others, while also incorporating a lot of new characters that I didn’t find myself investing in or paying much attention to (looking at you Eustace). Of course, I won’t entirely dismiss this book as there were parts that I did actually enjoy.
Favourite moments…
- Lucy and Edmund: I’ve always found these two characters to be the most interesting of the main four to read. I think it might be because they’re young and have more opportunity to develop; but their character dynamic is great, even as royals they bicker like siblings and never really adhere to the typical royal persona.
- Depths of Narnia: one of my favourite things about the book series is its ability to expand the world of Narnia. This book does that rather well as you get to experience different lands as well as different races of people with the relm. It also showcases how these races feel when it comes to magic, some believe and rule by the old laws of Narnia, while others out-right ignore and see magic as unreal.
Where did it go wrong?
Now, I get these books are classics so its always tricky territory criticising books this prolific. However, I wasn’t able to mesh with this book as well as I did with the other books. For a book centered around adventure and exploration, it very much felt like a slog getting from island to island. Whether that was part of getting the reader to understand how the sailors felt, but for me it just wasn’t for me.
In conclusion…
At the end of the day I didn’t hate this book, although its definitely become my least favourite of the books I’ve read so far, I still found moments where I really enjoyed the new adventure. There were still recognisable characters who I enjoyed reading more about and new areas of Narnia that filled me with joy as much as the other books did.
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