...and why?

(Link to our general discussion of the series)

I chose The Horse and His Boy which has always been my favorite. I've wondered before what it is about that book that I love.... Part of it might be the TCK aspect (the experience of growing up in a culture that is not your own) that I can identify with. I really feel quite homeless with regards to a nation or culture that is mine. In fact, I've become more comfortable in cultures/places that are clearly not mine than places that maybe should be could be mine, but never quite are. Anyway, Shasta sort of recognizes a dream of mine by discovering his home.

Since we're discussing these, I'll just add that my least favorite of the Narnia series is The Silver Chair. I never really get into the main characters of that one, except for Puddleglum. I mean, even though Eustace redeems himself (or, more accurately, is redeemed) in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, he never becomes particularly interesting to my mind.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my favorite of all. I love the...

• Humor - the Dufflepuds make me laugh every time
• Poignancy - the chapter where Lucy reads the Magic book brings tears to my eyes
• Relevance - Eustace's un-dragoning speaks to me of my need for Christ better than almost any other passage in any other book
• Adventure - from silly (sea serpent) to frightening (the dark island, Deathwater) to stirring (the Lone Islands, Ramandu's Island), Dawn Treader has all sorts of great adventure tales in it
• Characters - Reepicheep becomes one of the most sharply-written characters in the series in this book, as do Eustace and Caspian

My least favorite Narnia book? Probably The Silver Chair, but it's hard to say. If I were to put them in order of favorites, I'd list them:

1. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
2. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. The Last Battle
4. The Horse and His Boy
5. The Magician's Nephew
6. Prince Caspian
7. The Silver Chair

The Silver Chair. Why? Because I am Puddleglum!

The Last Battle--it's the most complex, and the ending is amazing. I always cry. Also, Patrick Stewart reads it beautifully in the Harper audiobook.
The Magician's Nephew
The Horse and His Boy--Aravis is a character who doesn't get mentioned often enough
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Silver Chair
Prince Caspian--does have some fabulous bits, though, especially the freeing of "old" Narnia and Lucy's encounters with Aslan.

It’s reassuring to see this book at the bottom of the pack, because I just read it while on vacation and wasn’t overly impressed. I’ve been going through the Narnia books, one at a time, while on vacation, for, ummmm, well, about five years and counting now. And I’ve just finished book 4, as numbered in my series. I was a little discouraged, wondering if Prince Caspian was the beginning of a slow fade for the chronicles. I see that it rebounds nicely, so that’s good for the books. It's potentially more ominous for the movie series, however.

Interesting that no one has picked The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe! I thought I was going to have to exclude it from the poll because everyone would pick it.

I voted for Dawn Treader because it opens up amazing new worlds, leaves a lot unanswered, and still teaches a great deal.

So:

1. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
2. The Magician's Nephew
3. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
4. The Last Battle
5. The Silver Chair
6. Prince Caspian
7. The Horse and His Boy

I was torn between MN and LB but went for LB.
Matt

I'm torn between The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle. I choose THAHB because it was always my favorite growing up. It's the only book that really gives you a glimpse of Narnia in its prime. The other books depict new beginings (Lion,Magician,Prince) or decline (Silver,Last). Even Dawn Treader is full of a feeling of "has been". I remember specific lines about the Dawn Treader itself being nothing in comparison with the ships of Narnia under Peter, etc. So THAHB felt like a glimpse of Narnia at it's greatest.

On the other hand, The Last Battle is, as Beth said, amazingly complex...not to mention the most emotionally fulfilling. I like it for almost the opposite reason that I prefer THAHB. Rather than depicting Narnia at it's greatest, in a way that seems most foreign or removed from our "real" world, Last Battle reminds us that all of that was just the shadowlands. It pull us up out of the fantasy of Narnia AND out of the realism of our own world. It points us toward the redemption and fulfillment of both.

I went with the Gospel of John (oops, I mean TLTW&TW.) Close behind is the Genesis (oops, I mean the Magician's Nephew)

I went with THAHB because horse books (and horse movies) rock!

It wouldn't let me vote for some reason. Hm.

But, anyway. I was looking at the list and knew right away which was my favorite, and still couldn't feel justified in ruling the others out so quickly. So a list (like others I've seen here) seems to be in order (heh, no pun intended):

1. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - From when I was smallest, ships have fascinated me. I'm one of those hopeless, Irish sort of romantics who like long songs about the danger of the sea and then still love the open water anyway. Aside from capturing the seafaring adventure of exploration, danger and the joy of the discovery, Eustace's own journey from a bratty kid to a redeemed young man is, to me, one of the most poignant, meaningful allegorical illustrations of the journey of a sinful human to a saved child. I agree with you on that one wholeheartedly, Crimson.

2. The Last Battle - A book I'd mostly read, reread and forgotten until sometime last year, while listening to the audiobook with my family. It very nearly blew my mind. The incredible grasp of culture as a whole is still staggering. The simple way in which Lewis weaves the story, with the masks, the lies, the self-deception afterwards, the lingering hope and raging, consuming redemption, calling and, adversely, the separation, still speak to me deeply. It calls to mind both Schaeffer's "How Shall We Then Live?" and another Lewis favorite, "The Great Divorce." This is usually the book I recommend most strongly to college students who ask about the series, though I do recommend reading "up" to it first.

3. The Silver Chair - I see it's unfortunately not as popular here. Still, one of my favorites and probably for silly reasons. I love the hugeness of their problems and the struggle the characters go through to "remember" what they've been told, however simple. Reminiscent (to me) of some of the letters in Revelation, now that I think about it.

4. The Horse and His Boy - Horses! Foreign lands! Oranges! Sand dunes! Deserts! Lions! Honestly. Few books are as fun as this one, non-Narnia included.

5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - I'm actually sad that this is near the end of my list. I think it might mean more to me, so I'm going to have to claim the last four (from THAHB down) are really ties. One of my earliest memories is of watching the old animated version of this, and the whole piece still inspires and moves me.

6. The Magician's Nephew - I love creation stories, and still giggle whenever I think about the animals planting Uncle Andrew. This still captivates me, from the cringing realization of Digory's mistake to the moment he brings an apple home and plants it. This is the sort of book I could write a book about.

7. Prince Caspian - I'm not really sure why, but if I'm trying to list them off the top of my head, this is the one I most readily forget. It was just never as fun or touching for me, even though it definitely has its moments.

So. Lots of words. A favorite series, though, and worth all of them.