I’ve been reading a ton of J.R.R. Tolkien these last few months, so naturally the next step is to start reading some of C.S. Lewis’ works. I’ve started reading arguably his best known work, The Chronicles of Narnia. Like with The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia is a fantasy children’s book (or series), and also just like The Hobbit, it’s unfortunate that I never was exposed to these beautiful stories as a child; neither at home or school.

Theirs a debate regarding the reading order in how one should approach reading The Chronicles of Narnia. That is reading the books in their original publication or chronological order. Though their is no right or wrong answer, from what I can see online, it seems to me the best option is to read the books is in their original publication order. So this is what I did. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. The book’s main protagonists are four young children and one main antagonist. Before reading this book, I’d imagine The Chronicles of Narnia to be completely high fantasy without any contemporary elements (similar to Tolkien’s legendarium). I was mistaken, while Narnia is completely fictional secondary world with many mythical creatures, the stories’ main protagonists are Englishmen and women during the WWII era (book was published post WWII).

This is the first book of a seven book series, so it might be an inaccurate assumption to do, but reading just The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it feels to me that The Chronicles of Narnia is a not an epic story (large in scope) with vast array of characters and many subplots.

This was such an enjoyable read, I practically read almost the entire book in one sit-in, completely oblivious from time.