Agreed, but didn’t the werewolf last all of three seconds when the fight started? (Of course, it hadn’t fully transformed, but still…)
Well, there’s badass talking and there’s badass actions… Personally, being kind of a chicken-shit myself, I’m more of a fan of badass talking. And you’ve got to admit that was badass talking.
I’d probably have to pick The Magician’s Nephew, even though I don’t much care for the first half of the book, just because I love the whole section where how the Narnia we know and love from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe came to be.
A strong second choice would be The Last Battle. Again, I wasn’t that thrilled with some of the book, but I found the idea of all the visitors to Narnia(except Susan) being reunited and the rest of the ending comforting somehow.
Absolutely no question. I just remember my 10-year old self being a bit nonplussed when that particular villain was built up as such a badass, only to be eliminated in the course of a single sentence (IIRC).
To this day, I remember the feeling of, "That’s it?! :smack: "
I’m looking forward to that scene in the upcoming movie. Maybe they’ll beef up the fight – the guy they’ve got playing Caspian looks like a bit of a badass himself. And I really hope they use that bit of dialogue.
Well, it’s important that children be introduced to the concept of “all talk and no trousers”.
Anyhow, for me, the Last Battle is definitely the worst, but I’d be hard-pressed to pick among the rest… although whichever one is my favorite is probably NOT Prince Caspian.
I think my first favorite is LWW, but there are parts of each of them that either give me goosebumps or make me grin. Least favorite is TMN. I like the “coming into being” parts, but most of the rest just leaves me flat. And like FriarTed, I love The Last Battle, for most of the same reasons, apparently. Emeth’s faith and courage just about make my heart stop. I’m also fond of the dwarf story, where they’re so afraid of being taken in. I think about them here at the board sometimes, oddly enough.
When I read them as a child, The Silver Chair was far and away my favorite. Jill was the charater I most identified with, although I also saw some Puddleglum in myself. the first and last books were my least favorites - I never cared much for the Pevensies (am I remembering the last name right?).
As an adult I don’t care much for any of them, but I did see and enjoyed the BBC version of The Silver Chair a few years ago. If I see any of the series currently in production, it will be that one.
Oh gosh, this is hard. I would have to say Horse & His Boy, or Silver Chair. I really really loved the ending of Silver Chair, when the bullies get their comeuppance. Plus I, too, really identified with Jill. I always found the differential passage of time in Narnia to be really heartbreaking and fascinating all at once. The scene in *Prince Caspian * where the children realize where they are and go down into the treasure house…gives me shivers.
In his collection Fragile Things Neil Gaiman wrote a perverse and heretical* Narnia story - although he didn’t call it Narnia, to avoid lawsuits - entitled “The Problem Of Susan” about, well, the problem of Susan.
* Aslan’s bargain with the White Witch is that he gets to eat the girls and she eats the boys. Then he licks her out before fucking her on a field strewn with dead centaurs with pendulous cocks and dismembered schoolchildren. How very different from the home life of our own dear Queen.
I’m a fan of Gaiman, but that story actually made me feel nauseous. Yeeesh.
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is the first one I ever read, and I got chills when Lucy came up to the lamppost in the movie. But it’s a hard tie between Dawn Treader (the Dark Island is one of the most terrifying things I can imagine) and Silver Chair.
My list goes roughly like this:
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian/Dawn Treader
LWW
Last Battle/Magician’s Nephew
Silver Chair
I’m a big Shasta/Cor and Caspian groupie.
I think it’s easier for me to say which ones I liked least, because I liked almost all of them a lot. (I got the complete boxed set for Christmas in 1992, and spent the rest of break reading every last one.)
As a story, I liked Prince Caspian the least–just a lot of the main characters wandering around in the woods, etc. Pretty boring. But I also disliked The Last Battle, not because it was a mediocre story, but because it made me sad. It’s about evil, and the bad things people (or apes) can do to each other. After reading such vivid tales about a world I desperately wanted to be real, it was too much to read about that world ending.
Tough call. If you asked me three times, you’d get three different answers.
I love The Horse and His Boy because of the colorful descriptions of Taashban, and especially for the episode where Aravis and her friend are hiding out behind the couch listening to the evil plans of the Tisroc “May He Live Forever”, and the Crown Prince keeps booting the Prime Minister in the butt. The scene is chillling and hilarious at the same time. Priceless. Also, I love Shasta for his flaws.
I love Voyage of the Dawn Treader primarily because of the early descriptions of Eustace (with his vegetarian parents, his fondness for books with pictures of fat foreign children doing exercises, and his name, “which he very nearly deserved.” Eustace was such a wonderfully flawed, selfish and human character. I truly HATED the monopods (AKA “The Duffers”), though. I would gladly have fed them all to whatever was on the island where dreams come true.
I love *The Magician’s Nephew * because it is old fashioned, because I got such a wonderful sense of discovery when it revealed the origins of Narnia and of the Wardrobe (I’m a “LWW First” girl, naturally), and for the wonderful eeriness of the great Hall of Charn where all the images of the kings and queens sat. I also absolutely adored Uncle Andrew, for all his horribleness, because of his pretentions, his delusions of grandeur, and his absurd geriatric lust for Jadis (“Dem fine woman, sir!”) He got the best comeuppance EVER.
Funny – I never noticed until now that, as an adult, my very favorite thing about my favorite books in the series is Lewis’ ability to inject very big, very realistic human flaws into a series which would otherwise be too filled with nobility to stomach. Lewis recognizes sinners, but he clearly loves them nonetheless (with the possible exception of the Tisroc and Prince Rabadash). In this, the author comes off as almost “Aslan-like” himself.
In a tie for least favorite book are The Last Battle for the excruciating-to-read betrayal of the Talking Beasts by the Ape, and The Silver Chair, for it’s unremitting darkness and bleakness. Both books make me feel wretched, but The Last Battle is at least interesting, particularly when Taash shows up! (I join with those who liked the “blind” dwarfs in the stable and the faithful, valiant young soldier who chose to face the terrors of Taash. It’s funny, because, by Lewis’ standards, I am one of those “blind dwarfs” myself.)
I always liked The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe best, except for the Father Christmas scene, where it’s explained that wars are ugly when women fight in them, and the ho-hum battle near the end. I think the boring-ass Disney movie with the regrettably miscast Lucy has ruined it for me, though.
So now, I guess it would be The Horse and His Boy. It’s a bit trite, but it’s the least apologist of them all, and the Calormenes are great cartoon villains.
The Magician’s Nephew is a charming take on the creation story, and has good characters.
I mostly despise Dawn Treader, especially that rodent, but the scene where Eustace becomes a dragon is one of my favorites in the series, and almost redeems the book.
The Last Battle is a wretched book, which is to be expected from its source.
Prince Caspian and The Silver Chair are just forgettable.
I found it weirdly horny…
The Silver Chair is my favorite, but I have very fond feelings for A Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The thing that I like so much about The Silver Chair is that it’s so bleak, compared to the others, and still has so much hope, and grace in it.
It’s always the non-human characters I most identify with: Puddleglum, Trufflehunter, the poor, uglified Dufflepods…
But I’ve also liked The Last Battle. Especially the whole story with Emeth.
I cast another vote for A Horse and his Boy;
The passage where Shasta is walking (unbeknownst) with Aslan and laments being “the unluckiest person in the whole world” and Aslan tells him “I do not call you unfortunate” always makes me all emotional.
…though I love all the books.
When I read this later as an adult, it occurred to me that this was an analogy of a psychotherapist and a patient; the patient rarely has the fortitude to endure the pain of removing their own skin by themselves, and needs the therapist to dig deeply.
Like the part in The Horse and His Boy where Edmund strokes his beard and says “But even a traitor may mend. I have known one that did.”
As I grew to adulthood, I began to be disturbed at the parts of the Narnian Chronicles (or the LOTR, for that matter) where the people from the North were noble and fair, and the people from the south were dark and devious (Aravis and Emeth excepted). It’s easy enough to pass off now as being from a less enlightened time, but if the film series continues I hope that it is handled with more sensitivity.
I kinda liked The Magician’s Nephew, because it contains what must count as the worst date in the history of humanity - when the Magician attempts to take Jadis out “on the town”. 