The Magician's Nephew (adult)

4 ★ - (really liked it)

Beautiful wee story of the very beginnings of Narnia. So magical!!

This is amazing for kids!

"El Sobrino del Mago" de C.S. Lewis, parte fundamental de la serie "Las Crónicas de Narnia", es una obra maestra que nos sumerge en un mundo lleno de magia, aventura y descubrimientos. Publicada en 1955, esta novela nos presenta a Digory Kirke y a su amiga Polly Plummer, quienes, por accidente, desatan fuerzas mágicas que los transportan a otros mundos. Su viaje los lleva a Charn, una ciudad desolada y misteriosa, y posteriormente a Narnia, un reino lleno de criaturas fantásticas y paisajes asombrosos. La prosa de Lewis es cautivadora, llevando a los lectores a través de una narrativa rica y detallada. El autor crea personajes entrañables y complejos, como el astuto tío Andrew o el león Aslan, que personifica la sabiduría y la bondad. Uno de los puntos fuertes de la novela es la exploración de temas como la creación, la responsabilidad y las consecuencias de nuestras acciones. Lewis teje una historia que va más allá de la fantasía superficial, brindando lecciones profundas sobre la naturaleza humana y la importancia de tomar decisiones éticas. La introducción de Narnia como un mundo en creación es fascinante, y ver cómo los personajes interactúan con este reino recién formado añade una capa adicional de maravilla a la historia. Además, la conexión con otros libros de la serie se establece de manera magistral, ofreciendo una visión más completa y cohesiva del universo de Narnia. "El Sobrino del Mago" es una invitación a la aventura y a la exploración de conceptos fundamentales. La mezcla de elementos mágicos y filosóficos hace que esta novela sea adecuada tanto para jóvenes lectores como para adultos. La capacidad de Lewis para entrelazar una historia cautivadora con mensajes significativos contribuye a la atemporalidad de esta obra. En resumen, "El Sobrino del Mago" es una joya literaria que sigue deleitando a generaciones con su imaginación desbordante, personajes memorables y profundas reflexiones sobre la vida, la moral y el poder de la elección. Una obra maestra que se erige como un pilar en la literatura fantástica.

The first and last thirds of the book are entertaining but the bit with Aslan is too ham-fisted. The book is also a better prequel than start of a series.

Casually had an existential crisis at 1am while rereading this

I recently read this to my niece. It was a fantastic feeling sharing one of my favorite stories from my childhood with her. I loved seeing the wonder in her little face as we read along and I'm just in awe of see how well the story holds up after so many years. I hope this is the start of many books for her and the start of her love for Narnia. If you have kids in your life, you need to share Narnia with them. I chose this one as the first one because of chronological order, but maybe The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe would have been better. Either way, it is a fantastic read.

4.5

Ahhhh So good and nostalgic of the previous books I read and I just love how it ties into the other books so well

Loved this book and series as a kid. Beautiful imagery.

The Magician's Nephew was an interesting read that didn't grab my attention well. I wanted to read this book because I am really interested in older stories. The Chronicles of Narnia was introduced to me through the films and ever since I have been dying to pick up these books. So, I decided to start in "reading" order (at least, that's what my book said). This book is the prequel novel, but it barely grabbed my attention to pull me into the series. I think this book would be an excellent read to anyone's child. Someone with a lot of imagination, who is also reading out loud, might be able to make this story sound far more intriguing than how it sounded in my head. If it weren't for the history behind this book, I probably would have put it down. The story is cool, and the writing style is obviously dated, but it just didn't grab me like I hoped it would. The book seems to be more of a children's fiction novel - it's full of wickedly evil characters that don't have much personality (other than being evil), the main characters are young and pure of heart, and Aslan is just introduced and barely used in the story. There are obvious themes in the story - the daughter of Eve, the son of Adam - but I feel like it goes over the reader's heads (at least, it did for me the first time through). I would have rather read this as an English project with a teacher walking me through all the satirical aspects and amazing references that C.S. Lewis introduced into this story. Overall, this book is truly memorizing but I wasn't as impressed at it as I wanted. Two out of five stars.

As a kid this was always my least favourite of the Chronicles although after reading it now, I don't know why! Lewis packs this enjoyable children's story full of profound insight about human nature, the 20th century world and God. Excited for the others!

I can only Say that despite it being a book for Kids (cause thats how it felt to me) it was extremely entertaining, it started as a book i read to spend the day and now i can't wait to read the next book

I loved this book! I remember watching and loving the movies as a kid so I finally decided to read the books and I'm so glad I did it, such a fun, sweet and cozy read

Wasn’t sure I would still like it, but it’s good enough to make me want to revisit the next in the series.

Oh my I loved this!! Wished I read it sooner but better late than never.

I tried. I really did. But this book series is clearly just not for me. People have been recommending this series to me for as long as I can remember and I get looks of shock and disbelief when I say I haven't read it. So I figured it was about time I sit down and give it a shot. And honestly I wasn't impressed. There were some funny moments throughout the book where I started to get interested, but by and large this was such a mediocre story, both in writing and the tale of creation itself. For a series lauded for it's mystery and magic I really expected something more than this. There were several times where the writing felt disjointed. We would get very descriptive paragraphs followed by stints where the author told you everything instead of showing. And that flopped back and forth several times. (view spoiler)[At the end of the book, when they're standing there and the sun is starting to come up over the horizon (the creation myth part of the book - aka how Narnia came to be) I really hoped that there'd be more mysticism and excitement to the whole thing. These people are watching a whole new world being created in front of their own eyes and there's almost a subtle nonchalance to their reaction. Nothing felt genuine or real coming from these characters, even from the perspective of an excited (or scared) kid. (hide spoiler)] There was no real character development either. Polly and Digory felt very flat and boring. You could have replaced them with any other character and I probably wouldn't have noticed. There were elements to this book that were amazing, take the bar that was lodged into the ground sprouting into a lamp-post tree as an example, that's hilarious and original, but the execution just wasn't there for me. I think that feeling of magical wonder and awe wasn't established very well earlier in the book, so by the time we get to the end and all of these magical, wonderful things are happening I just felt a bit apathetic about it all. I've read many children's classics and children's novels over the years and this is unfortunately one of my least favorite. I probably will not continue reading the series.

I loved the Christian and biblical parallels and I’m reading this chronologically. Since I’m reading it chronologically it was nice to see how narnia began since I’ve seen the lion the witch and the wardrobe movie before and read the book when I was younger before I knew it was a series. I’m going to read the rest of the series and I’m excited to read the rest!

It is a children's book, and though I am not a child, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. It was nice to pick up a easy fun read and I really enjoyed the book and the characters!

I've got only one thing to say: Read this before you read the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe or if you've already seen the movie. The information this unveils regarding that novel is enormous! Besides, it was really enjoyable; from a moral perspective, a religious (perhaps specifically catholicism though I'm not sure about that) perspective and casual reading one.

This book is such a magical read. I've been reading it every year so far and it just gets better!

My childhood <3

** spoiler alert ** I think this book was better than the first one it was really interesting to see how this connected to the first one with the lamp post and how Diggory made the tree of life into a wardrobe and how that was the first wardrobe to narnia. It was also interesting to see the creation of narnia. Polly was really sweet too but I hated uncle andrews. Overall pretty good book.