The Horse and His Boy (by C.S. Lewis)

I’m gradually making my way through all of the Narnia books, trying to do so in ‘reading order’ and not the order they were published. After the most recent one – The Horse and His Boy – I’m not sure if I’m going to make it.

Talk about a struggle. Compared to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Magican’s Nephew, this just dragged. It really didn’t seem to go anywhere. I switch off from all the allegory stuff, so maybe I missed the point. But still even if you are going to have metaphors galore, at least wrap it around an interesting, engaging story. If they do make a film of it in a few years, it will probably be direct to BluRay.

The one saving grace is I hear the next book in reading order –The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – is better. Indeed I understand it’s the 3rd film to be made (hence skipping Nephew and Horse) and is in pre-production already. My reading is that it’s the only other book to have all 4 children in it and they are making hay whilst the sun shines on this one. Plus, of course, the actors are getting older.

Overall: nope.