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.