Okay,
good – the whole “green mist” thing was
an invention for the movie. I didn’t
want to believe I’d forgotten such a big plot point! While I get why the film wanted a unifying
thread connecting the various vignettes, I don’t think the book needs it. This is an enjoyable adventure yarn, and
although it doesn’t have as well-formed a plot as many of the other books in
the series, the characters serve it well and it offers up a number of memorable
sequences.
Stuck in
the country with their insufferable cousin Eustace, Edmund and Lucy are
thrilled to find themselves transported to Narnia once more (less thrilled to
do so with Eustace in tow.) There, they
meet up again with Caspian, now king of Narnia and leading a sailing expedition
to seek out a number of lords who’d been forced to flee during Caspian’s
uncle’s usurpation. Along the way, they
have a number of strange and fantastical adventures.
As I
said, there’s no mysterious malevolence building to a climactic battle here,
and there’s no driving plot beyond Caspian’s search to find the seven lost
lords. And really, that’s okay. It’s not the type of book that needs it. All it really needs is the characters, the
Dawn Treader, and the series of adventures they encounter during their journey. I wouldn’t call it the best book in the
series, but for me, it’s one of the most memorable. Vignettes like the Dufflepuds, the golden
statue, and the dragon stuck with me years after my mom first read me the book
and I first saw the old-school BBC miniseries. Even before checking out the more
recent film, I still had crystal-clear remembrances of, say, Lucy reading the
Magician’s book and Reepicheep in his coracle.
And
Eustace being a colossal pain, because yeesh.
It’s funny – when I compare him with Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he’s obviously not as
bad. As Edmund remembers here, he did some
horrible stuff in that book, whereas Eustace’s main crimes are basically having
no imagination and generally being a self-centered complainer. However, as big as Edmund’s actions were, and
as much as Lewis doesn’t pull any punches with him, it is pointed out that he’s
at least partially under the thrall of the White Witch, and even apart from
that, his never personality never grates as much as Eustace’s does. That said, he comes by his character
development honestly in this book, and I buy where he ends up compared to where
he started. I’m looking forward to
rereading The Silver Chair to get
reacquainted with this version of Eustace with Pole.
There’s
nice variety in the little tales here, adventure and intrigue with moral
lessons mixed in and a little humor for good measure. I like the sense that while, yeah, there’s
the whole thing with the lost lords, this is mostly about Caspian, the
Pevensies/Eustace, and the crew exploring uncharted waters because they’re
there. Great spirit of exploration and
the seeking of knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
(Side note: I would’ve
appreciated the mention of more Narnians in the crew. I get that there are still a lot of
Telmarines in Narnia, but Caspian is king to all and it would’ve been nice to
see more of a mix, to get a glimpse at how the various peoples of Narnia are
coming together more under Caspian.)
Warnings
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