The Silver Chair (1953)

I like this one quite a bit, probably one of my favorites.  It just has a lot going for it – a decent narrative throughline, a nice eye for detail, and a number of engaging characters, including a villain to rival the White Witch.  Overall, I’d give this book a strong thumb’s up.

One day while being chased by bullies at school, Eustace and his classmate Jill Pole are transported to Narnia.  When the two are temporarily separated, Aslan appears to Pole and tells her of their mission – rescuing the lost Prince Rillian and returning him to Cair Paravel – along with the signs that will guide them on their quest.  The two children are aided by a gloomy Marsh-wiggle named Puddleglum, but the mission is a difficult one, hampered at almost every turn by their own mistakes.

While I like all the Pevensies, I think Eustace and Pole in this book make the most interesting combination of human kids in the series.  While Eustace has certainly changed for the better since he set off on the Dawn Treader, he can still be contrary and irritable at times, and Pole is much the same.  As such, their faults get in the way of their quest a lot, and they have to do a fair amount of backtracking and fixing when they screw up following the signs due to their quarreling, complaining, or thinking they know best.  Both are realistically flawed, and I enjoy watching them both struggle to be better.

As for the supporting characters, they’re few but excellent.  I get an enormous hoot out of Puddleglum, ever the resigned pessimist.  His doleful little monologues are great fun, but in addition to the humor, he’s actually a really great, heroic character as well, doing everything he can to hold to Aslan’s instructions and help the children despite his running commentary on all the ways they’re likely to die.  And the Lady of the Green Kirtle really is the best villain the series has after the White Witch – maybe even better, in my opinion.  While the White Witch is certainly more iconic and more destructive, there’s something seductively sinister about the Lady of the Green Kirtle.  Our heroes’ big scene with her is actually pretty chilling in the way she so gently undermines everything they think they know.

And just generally, it’s a good story.  There’s a clear-cut objective laid out near the start of the book, and it’s interesting to follow the signs and see how they reveal themselves.  There are good side trips, such as the segment with the giants of Harfang, but they have a purpose for the story at large as well as being entertaining in their own right.  Additionally, some of the themes feel a little more complex than in many of the books.

I’ve heard that the book is (finally) being turned into a movie as a quasi-reboot of the film franchise.  Obviously, it’s been too long for Will Poulter to reprise his role as Eustace, but it sounds like Liam Neeson and some of the other cast might be back, as well as keeping the general look and feel of the earlier films.  There’s been talk of it as the start of a “new” trilogy, but I’m not sure how that would work.  The Silver Chair, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle (the actors who played the Pevensies ought to be a decent age for the characters by the time they get to that one?  There are four books left, but The Silver Chair and The Last Battle are the only two that fit logically together.  Of the remaining books, The Magician’s Nephew is a lot better (and less problematic) than The Horse and His Boy, but it would feel a little weird slotted between the other two.  I’m intrigued but still slightly puzzled.

Warnings

Scary moments and some violence.