Prince Caspian
The Chronicles of Narnia #2 (original order)
by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic fantasy
This is my first foray into The Chronicles of Narnia. I’ve seen the movies (or at least some of them), but only once when they first came out, and don’t remember much about the movie based on this book. This is yet another series I wish I’d read when I was younger; I have a feeling I would have liked it more as a kid. Overall, I enjoyed it a little more than the previous book. Maybe that’s because the Pevensies aren’t newcomers to Narnia anymore, but I think it’s more due to the Narnians that they encounter this time. Reepicheep made my heart melt!
The story involving Caspian, as well as Peter and Edmund’s additions to the conflict, I enjoyed. I’ve never been one for reading battle sequences, so I appreciated that most of the fighting was summarized. Even the one full fight that was shown had a lot of interjection by other characters, so it was more fun than it probably should have been. I was not a fan of the sequence of events that followed Susan, Lucy, and Aslan as they gathered up the rest of the Old Narnians. It all felt a little strange to me and made me wonder what the purpose of it was. Most of what was shown didn’t really affect the rest of the story much.
It is possible I misinterpreted parts of this book, though it is meant for readers more like my daughter’s age, and I doubt she will get bigger meaning out of it than I did when she reads the book. However, aside from those areas, I enjoyed the book overall and think she will too.
Find out more about Prince Caspian
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
A Journey of Words 
You have to remember that Lewis was an expert in ancient literature. All those characters in the scenes that you didn’t see the purpose of are characters from Greek and Roman mythology. If you know who the characters are, those scenes suddenly make a whole lot more sense. Also, there is a theme of Aslan setting the people and country free through those scenes. Lewis wrote Narnia allegorically yes, but he also wrote it as an homage to all the classic literature he loved – from George McDonald all the way through to ancient Greece and Rome. Can you tell I love Narnia? Lol. But honestly, these books are so, SO complex! Nothing in them can be taken at face value, or on a surface value.I’ve reread each of them over 15 times each and found a new layer to peel back every time! The Silver Chair is my favourite of the Chronicles for this very reason. On the first read, I didn’t understand why it was in the Chronicles. The other books all have an obvious allegory/parallel – Creation in the Magician’s Nephew, Salvation in The Lion, the W & The W, the way God works in Prince Caspian (never the same way twice, sometimes it’s obvious and we see it, sometimes its behind the scenes, sometimes He puts us somewhere and it’s our job to do the ‘doing’ etc), oh and it’s a ‘King Arthur returning’ story too, the Horse and His Boy is about how God works behind the scenes in ways we don’t always recognise and about how He is always with us even when we don’t see it, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is about purpose, redemption and how meeting God can change someone, and obviously the Last Battle is Revelation/the end of the world. But I always wondered what on earth The Silver Chair was about! And then on my fifth reread, another layer suddenly peeled back and I saw it! And now I think it has the most meaning of any of them! Its about the journey of life and our daily walk with God, and His faithfulness when we are unfaithful. I always say that the Chronicles are deceptively simple. On the surface, they are simple children’s stories. But if you take the time to soak them in and study them, they are perhaps some of the most complex fiction ever written.
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This is a very insightful comment, and I’ll come back to it as I read the other books in the series. I figured there was more going on with the Narnians that Aslan was freeing in the latter part of this book than I would be able to understand, which is likely going to be an issue for most people who read it for the first time in modern times. Fortunately, it didn’t detract from the story enough to bother me; I just found it strange.
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