The Chronicles Of Narnia

The Chronicles Of Narnia
by C.S. Lewis

First published in Great Britain between 1950 and 1956.

Made up of seven excellent books, The Chronicles Of Narnia was a series I grew up with.  I started (as most kids seem to) with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when I was about seven and then borrowed the others from the library.  I was going to choose just one of the books to write about, but decided that they all deserve some blog time as they have all been my favourite at one time or another.

I like the fact that C.S. Lewis has recommended a reading order for the Chronicles which is different to the order in which he wrote them.

The Magician's Nephew is first in his recommendation, and this is a wonderful story to introduce readers to Narnia.  In it we meet Digory, a young  boy who comes to London to live with his quirky uncle and becomes friends with a young girl named Polly.  Together, and with the help of magic rings, they enter another world and witness Aslan the lion creating the beginning of Narnia.  After several adventures the story ends with a brilliant link to the next - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Set long after The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe introduce us to Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie.  These four children are evacuated to the countryside during the second World War and get into Narnia through a wardrobe.  Whilst there, they find that Narnia has been under an evil spell and is in a constant winter.  Slowly they gain allies and end up fighting the White Witch.  In the end they take their places at the palace at Cair Paravel and are named as Kings and Queens of Narnia forever.  This is perhaps one of the best known Narnia stories and the same characters are featured in two further stories.

The third book is probably my least favourite.  The Horse And His Boy follows on chronologically from The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, but is set in a different area of the magical world.  We meet Shasta, a boy who rescues a horse who can talk.  Shasta and the horse, Bree, flee north and meet princes and hermits.  They eventually reach Narnia but discover that Calerman (one area of their world) is planning a raid on Narnia's neighbour, Archenland.  For me, as well as this book is written it didn't add as much to the overall Chronicles as the others.  It paints a picture of Narnian life in good times, and so there are less obstacles for the characters.

The next two books are Prince Caspian and The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.  The first of these feature Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy when they are called back to Narnia to help Prince Caspian.  The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader is set mainly onboard a ship, and follows Edmund, Lucy and their cousin as they journey to find Narnian lords who have been put under a spell.  Whilst trying to make things right again the cousins come across a dragon, some Dufflepuds and meet Prince Caspian again.

The Silver Chair features Eustace again, but this time he is joined by a girl called Jill.  They get into Narnia and are given a task to find a lost prince.  I found Jill to be rather difficult to like - I'm not sure why, but I think I just feel more connected to the Pevensie children, having read their stories first.  I found the Silver Chair harder to get into, and found myself wishing the Pevensies would pop up again.

The Chronicles end with The Last Battle.  This is a book that does what it says on the tin, as it were.  The Calermenes have taken over Cair Paravel and so all allies of Narnia have been called together.  Eustace and Jill are called into Narnia to help, and end up fighting in the ultimate final battle.  The end of this book is a great tie up of everyone's stories and is one which I enjoy reading every time.

The entire series is so detailed that it is a great introduction to high fantasy for younger readers.  I remember the first time I read The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, I was overwhelmed by the amount of detail in the characters, the geography and the history of Narnia, and how each stories was connected to another in some way.  I really like the endings to each book, they give a touch of suspense and lead brilliantly into the next one.  The adventures are all aimed at defeating evil and working together to save Narnia, and although the Narnians are a bit overly nice and chummy, it is an idealised world at the end of the day.  The books are full of metaphors and stories told within them, which help them to not be too simplistic.

Even though they are aimed at children, I would tell any readers to read these books.  The writing is not patronising at all; rather I feel I understand the layered meanings better as I have gotten older.  If you read them when you were younger I can promise that you will feel the same innocent excitement reading them again.  If you haven't read them, then do and give your imagination the perfect setting to go wild.

The Gate To Women's Country

The Gate To Women’s Country

by Sheri S. Tepper

First published in Great Britain in 1988.

The Gate to Women’s Country is one of my favourite books.  I feel like I say that a lot but I have a lot of favourites depending what mood I’m in.  This one is for when I’m in an ‘I wonder what the world would be like if women ruled and there were hardly any men’ mood.  I can’t remember how this book came to be on my bookcase – I can remember buying it but have no idea what led me to do so.

The story is about Women’s Country, where (as you might guess) women rule.  It is set three hundred years in the future, after a nuclear war has destroyed most of humanity and the United States has split into several different, new areas.  In Women’s Country the females live inside the city walls and educate themselves, with science and the arts flourishing.  They keep some men for servants, but most of the men live outside the walls in barracks and are the women’s army.

The main character is Stavia, a thirty-seven year old woman who we meet when she is summoned to meet her fifteen-year old son at the Defender’s Gate.  After a discussion in which her son decides to stay with the Warriors instead of returning home, Stavia tells us her life story from when she was ten and living with her older sister and mother.  As the story progresses we learn more about the separation of mother and son when the child is handed to the men outside the walls at age five.

Stavia is an interesting character.  She has always lived in Women’s Country, growing up with her doctor mother.  Her mother takes her along when she tests the gypsies who travel around in the wild for diseases, and Stavia is aware of her brother who was given to the Warriors.  With an older sister too, Stavia shows all sides to life in Women’s Country including that of their servant Joshua.  When Stavia meets a Warrior boy, Chernon, she has to make up her mind about how she feels about the rules she is supposed to obey.  I thought that Stavia was well-written and was relatable, even in a situation I couldn’t easily imagine.  She progresses from a child following rules ingrained into her, to questioning those rules and then following in her mother’s medical footsteps.

I found Stavia’s mother to be rather annoying at times – probably because I felt so much for Stavia as she tried to understand her family and why the city is how it is.  Her mother sometimes seemed quite cold, and it was the servant Joshua who was the most caring person for Stavia to turn to.  In this way it was as if the ‘traditional’ gender roles are reversed, with the few men providing the most support.

Although the men are shut outside the city, they stand together and bond as Warriors.  We get more details of the past from the men’s conversations than the women’s and learn that they have previously gone to war with other armies, with mixed results.  I found the men’s lives really interesting as they have to decide whether or not to return home.  By doing so they lose all respect, but by staying in the garrison they are more likely to die young.

Tepper’s future is not one that I found easy to imagine – for me it is set too far ahead in time.  I generally prefer books set ahead in time just enough for the world to be different, but still hold onto some parts of our present day so that I can picture the stories actually happening.  With this one I had to use my imagination a bit more, and try not to fixate on filling in the three hundred years between our now and Tepper’s future.  However once I got into the book the setting fit well and was simple enough to create a strong mental picture.  I particularly liked how even the towns were names after women, for example Marthaville, Susantown and Melissaville.  Everything the women could take charge of they had done, and done so explicitly.

Overall this is a book I enjoyed reading.  The story is great, the characters are developed and the message behind the plot is one which can be taken seriously in any time or place.  It’s one of those that leaves you wondering ‘what if?’  Oh, and there is a brilliant ending that I had to reread a few times to believe!

The Help

The Help
by Kathryn Stockett

First published in Great Britain in 2009.

This is one of those books that you know you should read when it comes out.  It's one of those that everyone talks about and tells you to read.  Then the film is released a couple of years later and the hype is refreshed.  This is pretty much exactly as it happened for me, and I ended up buying the book to read before someone lent me the film.

The story is set in Mississippi in 1962 and follows a group of black maids dealing with their lives as second-class citizens and Skeeter, a young, white woman who comes home from college to find that the maid who brought her up has gone.  As she tries to find out what happened, Skeeter uncovers the horrendous way the 'help' is treated behind the closed doors of her neighbours and family's friends and decides to write an anonymous book about it all.  As more and more maids find their voices and come forward to add their stories, tensions in the town rise.

The Help is narrated in turn by Skeeter, Aibileen (a maid who is bringing up her seventeenth white child) and Minny (a maid who struggles to keep jobs because of her temper).  These three women are tied together by the risk they take in starting the book project - if they are discovered the maids will be fired and Skeeter's writing dream will be shattered.

Minny and Aibileen are each dealing with problems with their husbands and children at home, yet still have to endure the terrible unfairness of life as a black maid.  I really liked Minny and her wicked temper, but felt more of a connection to Aibileen with her gentler ways.  Although she is not happy with her situation, she concentrates on the child in her care and tries not to let the injustices she faces upset her.
Skeeter is an interesting character; she is the only white person in her town who takes the time to ask why the maids are treated as they are, and in doing so makes several enemies.  This does not stop her, rather it empowers her to reveal the truth.  Saying that, she does struggle with going against her family and friends at first.

It took me a while to get into this book, not because of the story, but because when the maids are narrating it is written in their dialect.  I thought this was a clever way to really get into the mindset of the characters but it also divided theirs and Skeeters sections and, I felt, represented their division in life.  It may take a chapter or two, but once you hear the voices in your head it is difficult to stop them!

The story itself is excellent.  It captures the Mississippi way of life in the sixties without skimping on the details.  Other writers may have hinted at the maids experiences, but Stockett exposes them fully.  That being said, this is not a tragic tale.  It is one of hope and courage, and shows that any lines can be crossed, no matter how ingrained they are.

If you want a book that has a deep message without being preachy, get your hands on this one.