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“For The rest of that day, whenever he looked at the things about him, and saw how ordinary and unmagicable they were, he hardly dared to Hope; but when he remember the face of Aslan he did hope.”
– C. S. Lewis The Magician’s Nephew

There’s a certain raw reality in C.S. Lewis’s prequel novel, The Magician’s Nephew. Much like my poem “Rediscovering Neverland“, it encapsulates the idea of wanting to return to your youth and recapturing the magic that was born there. It speaks of the joys of creation and the wicked nature of power and deceit. It hits on the magnificent glory of being good, when it’s so easy to be bad. It does this while laying the groundwork for what comes later.

The novel is a prequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and all subsequent novels, answering many questions about the origins of the world, characters, etc., but it was actually published second-to-last, around 1955, so it was easier for Lewis to go back and connect the dots for readers. It seemed that, before the final novel dropped, Lewis wanted to go back to the beginning to give a definitive beginning to his series (I’m assuming). Because of this, there’s a huge debate among fans about reading order (even a third way), which I won’t get into here. For the record, I’m reading them chronologically, but since this is my first time reading the novels, I kind of wish I started with book number two, as The Magician’s Nephew creates as many (or more!) questions than it answers. I’m sure I’ll have more feelings on this as I go forward with the series, but read them in whatever order gives you joy; then perhaps go back and read them in an alternative order!

The novel follows two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, neighbors who are tricked by Digory’s devious uncle, Uncle Andrew Ketterly, into testing magical rings he crafted from Atlean dust. It’s important to know: it doesn’t seem he’s entirely sure what these rings will do. When a guinea pig touched a yellow ring, it disappeared, so he assumes that it was teleported somewhere, but it never came back. Andrew must have had notions of what he was concocting since he created multiple pairs of rings, one yellow and one green, or perhaps he created the green rings later as a supposed answer to the yellow ring because he has the idea that the yellow sends you somewhere and the green brings you home.

Being a coward, he doesn’t test the rings himself. Instead, he tricks Polly into touching a yellow ring, and, after she disappears, he tells Digory how he believes the rings work, and that he should go after the girl. Devious! Digory reluctantly does this, and they find themselves in the Wood Between the Worlds, a nexus hub that looks like a forest with many pools, each presumably leading to different worlds, one being their own. They decide, as adventurous children do, to explore a little before going back to their mundane home with evil Uncle Andrew, and things ramp up from there as they meet Empress Jadis, and eventually come upon the creation of Narnia.

There’s obviously a lot more action and nuance to the story, and a lot that I’m probably going to look back on and laugh as I connect the dots, but the novel essentially sets up what is to come, and I appreciate it for what it does, despite not being a fan of prequels. Maybe this is different, as this is the first novel in the series I’ve read, so this isn’t a prequel, but book one for me. However, there’s so much more depth to these characters that isn’t explained (maybe in future novels?) that it sometimes doesn’t feel like a prequel at all. Obviously, Jadis and the world of Charn come to mind. There’s a whole section of this book when they find the Empress that is wickedly cool, but largely goes without explanation of how it came to be. There are hints that lead me to believe that it will be elaborated upon in later novels, however.

That’s why I ticked this down to a 4.5 stars rather than a straight 5. Going forward, I feel I’ll need to keep an individual novel rating as well as an ongoing series rating. Each book can be rated on its own merit, but the series as a whole, as it unfolds, should get its own rating, maybe?

Regardless, it’s a fun read full of characters who are delightfully devilish, fun, and loving. It’s a bit quirky, reminding me of Harry Potter or The Hobbit. I’m excited to continue on to the next!

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