The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis
For whatever reason, I’ve never really liked this book. Part of it, I think, is that I often stopped with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, as a kid — I couldn’t quite tell you why, except maybe that nothing could match up to how much I loved that book. When I try to be objective, I can see that it’s really no different in quality to the others… and Puddleglum is hilarious! But I persist in disliking Eustace and Jill, and I feel like Rillian is a complete non-entity.
It’s probably also that I really dislike Caspian being old and no longer really a part of things. Okay, the bit at the end helps with that, but still… I’m just not keen on the whole tone of this book: Eustace and Jill are always arguing, Puddleglum is always fatalistic, and Rillian starts off rather patronising and awful (albeit because of the spell). There’s not much of Aslan, and not much faith in Aslan. It feels like Jill in particular doesn’t really understand who he is and why she should obey him, and that changes things rather.
In the end, it’s quite possible I’m making excuses, but… still not one I enjoy, I’m afraid!
I’ve always been fond of this one. Dawn Treader was my favourite and I remember the visceral shock of starting the next book to find Caspian old and dying, but I loved this for its atmosphere (and I liked Jill, which helps). I may have been influenced by my Mum’s affection for Puddleglum; but I liked the femme fatale of the green kirtle too. It’s interesting that you say it has so little Aslan and that Jill is a sceptic – I wonder if that’s partly why I liked it. I never loved the end of Dawn Treader, but this was a portal fantasy adventure I could just enjoy.
You’re totally tempting me into a reread of the Chronicles some time soon
I wonder if I just don’t like it as much because it’s nearly the end of the series… XD Also I think I first read it as an adult, and I swear I was better at imagining wild and strange things as a kid.