Book Review: The Magical Worlds of Narnia

On a bus ride to Albany and back, I was able to read David Colbert’s The Magical Worlds of Narnia: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts. He has written a similar book on Harry Potter, which I will tackle soon. For now, a few brief thoughts on how Colbert handles Narnia.

Taking the series book by book and answering some of the series’ most interesting questions, it provides a good amount of interesting background information on the Narnia series. Some of the treatments of subjects are quite short, but it is a good enough book to whet the appetite and get the reader more interested in the Narnia stories. A few sidebar notes even draw links to the Harry Potter series.

Despite these few valuable pieces of information, the selection of topics seems a little random. I’d hardly use the word “treasure” to describe the amount or value of the “myths, legends, and fascinating facts” of the subtitle. There is a significant amount of mythological and legendary material in the Narnia books that goes entirely unmentioned.

Furthermore, whenever Colbert ventures into his own opinion on a matter, he seems, in my view, to be way off the mark. When sticking to the mythological and even some of the biblical connections, he’s fairly interesting. But whenever he says, “to me,” or “in my opinion,” the content surrounding those statements made me wince.

In short, the material might provide you with a good introduction to the issues and controversies (like the racism/sexism issues) surrounding Lewis and the Narnia series, but it isn’t anything you couldn’t find anywhere else, and it is presented in a way that is far superior to other sources, either. Perhaps its greatest asset is its brevity. Even if you don’t particularly care for the book, at least you didn’t waste too much time on it, and you probably came away with a few interesting tidbits.