Book #185: The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

 

The Chronicles of Narnia:

The Silver Chair

C.S. Lewis

 Released: September 7th, 1953

My 51st book for 2026 was C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair.  

Here's what I gather.

Eustace encounters a friend name Jill who is bullied at the school they both attend.  He tells her about his adventures in Narnia, and they call out to Aslan to save them.  Both are transported to Narnia.  Eustace falls off a cliff, but was saved when Aslan blew him through a jet stream to Narnia.  Aslan tasks Jill with helping Eustace find King Caspian X's son Prince Rilian of Narnia.  He went missing a decade before.  Jill is given four signs to guide them before being blow to Narnia and a waiting Eustace.  They find out 70 years have passed since the previous adventure in Narnia, and King Caspian X is now a frail old man.  We find out that Prince Rilian went missing 10 years earlier while looking for a large green serpent that killed his mother.  The journey takes them to the giant-lands of Narnia.  They set out for Harfang only to learn their dinner invitation was actually an invitation to cooked them and serve them as the main course.  After missing a couple signs they spot the third one leading them underground into the ruined city of Underland.  They find a young man who must be bound to a silver chair, as if he if released, he will turn into a deadly serpent and kill everyone.  They choose to see him perform this.  When begged to be released, they discover another sign as he earns his freedom.  The Green Lady attempts to bewitch everyone into forgetting the events of the evening, but her spell is broken.  She transforms into a serpent and is killed by Rilian.  Rilian returns home just in time to bid farewell to his father, who dies after giving Rilian his blessing to become King.  Aslan congratulates Eustace and Jill.  He tells them they will go back to Earth, but one day will come back to Aslan's Country for good.  Caspian accompanies them back to Earth where they take care of the bullies.  The school improves and Eustace and Jill stay friends.  Rilian buries his father in Narnia.  The kingdom thrives, but Puddleglum predicts that you couldn't expect good times to last.

If a lot of that sounds familiar, it's because I had to read the summary after this book.  I don't understand why I find C.S. Lewis' writing to be dry and difficult to follow.  The adventures are great, and there is good character development...but my brain isn't processing it well.

I love the follow up to King Caspian X's story from the previous novel.  He was a good character, and it's fascinating to see what these characters go on to become.  This in turn affects the events of this book as his son has gone missing and need to be tracked down.

Jill is a cool new character to explore.  She plays the female half to Eustace.  Her bullying experiences dissolve once she endures her adventure in Narnia.  She plays a worthy role and grows from it.

Aslan appears a couple times doing some significant things.  We continue to see his power develop and grow as the stories go on.  That seems to be the one significant thing I have picked up from reading it.  He can safely blow people who fell off a cliff back to a safe landing.  He can de-age people in the afterlife.  He is an omnipotent character.

I think I'm just resigned to the fact that I struggle with these books.  It was a good read and further builds the story, but just not a writing style that captures my attention.

Considering the following two lists: 

The books I have read within 24-48 hours were movie novelizations like 

Back to the Future 

Friday the 13th 

Star Trek. 

Love Wins

Fly Guy, 

Batman (1989), 

Family Ties.  

Anything by Jennette McCurdy.  

Matt Haig books.  

Dave Thomas.  

Deadly Pursuit.  

Cybershock.  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  

Clue.  

Jonathan Frakes.  

Home Alone.  

Jaws.  

Wayne's World.  

Hunger Games.  

Catching Fire.  

Some of these books I couldn't stop reading.  You could not physically stop until you reached the ending.  Friday the 13th were huge novels for me to finish within a 24-hour period.  I read 2 of them a day.  Loved them.  Cybershock is a teenage thriller.  Jennette McCurdy writes great material, even if the intent of her new one is to make the audience uncomfortable with the material.  Ninja Turtles and Clue were too easy.  Home Alone and Jaws were packed with great memories as well as new information.

The books I struggled to read for various reasons:

The Chronicles of Narnia (All but Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe)

Salty

Argylle

Beach Money

Sons of the Profits

Midnight Graffiti

All Quiet On The Western Front

Cal Ripken

Later Star Trek novels

Psycho books

Leopold Berry

Vince Lombardi

Macaulay Culkin

The Omen books

Fourth Wing books

Planet Simpson

We are Voulhire

Keeping Faith

Peter Pan

Mockingjay

99 Stories of the Game

Fatal Vision

A Court of Mist and Fury.

Some of these books cause me to just tune out.  It's like I'm falling asleep.  Some I read words but comprehend nothing.  Even trying to hunt for things I learn produce little.  

Narnia is just action and adventure with medieval themes, but it doesn't resonate with me.  

Salty, Argylle, and Beach Money were varied in story and pace.  

Sons of the Profits went a lot deeper into the people who founded Seattle than I expected.  

Midnight Graffiti just had some bad stories.  

All Quiet on the Western Front was too 1920's.  

Vince Lombardi was an amazing read but so much information to process and a microscopic font size.  

Culkin was on drugs.  

Omen was weird devil stuff.  

Fourth Wing was...disappointing.  In hindsight, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I thought I did.  

Planet Simpson became too political.  

Keeping Faith gave wayyyyyy too much time to the Camp David Accords.  

Peter Pan was actually difficult to read.  

Mockingjay was easily the worst of the original Hunger Games novels.  It was so anti-climactic.  

The first two I devoured in 2 days.  This one took me 2 months to read.  

Fatal Vision was too serious.  

Mist and Fury was one I wasn't ready for.

Anyway.  Epic tangents.

Here is what I learned:

—————

• To Nicholas Hardie.

• Jill Pole is bullied at school.

• Eustace Scrubb tries to console Jill.

• Eustace has changed since his experience in Narnia.

• Bibles are not encouraged at the Experiment House.

• Edith Jackle bullies Jill.

• Eustace fell off a cliff and Aslan blew him away with his breath to Narnia.

• Floating on the breath of a lion is extremely comfortable.

• Jill meets the creatures of Narnia.

• King Caspian is an old man now.

• 70 Narnia years have passed since the last book.

• The book forshadows a late book called “The Horse and His Boy.

• The story tells of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the land between, in the golden Age when Peter was High King in Cair Paravel.

• The sleeper you are, the long you take about getting to bed.

• Glimfeather the owl eats bats.

• Aslan has been seen on the island of Terebinthia.

• Everyone who has tried to find the Lost Prince has never come back.

• The owls meet together at sensible hours to discuss things in Narnia.

• Rilian is the son of Caspian.

• Rilian is the Lost Prince.

• A serpent once stung and killed the Rilian’s mother the Queen.

• Marsh-wiggles are people who like privacy.

• Marsh-wiggles smoke a strange heavy sort of tobacco that people describe as mixed with mud.

• All the ones who went looking for Prince Rilian started from the Fountain where Lord Drinian saw the lady.

• The group must find a ruined city of giants.

• Giants live in Ettinsmoor.

• It is not pleasant to be within a quarter mile of quarreling giants.

• There is a sorcerers bridge that expands the gorge.

• Harfang shuts their gates a few hours after noon.

• Jill fell into a trench.

• Jill discovers a giant book on how to cook man.

• “There was never any world but mine.”

• Jill went to a riding school in the holidays.

• The chasm is about 1,000 feet long by 200 ft wide.

• The story concludes with King Caspian’s funeral.

• Aslan can bring people back from the dead.

• Aslan revived King Caspian momentarily.

• King Rilian buries his father Caspian the Navigator.

—————

Overall, good read.  Check it out.

Recommended.

On to Book #186: The Horse And His Boy by C.S. Lewis.

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Need to catch up?  See previous blog post: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

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Want to read more of the Chronicles of Narnia series?  See also:

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair

The Horse and His Boy

The Magician's Nephew

The Last Battle