The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Hardcover)

The children find themselves pulled into a strange world, this time by a magical force rather than by wandering through a wardrobe. Quickly (and predictably) enough the world is revealed to be Narnia. Why did they not know this right away? Because the single year they spent in the real world was many hundreds of years in Narnian time. Narnia has aged while they have not.

The four children, who in Narnia are revered as legendary kings and queens of old, find that they have been pulled into Narnia to aid King Caspian, a prince from a kingdom of rather oppressive humans who have taken over Narnia and are attempting to squash all memory and knowledge of the land's talking animals and mythical creatures. Naturally, this means those people have to be stopped.

If it sounds exciting, it's not. If it sounds boring, it is.

Travelogues and adventures that are little more than episodic journeys can be great fun and often tap into the glory of exploring the forest as a child, but this journey simply has little or nothing to engage the reader or capture one's interest. The glimpses of how Narnia has changed in the years since the four kids were there are interesting, but the interest is minimal at best. The travels just lack punch or adventure.

Lewis takes a few ill-advised detours that seem only to pad the story while hammering home the idea that people who do not believe in the mystical creatures of Narnia are inherently bad. The heavy-handed messaging in other Narnia volumes generally feel like the moral messages of any other classic fairy tale, but here they somehow feel wrong.

All in all, "Prince Caspian" adds very little to the lore (and lure) of Narnia despite being a part of the central plot, with core Narnia characters throughout. Its greatest contribution to the series is introducing the off-kilter time concept, an old cliché of alternate world stories, and bringing the character of Caspian (as well as the delightful and brave mouse Reepicheep) to the series. And that's about this book's whole worth. It introduces you to characters you will grow to like later and to concepts essential to the series.

Take note, because "Prince Caspian" is part of the core Narnia books (those involving the four original children and the characters linked directly to them) it's hard to recommend skipping this one - but it really fails to live up to the fantastic spectacle of the others. Children may enjoy the return romp to Narnia, but more likely even they will find that this one disappoints.