Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Sarah

This story takes place in lands south of Narnia while Narnia is under the rule of Peter, Susuan, Edmund and Lucy from "THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE," but follows new characters - Shasta a boy who runs away from the man who raised him as essentially a slave - and the Narnian horse Bree who runs away with him. On their journey they encounter another set of runaways - a girl and another Narnian horse headed for Narnia. They also discover the plot of a neighboring prince to attack Archenland (an ally and neighbor of Narnia) and Narnia, and set about to warn these provinces.

It took me a little longer to get into this story as I was longing for familiar characters, and though we do run into Edmund, Susan, Lucy and Aslan, they play only minor roles in the middle or end of the book. Despite this change in focus, I really ended up liking this book - possibly more than the lion the witch and the wardrobe. I like the expanding world that I am getting to know and, well, I like drawings and pictures in my books, so the map included is sort of nifty. The characters seem somewhat more three dimensional than the angelic children in Narnia (with the exception of Edmund's one lapse in judgement), so I did appreciate the new characters. I recommend this if you liked any other Narnia books or LOTR books or other general sci-fi-ish fairy tales.