great book!
From Amazon
when i was 9 i tried this book and i thought it was boring. but when i became ten, i picked it up again and i thought it was awesome!!! this is a great book!
Lucid Lewis
From Amazon
As usual, what can I say about the endless stream of masterpieces from the mind and soul of this great writer? This book begins in the far future of Narnian time and the near future of earth time as the magic horn is blown and the children are drawn to the bright Narnian multiverse from a grey English train station.
What is notable about this second book in the series is the sparse use of story line to convey multiple meanings. The Narnia adventures have withstood the test of time because they relate to multiple levels of thought and spirit life. While in the train from Mannheim, Germany, I was reading this book when a small German child came silently up to me and stood by my shoulder transfixed by the book until his parents had to disembark at the next stop. Was this the Holy Spirit or did he just want to read a good children's story?
This book is notable as an absorbing story and a biblical allegory when Lucy discovers the Lion and the group debates with her while travelling what seems to be the safest course only to find the way blocked and impractical. The Wilderness of Sin causes each character to define his varying degrees of belief and the role that thought verses belief plays in each life. The extreme life example is the dwarf who believes that even if the Lion existed he was simply a danger; to Sue who believes in the Lion but uses her "common sense" to allow the path of sin to detour the group and overcome faith. Study carefully the chapter titled WHAT LUCY SAW.
The animals of Old Narnia are hard pressed tactically; they must decide whether to follow the path of faith in Aslan's return or adopt the path of realpolitik...amoral power politics as dominated mankind during WW2. A tentative alliance is formed with a werewolf and a witch and possibly the old queen. Narnia is in grave danger which Peter and the returning children thwart in the last minute. This is the Wilderness of Sin which modern nation states often find themselves in...read the chapter SORCERY AND SUDDEN VENGEANCE.
Read this book slowly with the view that it is more than a children's tale. I contemplated this timeless tale while passing a grey German train station...
Student Review from Ms. Gehrke's Class
From Amazon
My fellow classic and fantasy readers, here is the book you've been waiting to read!
This book has a great representation of a secret world. It's about four children called Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy who, in The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe, stepped into a wardrobe and explored a wondrous fantasy world called Narnia. Now, one year later, the four children find themselves in Narnia -again. They find that in Narnia many years have passed since their adventures. They shelter a dwarf who tells them a tale of a young prince called Caspian, and venture out into the now very different world of Narnia.
When I thought there would be sanctuary for the children to settle down and rest, or a trustworthy friend to depend on, or strong aid to help them on their quest, there was trouble and destruction where there should be peace. The children are always adventuring, and that is a reason not to put down this unpredictable, suspenseful book, and that's also why I like it. WAIT-why am I giving this all away. I suggest that you read the book!
A Great Audio Production of a Fantastic Tale
From Amazon
This is yet another top notch audio production. All the Narnia books have been converted to audio with great music and voice actors, and this one is no different - Highly recommended.
The story itself makes one laugh at the movie that came out and how different is was, but one can also understand that a lot of what happens in Prince Caspian could be removed as being labeled "filler". Nevertheless this is an enjoyable story and is the only story that contains all the four children as a main focus from the original "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". This is the second time they enter Narnia and they have been called back by Prince Caspian using Queen Susan's horn which she was carrying and lost at the end of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe."
Prince Caspian's lives in a world where humans have taken over Narnia and the talking animals and beasts are now just legend, and legend that is not encouraged throughout this new realm. Prince Caspian is the rightful Heir, but his uncle is wielding the throne after Caspian's father's death. And once he has a son, Caspian is doomed and must flee, and he flees to find the old Narnians and take back Narnia for the old Narnians. This story tells of that and how the old Narnians battle to win back Narnia.
It's a good story, not one of my favorites in the Narnia series, but still good nevertheless.
Not a bad little tale at all.
From Amazon
C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian (Harper Collins, 1951)
In the old days, Prince Caspian was the second book in the Narnia series; these days, it's the fourth. While I can't remember how many times I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a kid, I know I only got through Prince Caspian once, and I was interested to see if there was anything in particular about it that had stopped me going back. (Upon reflection, it was probably my attempt to read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I never did finish during my youthful days.)
In this installment, Peter and his siblings are yanked off a train platform and back into Narnia, but it is a Narnia that none of them know; in the year they've been away, a huge amount of time has passed there (it's never spelled out, but the estimates range from one hundred to one thousand years, and based on some of the markers we're given, the latter seems closer to the reality of the situation). Narnia has fallen on hard times. The Telmarines, a race of men from over the sea, have taken over Narnia and driven the supernatural creatures into hiding or extinction, and of the royal family, only the king's nephew, Caspian, has any interest in restoring order to things. With the help of a subversive tutor, Caspian flees the castle and finds himself in command of what ragged army the supernatural creatures can field, but without the heroes of old or Aslan himself, what hope do they have? So Caspian, who's been given a horn supposedly carried by Susan herself, blows it...
What really interested me about the book this time around (and it's something I'm not even sure Lewis took into account when writing it), when looking at the whole series as a massive Christian allegory, is the way it treats relics. Relics, as we're all very well aware (at least, those of us brought up in the faith), were a big business in the middle ages. (Heck, you could still buy splinters of the One True Cross in the backs of tabloids in the early eighties; for all I know, you still can.) Needless to say, every last one of them was about as real, and as efficacious, as any foul-smelling brew you might boil up in your kitchen, package as snake oil, and sell to your neighbors. Lewis, on the other hand, whether as a concept or as a plot device, seems to have bought into the idea wholeheartedly. And it does make perfect sense as a plot device, though as with other portions of the story that seem to run counter to all the stuff I was taught in Sunday school (and I'm sure would be taught even more stringently now--J. K. Rowling certainly can't get away with putting magic in her books, at least in come churches), I wonder what was going through Lewis' mind when he decided to include this stuff. Pity he's no longer around to ask.
That bit aside, though, Caspian is just as cracking good an adventure story as is The Lion etc., though our four friends are almost relegated to minor-character status here (and I'm not entirely sure that's unintentional, either) and we spend much more time with Caspian and his contemporaries. Fans of the characters from the first (excuse me, second these days) novel may be a bit put off by this, but if you stick with it, I'm sure this one will seduce you as well. *** ½