The Silver Chair

The Silver Chair is the sixth book in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. It is also one of the few books in the series to not feature the Pevensie children.

Like most of the Narnia books I've read so far, I enjoyed this adventure immensely. Eustace (previously introduced to us in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) goes to a rather horribly new age school known as Experiment House. Hoping to escape some bullies, he and his friend Jill run and hide in some bushes and Eustace tells Jill about Narnia. At this point, Aslan calls them to his own country - a high and beautiful land that overlooks all of Narnia and the seas surrounding it. Aslan has a quest for the two children, he asks that they find King Caspian's long-lost son.

And so the two children find themselves bound for the harsh Giant-dwelling lands to the north of Narnia, accompanied by a pessimistic but good-hearted Marshwiggle named Puddleglum. Lewis dazzles us with more fantastic peoples and lands... we meet the Lady of the Green Kirtle and her loyal but insane Black Knight, see into the less-than-pleasant homelands of the Giants, and also visit the Underland - a vast underground world of caverns and catacombs inhabited by dour and bizarrely-hewn creatures known as Earthmen.

Of course, there is also the obligatory lessons to be learned as Jill visits Narnia for the first time, and the Silver Chair of the title is only a brief (albeit important) part of the story. Puddleglum is a great character and I loved his hearty and resigned pessimism throughout the adventure. There were also a few aspects of the story that felt like setups for the final Narnia volume to come, especially the brief appearance of a sleeping titan known as Father Time, and I can't wait to see how it all ends.

I really tore through this one, read it no time. I was afraid I wouldn't like it as I knew the Pevensie children didn't feature but Eustace and Jill were more than apt substitutes, and the ending of the book back at Experiment House was brilliant (I'd love to say why I liked it, but I don't want to spoil it!). Bring on The Last Battle.