The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The fifth book in The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, once again features the Pevensie children and is set only three years on from the events of Prince Caspian. Of the five Narnia books I have read so far, I think this one is my favourite

Edmund and Lucy are whisked off to Narnia once again (their older siblings are now too old to go there), this time via a magically-realistic painting of a ship. Along for the journey this time is Eustace Scrubb - their cousin, a rather bothersome and rotten little boy always out to spoil other people's fun and ready to moan and complain about anything and everything.

Upon their arrival in Narnia, the Pevensie children and Eustace find themselves aboard the Dawn Treader, a ship under the command of King Caspian (from the previous novel). He is on a double-quest, of sorts. He is sailing east to explore the various islands - discovered and undiscovered alike - in the hopes of finding seven loyal lords that his treacherous uncle had sent away some years previously, and (mainly at the behest of the valiant mouse Reepicheep) aims to sail as far east as possible - to see what lies beyond their maps, and maybe to find Aslan's country.

This is probably the most epic of the Narnia books so far... the story follows a quest format, our heroes travelling from island to island and encountering all manner of strange, disturbing and wonderful phenomena. We meet dragons, dufflepuds, sea serpents and retired stars, witness the Island Where Dreams Come True (a rather nightmarish sequence) and see a kingdom of merpeople. Most memorable of all is the book's final sequences, which I won't spoil here.

My favourite character in the Narnia books so far would have to be the fearless mouse Reepicheep, a more fitting end to such a moving (and amusing) hero could not have been written. Aslan only features a little in this book, but his words - as always - are steeped in Christian-like parable and never has C. S. Lewis' Christian agenda been more apparent than in one particular sentence spoken by Aslan here, but I think it's forgiveable because Lewis still manages to be a little bit subtle about it and it's only a brief part of the book. The character of Eustace makes for some of the book's more interesting sequences and his eventual redemption (which I suspected was coming from the start) is one of the more touching chapters in the entire series so far.