Henk's Reviews > Het neefje van de tovenaar

I did not really click with this story, maybe due to the too often fourth wall breaking of the omniscient narrator and the heavy handed approach in general from the author

I remembered a lot of later books while reading this one, as diverse as the biblical sense of worldbuilding in The Silmarillion from J.R.R. Tolkien to the multiple worlds from Blake Crouch Dark Matter and The Drawing of the Three of Stephen King to the humour of J.K. Rowling, Roald Dahl and Philip Pullman.
So in terms of cultural impact I can definitely appreciate the work of C.S. Lewis.

But somehow this installment felt a bit rushed and nowhere is there any real sense or chance of danger with Aslan creating the world and being totally overpowered towards any problem one can have or imagine. Also the Fourth Wall breaking voice of the narrator in The Magician's Nephew is a bit patronizing and overly nostalgic for my taste.

I did enjoy some of the ideas and settings, for instance Charn as the garden of Eden, with the awakening of evil due to a too great curiosity, and later even a literal garden with semi-cursed silver apples, mixing Hercules and Adam & Eve. The place between worlds is nicely thought of
The all destroying word is very cool concept, no doubt inspired of Cold War fears of nuclear holocaust. And in terms of humor, uncle Andreas being planted as a tree and watered by animals was hilarious

Still the points the author wants to make in the book are too much in your face in my opinion. For instance the decent nobleness of the farmer/village dweller versus the Londoner obsessed with money, efficiency and sensation. And especially in the last chapter where we have Aslan even singling out the moral decay of our world, which is one of the most unsubtle ways I have seen a character being a sock puppet for the vision of a writer.

Having read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe after this book, I feel that is much the superior book and a better entry point into the magical world of Narnia.

Dutch Quotes:
Eerst mislukten al mijn experimenten. Ik gebruikte er cavia’s voor. Sommige gingen alleen maar dood. Andere ontploften alsof het bommetjes waren...

Om grote wijsheid te verkrijgen, moet je offers brengen.

Die plaats gaf je een verzadigd gevoel, net als een groot stuk pruimentaart.

Nu is het probleem dat wanneer je probeert je dommer te houden dan je in werkelijkheid bent, het je vaak ook lukt.