All 7 Narnia books, ranked worst to best

The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis is a staple of most fantasy lovers’ bookcases. With magic spells and prophecies, talking animals, lovable characters and a good sprinkling of villains, the series really has something for everyone.

Back in 2018, Netflix acquired the rights to reboot the Narnia series, but there has been very little noise about the project since then. Then, in June of this year, it was announced that Greta Gerwig was now attached to the project. The films from the mid 2000s and early 2010s will always be the ultimate Narnia comfort adaptations for me, but this latest development has me highly intrigued!

With the possibility of fresh Narnia content hitting our screens in the next few years, now feels like a good time to reflect upon the original source material. Which books stand the test of time, and which leave something to be desired? Does the order they were published in (which is different to the reading order) have any effect on the way the books come across?

So without further ado, this is the definitive list of the seven Narnia books, ranked from worst to best. (Just kidding; this list has my personal bias attached to it!)

7) The Horse and His Boy

In the fourth Narnia novel (and the fifth to be published), we follow a character called Shasta who, alongside a talking horse named Bree, seeks to escape the country of Calormen and gain refuge in Narnia. Together, the two of them have a perilous adventure which involves escaping from Calormen, preventing war from breaking out, and hiding their identities.

Put like this, all of that sounds somewhat thrilling, and in many ways it is. The Horse and His Boy is an adventure story, but it is also a story with political undertones, with some scheming characters in the background. And for me personally, that weakens the book overall.

Lewis’ writing is quite simplistic, which works beautifully most of the time in Narnia. However, in The Horse and His Boy, it means that the political subplot (which then turns into the main plot by the end of the story) feels incredibly weak in comparison with the fast-paced adventure. Yet it is the plot which the novel is meant to hinge upon. It feels like Lewis realized there was a gap in his world which he needed to fill up, and so haphazardly created this storyline which leaves you somewhat confused afterwards.

To me, The Horse and His Boy is the most disjointed of the Narnia novels; in all of the other books you feel the threads connecting them together. However, this book feels both empty and far too full at the same time; the main connection to the other books is a quick cameo from the Pevensies (who we will discuss in more detail later). It feels like a reminder of ‘Hey, this is a Narnia book, remember!’ than it does an organic scene that needed to be there. Fundamentally, The Horse and His Boy is a fun adventurous novel, but it just feels somewhat out of place when compared with the other novels in the series.