All 7 Narnia books, ranked worst to best

6) The Last Battle

The final Narnia novel. Frankly, in many ways, I dislike this book far more than The Horse and His Boy, but it gets sixth place instead of seventh because I cannot argue that it doesn’t round out the series well, and also very coherently ties multiple storylines and characters together. It feels incredibly connected to every single book in the series (even The Horse and His Boy gets a relevant reference), and for that reason it avoids last place.

But I will be blunt: The Last Battle frankly has aged terribly as a novel.

While it does tie up the storyline well, and features all of our beloved characters (except for Susan Pevensie, who gets a scathing mention), The Last Battle turns on a conflict which in this day and age feels highly racist. With the enemy army being described as dark-skinned and our lead characters of Caspian, Eustace and Jill using a potion to darken their skin (which feels like to blackface) so they can hide amongst this army, it’s very difficult to read The Last Battle without feeling uncomfortable. Our white protagonists open up the metaphorical gates to heaven after defeating a non-white evil army. Cringe.

However, from a plot perspective, The Last Battle does a good job of making all of the prior Narnia books feel as though they were building up to this point. This is the most blatant of Narnia books when it comes to Biblical allegory, but it’s still remarkably easy to read without feeling as though you’re being lectured. The final scenes involve our heroes from all of the previous books working together, and it does warm your heart.

5) Prince Caspian

Potentially controversial given it is a Pevensie-centric novel (the four Pevensie siblings being the most frequently featured characters throughout the Narnia novels), Prince Caspian comes in at number five for me. All of the ingredients of a wonderful Narnia novel are there: the fun story, the Pevensie siblings, the magic, etc. The Pevensies themselves returning to a Narnia one thousand years after the Narnia they lived in gives you a huge feeling of nostalgia, as you both feel you are returning to Narnia and not returning to Narnia at the same time. Caspian is a likable and interesting main character.

There is nothing wrong with this book, not in the way there’s something wrong with The Last Battle and The Horse and His Boy. What I will say, though, is this book does fall into a similar trap to The Horse and His Boy when it comes to the conflict being wrapped up so quickly that it leaves you slightly blindsided. After all, part of the enjoyment of these books is not just experiencing the conflict, but experiencing the resolution of the conflict. But in Prince Caspian that resolution happens so fast you find yourself questioning if it was ever as big of an issue as you were told.

Nevertheless, Prince Caspian is still a solid midpoint for the series; half of the Pevensies have completed their arcs, which paves the way for a new set of characters to take centre stage.

However, before that happens…