The Silver Chair was always my favourite entry in the Narnia chronicles. It's darker in tone, but in a more vivid and imaginative way than Prince Caspian. Eustace Scrubb and his schoolfellow Jill Pole are whisked away to Narnia from an abusive, experimental school whilst being pursued by bullies. Aslan sets Jill on an important mission to rescue King Caspian's missing son, the Prince Rillian, offering her four signs to follow. She fluffs the first three, showing the fallibility of a child protagonist and, in Lewis' metaphor, an atheist mind. Despite talking owls and magical beasts, the fact that the children constantly fail and are uncomfortable throughout much of the adventure grounds the high fantasy in murky realism.
The character Puddleglum, from a newly introduced race of Marsh-wiggles, steals the show as a depressive though stalwart companion. The drizzly marshes and moors of the late Autumn landscape, followed by the craggy hills of the giants and the terrifying city of Harfang are wonderfully oppressive and well drawn. The third act of the book takes place in the suffocating underground regions, where Jill must overcome her claustrophobia to triumph. It's a marvellous gothic fairytale of enchantment, deceit and redemption, with the added bonus that a vengeful Aslan invades our world to dish out punishment in the last chapter.
Rating 4/5
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