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I really like the first four books in the Chronicles of Narnia (original publication order, obviously) and I like bits of some of the other ones but, dang, is the change after The Silver Chair.
If you read them to your children or give them to your children to read, please do it in the original order. The narrative voice assumes that, and future books are spoiled if you start with the Magician's Nephew.
I know his estate re-ordered them, but it's not true that Lewis said chronological order was best. He just didn't have the heart to tell a little girl not to read them the way she wanted to read them.
Of the books that aren't the first four, The Magician's Nephew is the best, if only because it's the least racist? But it also does something terrible to the character of Professor Kirke.
When he first appears, he's this cool older guy who's like, "No, you nerds need to prove there AREN'T magical fantasy worlds hiding inside cupboards and drainpipes. Mind your own beeswax."
Finding out that he knew all about Narnia all along, had been there, and had seen firsthand a glimpse of the infinitely nested nature of reality.... takes something away from that.
When we first see him, he seems prepared to simply accept that wardrobes might be portals, that windmills might be giants, if someone that one trusts says that they are and there's no reason to doubt them.
I feel like the revelations of The Magician's Nephew takes something away from his willingness to believe them, and makes him come across a bit dishonest about the whole thing, which kind of undermines the allegory of it all?
Yeah, there are definitely things I like in Nephew. The Wood Between the Worlds, Charn, etc.
