The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Asking 7 year olds to review this book resulted in reviews such as “SOOOO GOOOOD!”, “Reepicheep is the best!” and “The bit with the Sea Monster was amazing.” Which pretty much matches my memories of how I thought about it as a child.

So, after reading this innumerable times as a child, does it stand up to a reread as an adult?

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Yes with a very few niggles.

OK what were the niggles?
1: Towards the end they meet “Ramandu's Daughter” who reminds me of Galadriel. She seems pretty awesome, standing up to this ship load of heavily armed strangers (and a deadly mouse) without batting an eyelid and confidently explains stuff to them. Caspian thinks she's pretty awesome too, marries her and she “becomes a great Queen”. Brilliant. What's her name exactly?

1.5: Caspian and Queen Nameless return to Narnia - I so wish we could read of their further adventures.

2: Everyone talks of the religious allegory of Narnia, something that has soared gloriously over the heads of generations of delighted children. The thing about the allegory is that the story works just as it is. An adult with an understanding of the Christian concept of substitutional atonement can read about Aslan and the Stone Table and nod wisely - but the children are just bouncing around because Aslan beat the White Witch. The story works without the allegory. The ending of Dawn Treader with the lamb handing out fish and turning into the lion works well for someone looking for allegory, but for anyone else it is just really weird. It feels like a really odd dream. I felt that as a child, and having read it to children myself I get questions such as:

“How did the lamb light the fire?” (it's a magic lamb)
“How did it catch the fish?” (it's a magic lamb)
“But if Aslan was the lamb he was lying to them!” (erm, it was a surprise!).

In short it doesn't really work as just a story, unless you are looking for Christian symbolism.

Let's be honest, most readers are looking for adventures with talking animals and dragons. This book provides that and it's great fun. If you happen to want a symbolism aperitif , the book provides that too. For everyone else - enjoy the story and turn a blind eye to the baby sheep incident.