Five book series influenced by C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’
An extensive list is required to collect the most significant British authors of the 20th century. In fact, those consequential years were brimming with literary greats from the world over, emerging from the Americas to Asia. However, a list of very familiar names springs to mind when concentrating on Britain, from Virginia Woolf to George Orwell and Daphne Du Maurier to Alan Moore. Elsewhere, two of the most influential writers of the century came in the form of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Oxbridge friends and masters of the high fantasy genre, who breathed life into what is now one of the most multifaceted and treasured forms of fiction.
It is with the latter that we get our story today. He is famed for The Chronicles of Narnia series, which commenced with the 1950s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and concluded with The Last Battle in 1956. Although he had been a successful author before releasing the first title in the series, this seven-book run would crystallise his name as one of the all-time greats.
It’s an extensive morality tale that, despite its overly Christian themes, has never failed to set children’s imaginations alight by delivering substance, which many of the children’s authors of his day were not doing, inspiring Lewis to make a change. Duly, both the positives and the negatives contained within The Chronicles of Narnia have influenced a myriad of subsequent book series that have gone on to be equally as cherished as it, even in the face of contemporary critiques.
Join us, then, as we list five of the best series that took great inspiration from The Chronicles of Narnia. Expect to see some familiar titles.
Five book series inspired The Chronicles of Narnia:
Lev Grossman – The Magicians
Lev Grossman’s acclaimed 2009 work, The Magicians, was the start of his trilogy of new adult fantasy novels, followed by The Magician King, in 2011 and The Magician’s Land, in 2014. Darker bodies of work than Lewis’ tell the story of a young man, Quentin Coldwater, obsessed with a series of books concerning the magical land, Fillory, a not-so-subtle riff on Narnia. The novels also feature the five Chatwin children, who are similar to the Pevensies in The Chronicles.
Reflecting just how C.S. Lewis influenced Grossman, Fillory is brimming with talking mythical creatures and animals and is accessed through a grandfather clock in the home of the children’s uncle, who they are sent to live with during the Second World War. Elsewhere, the fantasy world is ruled by a pair of Aslan-esque rams and is threatened by The Watcherwoman, who, like The White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, freezes the land in time.
The parallels don’t finish there, either. The plot also revolves around a place highly similar to the “wood between the worlds” from The Magician’s Nephew, an interworld where pools of water lead to other lands. Finally, the influence of The Magician’s Nephew is also echoed in the title of the books.
Bill Willingham – Fables
Running from 2002 to 2015, Bill Willingham’s DC Comics series Fables draws heavily on a wide range of literature, as the name suggests. The series features a host of characters from folklore and fairy tales who refer to themselves as ‘Fables’ and form a secret community in New York City after their homeland is destroyed. Drawing on the likes of Snow White, Prince Charming and Boy Blue, many different genres are utilised, from the conspiracy thriller to the caper.
Interestingly, there are at least two notable moments when Fables refers to a king known as ‘The Great Lion’, a reference to Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia. However, as a general rule, the series avoids drawing on characters or works that aren’t in the public domain.
Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl
Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series is one of the most celebrated fantasy works of the modern era, kicking off with the eponymous novel in 2001. Described by Colfer as “Die Hard with fairies”, the first book follows the tale of a fairy reconnaissance officer, Holly Short, after she is kidnapped by the titular 12-year-old criminal, Artemis Fowl II, who wants her gold.
When appearing on the Remember Reading podcast, Colfer discussed how ahead of his time C.S. Lewis was with The Chronicles of Narnia. He explained that Lewis set a precedent for everything to come by creating characters that weren’t as black and white as audiences were traditionally used to.
Specifically discussing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he said: “It’s not all black and white, right and wrong, good and bad. That these grey areas in the middle that people inhabit”.
He then used the character of Edmund Pevensie as his example: “(Edmund) was the guy who made like one little mistake and next thing he was enthralled to the evil witch. So, he just had one little piece of Turkish delight, and he was gone. And I felt to myself, ‘I would totally have taken that Turkish delight'”.
“He was a character I identified with, because I’ve never identified with, you know, the stern hero who’s worthy to wield a sword. I mean, I always identified with the kid standing behind that hero, who was not quite worthy enough but still had some value,” he continued.
It was also noted that following the release of C.S. Lewis’ 1950 work, fiction started to embrace heroes who weren’t good all time, such as Edmund. When analysing Colfer’s character Artemis Fowl, this point is made clear. Although he is from a crime family and often uses his skills for nefarious deeds, he is also capable of much good.
Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials
This is perhaps the most interesting of the set. Philip Pulman’s fantasy series His Dark Materials is hailed as one of the greatest in the genre and one of the most important ever released. Something of an inversion of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, many moral questions of humanity are asked here, but not in the overtly Christian way that Lewis did in The Chronicles of Narnia.
Many view Pullman’s series, set in Oxford – a setting very familiar to C.S. Lewis – as a direct response to The Chronicles. Pullman is one of the more prominent atheists in literature and has discussed his disdain for Lewis’ series and the spiritual themes contained within it on numerous occasions. He’s also accused it of spreading religious propaganda and featuring emotional sadism, misogyny and racism.
Despite his scathing criticism of Lewis’ books, some similarities exist, including issues, character types and talking animals. Strangely, the first books of both series open with a young girl hiding in a wardrobe.
J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter
Unsurprisingly, The Chronicles of Narnia had a significant impact on Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling when she was a child, and she’s been keen to discuss their influence over her career. She once said: “I found myself thinking about the wardrobe route to Narnia when Harry is told he has to hurl himself at a barrier in King’s Cross Station – it dissolves and he’s on platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and there’s the train for Hogwarts.”
Whilst there are obvious similarities, Rowling has also maintained that there are fundamental differences between Narnia and the Wizarding World.
“Narnia is literally a different world,” she explained, “Whereas in the Harry books you go into a world within a world that you can see if you happen to belong. A lot of the humour comes from collisions between the magic and the everyday worlds. Generally, there isn’t much humour in the Narnia books, although I adored them when I was a child. I got so caught up I didn’t think C.S. Lewis was especially preachy. Reading them now I find that his subliminal message isn’t very subliminal.”
