Reviews for The voyage of the 'Dawn Treader'

The average rating for The voyage of the 'Dawn Treader' based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-01-25 00:00:00 Peter Wood It feels odd to mark this book as anything less than five stars. It was a huge part of my childhood. What's more, this book is part of the reason I'm a decent public speaker these days. I joined forensics because this was the book that was being used for extemporaneous reading. (I didn't even know what forensics was when I started, just that I liked the book.) And there are things I like here. Good things. It's a fun adventure story. There are cool settings. Action. Tension. The different nature of the islands is cool. There's mystery. Magic. Wonder. The character of Reepicheep alone boosts this book by a full star. The character of Eustace is better than I remember him being, too. It's nice to see a kid who is a total dick learn that there's consequences to his actions, then have a redemption arc in a kid's book. But reading this book to my little boy made me confront a lot of the problems in the book. There are slavers in the early chapters, which is something I didn't remember. And a topic I wasn't sure I wanted to introduce to my kid at the age of 6. There's a fair chunk of sexism too. Little things scattered throughout the books. Not terrible considering when it was written. But still nothing I want soaking into my kid's psyche. The best example of this is Ramandu's daughter. Caspian meets her, and it becomes obvious that they're going to get married. Let's just pass lightly over the fact that she's effectively being treated like a prize for him completing his quest and jump right into the fact that SHE DOESN'T HAVE A NAME! She's referred to as "Ramandu's daughter" through the entire book despite the fact that she has a larger part in the book. That's fucked up, y'all. There's narrative issues too. The children rarely solve their own problems. Several times they're confronted by bad situations or make bad choices but then instead of having to deal with the consequences or figure out solutions, Aslan shows up and is all ಠ_ಠ. Then, under the weight of his disappointed dad eyes and they're filled with shame and realize they should stop being dicks. That's not good storytelling. That's some deus ex leo bullshit. It's a good book, and I'm fond of it. But it's not perfect, and its flaws are large enough that they bear some serious consideration before you put it in front of your kids.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-07 00:00:00 Frederique Tailleur There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. My absolute favorite quote in the entire book. In the latest installment, Lucy, Edmund and their cousin (Eustace) were having a bit of a tiff when they were suddenly pulled into a ship painting. (Apparently, you can get to Narnia just about any which way.) They land on Prince King Caspian's ship, where we meet almost an entirely new cast of characters setting sail to find the seven lost lords of Narnia. "Do you mean to say," asked Caspian, "that you three come from a round world (round like a ball) and you've never told me! It's really too bad for you. Because we have fairy-tales in which there are round worlds and I have always loved them … Have you ever been to the parts where people walk about upside-down?" Along the way, they have oodles and oodles of adventures - anywhere from exploring mysteriously magical islands to Eustace accidentally turning into a dragon. Adventures are never fun while you're having them. I love how we (as always) get to experience C. S. Lewis's sage wisdom through his little asides throughout the book. One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts. The only true gripe I have about this series is Reepicheep. It could just be the way the mouse-warrior was portrayed in the audiobook, but I swear I was about one step away from throwing him overboard. Audiobook Comments I will murder Reepicheep with my bare hands if he says one more word. Other than that - David Jacobi was a fabulous reader! YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads