Recommendations

Books Like The Chronicles of Narnia

Best books to read after The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia is the other great mid-century British secondary world fantasy — seven volumes, Aslan, Christian allegory. These recommendations continue the Narnia world with Lewis's other fiction, explore the epic fantasy tradition, or offer companion reading in the tradition of the British fantasy novel for children and adults.

  1. 1

    The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

    by C.S. Lewis

    The Narnia entry point — Lucy finding Narnia through the wardrobe, Aslan's sacrifice and resurrection, the clearest expression of the series' Christian allegory and its most beloved volume.

    Buy
  2. 2

    The Lord of the Rings

    by J.R.R. Tolkien

    Lewis and Tolkien were close friends in the Inklings — LotR is the other great British secondary world fantasy of the same moment, more complex and more ambitious, the natural next read after Narnia.

    Buy
  3. 3

    The Screwtape Letters

    by C.S. Lewis

    The companion Lewis — Screwtape's letters of advice to his nephew Wormwood on how to damn a human soul, Lewis's most accessible and most entertaining Christian apologetics in fiction form.

    Buy
  4. 4

    Mere Christianity

    by C.S. Lewis

    The non-fiction counterpart — Lewis's most famous Christian apologetics, the book that gives the theological framework that Narnia dramatizes, essential context for readers interested in the Christian dimension.

    Buy
  5. 5

    His Dark Materials

    by Philip Pullman

    Lyra Belacqua in a parallel world — Pullman's explicitly anti-Narnia trilogy, responding to Lewis's Christian allegory with a secular humanist counter-vision, using the same portal fantasy structure.

    Buy
  6. 6

    A Wizard of Earthsea

    by Ursula K. Le Guin

    The feminist philosophical counterpart to Narnia — Earthsea as a secondary world with its own internal coherence and moral vision, the most significant rival to Narnia and Tolkien in the classic fantasy tradition.

    Buy
  7. 7

    The Phantom Tollbooth

    by Norton Juster

    The American equivalent of the Lewis portal fantasy — Milo passing through the tollbooth into the Lands Beyond, the same quest structure and the same education-by-adventure that Narnia uses.

    Buy
  8. 8

    The Golden Compass

    by Philip Pullman

    The first volume of His Dark Materials — the most focused and most exciting Pullman novel, the most accessible entry to his response to Lewis, equally celebrated as children's literature and adult fantasy.

    Buy

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