C.S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis was a British author, lay theologian, and contemporary of J.R.R. Tolkien. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia series of seven books.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

avarni

When the Pevensie children had returned to Narnia it was (for the Narnians) as if King Arthur came back to Britain, as some people say he will. And I say the sooner the better.

"In our world," said Eustace, "a star is a huge ball of flaming gas." "Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of."

Every morning a bird  brings me a fire-berry from the valleys in the Sun, and each fire-berry takes away a little of my  age. And when I have become as young as the child that was born yesterday, then I shall take my rising again (for we are at earth's eastern rim) and once more tread the great dance

C. S. Lewis

Lucy and Edmund, accompanied by their peevish cousin Eustace, sail to the land of Narnia where Eustace is temporarily transformed into a green dragon because of his selfish behavior and skepticism.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (paper-over-board)

Hanna Rybchynska

Hannah DCamp

Heck I love this one! I'm a huge fan of exploration adventures like this one, but then as a bonus (?), it made me almost-cry a few times. There's an incredible amount to unpack here if you're in it for the Christian Fiction aspect (holy wow is there a lot). Even if you're reading for other reasons, we get to see Edmund and Lucy, and Caspian again, and of course everyone's ABSOLUTE FAVE Reepicheep. What a legend.

There's so much more to be said, but I have no idea where to begin right now. I need to think on this one.

The Voyage of The Dawn Treader

Ayla Hawthorne

tbh the colonialism really jumped out in this one 😳

The voyage of The Dawn Treader

Annika Arguemore

This has a lot more going on than in the other books, I think? Do I say to that every Narnia book? It's also really sad because this is where The Pevensies truly say goodbye to Narnia. That plot twist would have probably took me by surprise if I haven't seen the movie first.

Jaden Nelson

Again, really love this series and these are all great stories. This book (again on audiobook) was slightly less interesting to me than the earlier books and while there were great ideas in the book, the plot seemed less clear to follow and I lost track of things for a little while a few times(this may have been because of my not listening for short periods when people are trying to talk to me while listening to this—that gets on my nerves after a while); however, the imagery in all of these books—and especially in this book— was AMAZING and magical and SO VIVID. This is why I consider bumping these books up to a higher star rating, but I’ll just stick with this for now. Another great installment to a great series that I eagerly continue.

Meagan Fischer 

One of the most fun books in the series. Stopping at all the different islands and having adventures in each is a pleasant way to tell a story.

Jonathan Tysick

Fun. Reepicheep is more (somewhat endearingly) annoying than I remember and Aslan is more terrifyingly beautiful than ever. While this book lacks a build up compared to others in the series, it's still worth the read.

Arun Khanna

I'm pretty fond of this book. I actually really enjoyed reading about Eustace's redemption arc and it is impossible to not love Reepicheep.

Todd Luallen

Probably my favorite of all the Chronicles of Narnia. I love the various adventures, and the ending is superb.

Rick Dobrowolski

Not my favorite of the chronicles of narnia, but also not my least favorite. It just doesn't hold up to "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."

Stephanie Joseph

Honestly, the book is better than the movie. I’ll miss Lucy and Edmund. The Pevensies were my favorite characters. In a way, they’re relatable. 
I hope the new characters introduced in the next few books will hopefully, if not replace them, will be reminiscent of their time there. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Liv Strefford

While it is definitely the worst film, this is probably one of the best books in the series

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia #5)

Inga Kühn 

Wie in den anderen Narnia-Büchern versteht C. S. Lewis auf eine bezaubernde Art eine sehr komplexe Handlung zu komprimieren und dennoch so viele Details zu beschreiben, dass man sich alles gut ausmalen kann.
Ich hätte sehr gerne noch mehr Hintergründe gehabt und mehr Geschichten zu den einzelnen Personen oder Orten, aber das ist leider ein vergeblicher Wunsch.
Wenn man dieses Buch mit dem dazugehörigen Film vergleicht fallen eine Menge Unterschiede auf, beide sind jedoch für sich alleine sehr gut, aber ich empfehle nicht nur den Film zu sehen!

Sarah Escorsa

Yet another delightful Narnia book! I really can't say which one I like best so far, I've enjoyed them all very much:) Since I couldn't make up my mind as to the reading order for these books, I've decided to be very evil indeed and read them in whatever order they came along, and I'm loving it!

Read for a college english class. Very good story in my opinion. Not just childrens books. Sure it's a simple read, but also a classic. I think everyone should read the Chronicles of Naria.

Flavia Louise

3 stars 
I enjoyed this installment of the series though it is not as good as the last one and not even close to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Valentina dossi

Courtney 

I wished this one had more Edmund. It felt like he and Lucy were left to the background and it was mostly Caspian's story.

Sophia De La Garza

4 Stars. 
While I enjoyed this installment of the Chronicles of Narnia, some parts dragged a little bit thus my giving it 4 stars instead of 5. I'm super excited to read the last two books in this!

Sunyi Dean

C hated it. We abandoned to read Roald Dahl.

Pauline Baynes

The Chronicles of Narnia

Jessica Williamson

Much MUCH better than the previous book! This one actually had a plot and was interesting. I learned the moral of the story and everything =) On to the next!

Nathan Griffin

With the exception of Til We Have Faces, I dont really love C.S. Lewis' fiction. Even keeping in mind that Chronicles of Narnia are aimed towards kids, I haven't really loved them. This one was really good though!

Mariana Miralles

a.k.b.

In theory, the idea of a quest on the open sea is an appealing and exciting one. And my love for the first two books in the Chronicles of Narnia gave me such high hope for this reread of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, however, in many ways this epic sea adventure fell flat.

This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the book in some capacity. Lewis introduced a new writing style in the form of journal entries that I thought worked very well for the story, though I would have loved if he used the format more often. And at about the halfway mark in the story, the plot involving the character Eustace took a very interesting turn, however it didn’t last nearly long enough, and putting it in the middle of the book makes everything that follows less engaging.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader fell victim to the same struggles that many novels about the sea also encounter - an ocean adventure is not as easy to write as one may think. Instead of feeling like one long, intense voyage, the excitement of Dawn Treader starts and stops again and again throughout the entire book, making it almost tiring to read. There are many stretches of the story that are boring, then the crew of the ship arrives on a new island where some excitement happens for a single chapter, and then they return to sea and the cycle repeats.

Lewis’ previous Narnia books had similar troubles in which a lot of the plot felt very flat or uninteresting, but Voyage of the Dawn Treader may have had the worst of it so far. When something starts and stops too many times, it loses the audience’s attention, which is exactly what happens in Dawn Treader. At least in the books prior to this, the events of the story were always building at a steady incline towards the finale.

If the story felt more epic, I imagine Voyage of the Dawn Treader could have been my favorite book in the series. But it felt as if it lacked the adventure necessary for a novel at sea, and it also felt as if it lacked any significant character development or beats. The ideas are certainly there, as many of the one-off moments that occur from island to island are all interesting in their own right, however, as a whole nothing felt as connected or interested as they needed to be to make Voyage of the Dawn Treader a worthy sequel to the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.