Frustrated.

This is the fourth (chronologically) Chronicle of Narnia (after The Magician's Nephew; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy, and before The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Last Battle).

In this volume we meet again with the four heroes from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. A year after coming back to England, they're waiting on the station platform for the trains that will take them back to boarding school after the summer holidays, when suddenly, they're transported into another world.

It is soon apparent that they've landed on an island. Driven by hunger, and not knowing when they might go back to their world, they start exploring the place. All they can find is apples from trees that have overgrown an ancient castle ruin. But as they explore these old stones, they realize they're none other than those of Cair Paravel, the palace where they used to dwell when they were Kings and Queens of Narnia. Why is it in such a poorly state?

Later, they will save a Dwarf who will tell them how and why they were summoned back to Narnia, and help the young prince Caspian escape from his tyrannic uncle Miraz, the usurper of the throne.

This booked started out well. I was excited at the prospect of exploring the old ruins of Cair Paravel, looking for treasures hidden under centuries of vines and ivy. But then the story's tone changed, and it became very similar to the previous volumes. I'm not against consistency, but I was beginning to build magical images of haunted castles and suddenly they all collapsed and faded, and I felt a little frustrated.

6/10