Everyone has read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is all well and good, but if you haven't explored the rest of the C.S. Lewis series, you are truly missing out. After having read the entire series several times, I would say that TLTWANTW is far from my favorite, which is why I will now definitively rank them and include just enough of a description to entice you to read them:
1. The Magician's Nephew -- The origin story of Narnia, and something you can completely enjoy if you've only ever read TLTWANTW; it still confuses me why C.S. Lewis published this one so completely out of any logical chronology (it is actually book #6), but it really manages to outshine the others.
2. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader -- Again, it's not totally necessary to read any other books in order to love this one. Two characters from TLTWANTW make an appearance, and everyone basically sails around in a ship having adventures on their way to the end of the world, which turns out to be an actual place. This one is very whimsical and imaginative.
3. The Horse and His Boy -- A pretty random stand-alone story about a kid who lived during the reign of the TLTWANTW characters. There are talking animals and orphans so no further explanation needed.
4. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -- The first book published in the series and by far the most popular. Four siblings escape the bombing in London by staying in a country estate, and accidentally discover a portal to another world with talking animals. Pretty much the best thing ever, and worth re-reading as an adult if you've got a free hour or two.
5. The Last Battle -- This final book is a bit weird because all the previous characters come back to battle for Narnia, which they end up destroying but in the end it's not really destroyed? I don't know, but it's a nice fan service book that gets the whole gang back together.
6. The Silver Chair -- This one is very dark, with two kids searching for a missing Prince. I just remember being grossed out a lot when I read it, and there are some nasty giants and also their travel companion is some kind of frog man.
7. Prince Caspian -- This one is by far the lamest because it has the least amount of talking animals. It takes place in the Narnia far-future when talking animals have disappeared, and the original kids come back and mostly argue amongst themselves because they are going through puberty and are not kings/queens anymore. A general bummer.
As a final note, the Disney movie adaptations are really excellent; Ben Barnes is hot and completely redeems Prince Caspian as a character, and they manage to navigate the special effects of talking animals and so forth quite nimbly. It feels just realistic enough to have some narrative stakes, but it remains very aesthetically whimsical and cozy. They only did the first three, and it wouldn't surprise me if they never get around to The Silver Chair because it is so incredibly weird.
The Bookhive List is a weekly recommendation of my all-time favorite, must-read books.