The Light Between Worlds

Bruce Ediger

Have you ever read the Narnia books, or have you only read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe?

If so, you really ought to read Laura E. Weymouth’s The Light Between Worlds.

Someone got me to read The Magicians by claiming it was “Harry Potter, but for adults”. The Magicians does make use of some “boy goes to wizard school tropes”, both from the Harry Potter books and from A Wizard of Earthsea. Like The Light Between Worlds, it’s greatly influenced by Narnia.

The Magicians pokes fun at the inconsistencies of Narnia, but The Light Between Worlds takes the big questions head on:

  • Is Aslan God?
  • How the hell do you go from being a King or Queen of Narnia to being an ordinary kid again?
  • What happened to Susan? Why did the other 3 children talk so badly about her in The Last Battle?

Grossman had Ember and Umber watching over Fillory, and he clearly has a love/hate relationship with them. Weymouth has Cervus as a “guardian” of The Woodlands, but Cervus is most definitely not a god, and has limited abilities.

The Light Between Worlds really isn’t about a more consistent, more believeable Narnia, it’s much more about how people handle gigantic dislocations in their lives. I now understand Susan better, and have sympathy with her. I also think Lewis mishandled both Susan and Lucy characters.

A Woodlands Heart always finds its way home. It’s entirely possible that Lucy/Evelyn and Susan/Phillipa found their way home.