Praise for Planet Narnia

“With Planet Narnia, Michael Ward has established himself not only as the foremost living Lewis scholar, but also as a brilliant writer. . . . His cumulative case for reading the Narnia books in terms of the planets is overwhelming. . . . This introduction to a masterpiece is something of a masterpiece in its own right.”

Times Literary Supplement

“[Planet Narnia] is, to all appearances, a gamble of presumptuous proportions; but it pays off powerfully and persuasively . . . [Ward] makes a marvellous case . . . profound . . . striking . . . brilliant.”

The Independent on Sunday

“An argument which is at once subtle and sensible, a combination not often found in modern academic writing. . . . This is an outstanding guide not only to Narnia, but also to Lewis’s thinking as a whole, and to the ‘genial’ medieval world-view which he so much loved.”

Books & Culture

“I cannot contain my admiration. No other book on Lewis has ever shown such comprehensive knowledge of his works and such depth of insight. This will make Michael Ward’s name.”

Walter Hooper, Literary adviser to the Estate of C. S. Lewis and author of C. S. Lewis, A Companion and Guide

“Noting Michael Ward’s claim that he has discovered ‘the secret imaginative key’ to the Narnia books, the sensible reader responds by erecting a castle of skepticism. My own castle was gradually but utterly demolished as I read this thoughtful, scholarly, and vividly-written book.”

Alan Jacobs, Professor of English at Wheaton College and author of The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis

“Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia is an example of a very rare species: a work of literary detection which, despite the breathtaking daring of its central thesis, is utterly convincing and compelling. . . . The pieces fall into place with the combined thrill of an aesthetic, intellectual and spiritual satisfaction. . . . Reading the Narnia books will, in the best sense, never be the same again—not that anything will be lost, but that an entire new layer of understanding will be present.”

N. T. Wright, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews and author of Surprised by Hope

“Michael Ward presents an absorbing, learned analysis of C. S. Lewis’s bestselling and beloved series, the Chronicles of Narnia. Readily accessible to the average reader, Ward’s book reads so much like a detective story that it’s difficult to put down.”

Armand M. Nicholi, Jr., Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of The Question of God: C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud

“This feat of scholarly detective work will absorb your attention from start to finish. Michael Ward proposes a heretofore unnoticed structure that unifies the Chronicles of Narnia, based on Lewis’s lifelong engagement with medieval astrology. . . . The result is both surprising and persuasive.”

Christianity Today

“Brilliantly conceived. Intellectually provocative. Rhetorically convincing. A panegyric is not the usual way to begin a book review, but Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis is worthy of such praise. I do not mean to suggest it is a perfect book, yet what Ward attempts—the first rigorously comprehensive reading of C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia—is magisterial . . . stimulating and engaging . . . important . . . thoughtful, informed, perceptive. . . . Every serious student of Lewis should buy Planet Narnia. In effect, it is the starting point from now forward for all serious scholarly discussions of the Chronicles of Narnia.”

Christianity and Literature

“An exciting synthesis of mystery story and literary scholarship . . . Ward is a master code-breaker. . . . He reveals previously overlooked connections by means of both broad brush-strokes and intricate details. . . . This procedure results in a grand literary adventure through the cosmos and through a great writer’s mind. . . . If more scholars wrote such enchanting prose and discovered such compelling secrets, we would take volumes of literary criticism to the beach for summer reading.”

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal