If You Loved Narnia Try These Fantasy Portals

The Last Battle — C.S. Lewis

If you only read one Narnia book after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, make it this one — it's the series' most unsettling, most theological, and most divisive finale. The Last Battle (1956) doesn't ease you in. Shift the ape, a conman in a lion skin, launches a false-messiah cult that rips Narnia apart from the inside. King Tirian watches his kingdom collapse into propaganda and betrayal. Lewis leans hard into apocalyptic allegory here — harder than any other book in the series — and the final chapters are either transcendent or infuriating depending on your tolerance for explicitly Christian eschatology. The "problem of Susan" still sparks arguments in 2025. As of July 2026, Patina's shelves hold rotating preloved copies of the full Narnia run, and this one remains the most earmarked, most annotated, most argued-over. It's not a comfort read. It's the book Lewis wrote when he stopped worrying about being liked. Explore our current copy of The Last Battle or browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

The Amulet of Samarkand — Jonathan Stroud

Forget wise mentor wizards — this trilogy hands the narrative to a 5,000-year-old djinni with a chip on his shoulder and a genius for footnotes. The Amulet of Samarkand (2003) introduces Nathaniel, an ambitious 12-year-old magician's apprentice in an alternate London where demons are enslaved and the government is a backstabbing aristocracy of sorcerers. When Nathaniel summons Bartimaeus — a mid-level djinni with a Napoleon complex and perfect comedic timing — to steal the titular amulet, the plot spirals into espionage, palace intrigue, and surprisingly pointed commentary on power and servitude. Stroud's genius is the dual narrative: Nathaniel's chapters are tense and earnest; Bartimaeus's are sardonic asides delivered in footnotes that undercut every dramatic moment. It's portal fantasy in reverse — the magic is here, embedded in our world, and the "ordinary" protagonist is the one who has to navigate its cruelty. If Narnia is about children becoming kings, Bartimaeus is about a boy becoming complicit. Fans of Pullman's daemons and Jones's Howl will find kindred spirits in Stroud's irreverent, politically sharp world-building. Explore our current copy of The Amulet of Samarkand or browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

The Land of Stories: An Author's Odyssey — Chris Colfer

Book five flips the script entirely: instead of kids entering the fairy-tale world, the Masked Man drags the fairy-tale world into ours — and it's chaos. An Author's Odyssey (2016) is the most meta entry in Colfer's six-volume series. The Bailey twins, Alex and Conner, spent four books navigating the Land of Stories — a realm where Red Riding Hood rules a kingdom and the Evil Queen gets a redemption arc — but now the villain is weaponising literature itself. The Masked Man uses a cursed pen to write fictional armies into existence, pulling characters from Sherlock Holmes, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan into the real world to wage war. Colfer's strength has always been his sincerity — he loves these stories without a trace of irony — and here he doubles down, turning the series into a love letter to the power of storytelling. It's less dark than Lewis, less cynical than Stroud, but it shares Narnia's conviction that stories matter because they shape who we become. If your kid devoured Narnia and wants something equally earnest but more explicitly feminist (Alex is the magical prodigy; Conner is the writer), Colfer's your gateway. Explore our current copy of The Land of Stories: An Author's Odyssey or browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina. Portal fantasy didn't stop evolving after 1956. Lewis gave us the template — ordinary children, extraordinary destinies, doors that open when you need them most — but Stroud, Colfer, Pullman, and Jones took that framework and asked harder questions. What if the magic world is ours? What if the chosen one becomes the oppressor? What if the portal isn't a wardrobe but a book, a knife, a painting, a storybook that talks back? These three titles honour Narnia's legacy by refusing to replicate it. They're the books you hand to the kid who finished The Last Battle and said, "What now?" Shop all Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina Paperbacks →

Where can I buy secondhand portal fantasy books like Narnia in Sydney?

Patina Paperbacks is a Sydney-based online preloved bookshop stocking 13,000+ secondhand titles, including a rotating selection of portal fantasy from Lewis, Stroud, Colfer, Pullman, and Jones. We ship Australia-wide with free shipping over $29. Browse the full collection at the link above or search by author — stock turns over regularly, so if you're hunting a specific Narnia edition or a first-print Bartimaeus, check back often.

What's the best Narnia book to read after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?

The Last Battle is the most thematically complex and the one that'll stick with you longest — it's the book Lewis wrote when he stopped worrying about being a children's author and leaned fully into apocalyptic allegory. If you want more of the Pevensies, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are direct sequels. If you want Lewis at his most unflinching, skip straight to the finale.

Are Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus books suitable for kids who loved Narnia?

Absolutely, but with a tonal shift — Bartimaeus is darker, more satirical, and aimed at slightly older readers (10+). If your kid handled The Last Battle's theological weight and The Silver Chair's existential dread, they'll appreciate Stroud's footnotes and political edge. The humour is dryer, the stakes are higher, and the magic comes with a cost. It's Narnia if Narnia had a sharper sense of irony and a government full of wizard-aristocrats.

What's the reading order for Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series?

Start with The Wishing Spell (2012), then The Enchantress Returns, A Grimm Warning, Beyond the Kingdoms, An Author's Odyssey, and finally Worlds Collide (2017). The series is linear — each book builds on the last — and Colfer rewards readers who stick with it through all six volumes. An Author's Odyssey (book five) is the most meta and arguably the best standalone argument for the series' ambitions.

What other portal fantasy authors should I try if I loved Narnia?

Diana Wynne Jones is essential — start with Charmed Life (1977) or Howl's Moving Castle (1986). Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (1995-2000) is the obvious next step if you want Narnia's scope with less theology and more physics. For something lighter, try E. Nesbit's Five Children and It (1902) — Lewis cribbed from her heavily. For something weirder, try Clive Barker's The Thief of Always (1992) or Cornelia Funke's Inkheart (2003).