Weird and dark is probably why this one is less well known, although the BBC did do an adaptation a long time ago with Tom Baker as Puddleglum. But I agree, this is suspiciously like D&D Underdark for a book series that was omitted from Appendix N. There is a lot of D&Dish plane hopping in Magician’s Nephew too.
The Shadow of the Vulture is a solid story. I could see it making for a good film adaptation.
I've seen the first two of the BBC adaptations, but not the Silver Chair. Tom Baker playing Puddleglum sounds awesome.
It feels to me that the proto-Underdark is as much about depression and despair as it is about an extensive subterranean ecosystem. A lot of The Silver Chair is allegorical in a Pilgrim’s Progress lite sort of way - the Gentle Giants are, well, giants (and sort of referencing Gulliver’s morally superior Brobdinagians) but they’re also representing oblivious middle-class adults who caution children that religion and fairy-tales are nonsense.
My neighbor lent me a box full of crossover Batman and alt universe what if type Batman comics from the 90s and it includes some Batman Versus Predator and Batman Versus Alien which I read last year. The BvP includes a lot of the Predator figuring out human social structures and going after crime bosses as the top predators who are feared (and Batman as their predator who induces fear in them) which seemed a bit of a stretch as opposed to going after the more immediately dangerous armed criminals or cops in the urban setting.
There's a lot going on with The Silver Chair, to be sure. The irony of Puddleglum, the most pessimistic character, articulating against the Green Lady at the end is not lost on me. Nor is the irony of how much pagan symbolism and imagery is present in the Chronicles.
I read them lots of times - especially VotDT at #3 - as a youth. Now I find myself having to ignore a lot of the symbolism or they feel really kludgey to me. (I don't know what it says about younger me that I missed a lot/most of it on the early readings even though my mom got them for me at a Catholic book store). Doing that I still had a great time reading all six of them to my spawn several years ago.
Be aware that the Dark Elf Trilogy of Drizzt's origins in the underdark and coming to the surface were a prequel trilogy written after the Icewind Dale trilogy which were the first novels Salvatore wrote. The characterization for Drizzt in those first ones is a bit different from later characterizations (more of a cold killer in the original surface trilogy whose good is mostly that he fights evil, less of the clearly moral hero he becomes in later characterization in the Dark Elf Trilogy and later written stuff). If you start with the Dark Elf trilogy and follow it up with Icewind it could be a little jarring.
I'll politely disagree, there. I found that Lord Soth's characterization in Knight of the Black Rose expanded on his character without changing the basic nature of it, which was refreshing; all too often, taking a supporting villain and making them the protagonist of their own story takes a redemptive turn. This one didn't, and I appreciated it for that, as it instead leaned in to how Soth's greatest strength was also his worst failing, which is a quality I enjoy.
