The Chronicles of Narnia

by Robin McKinley

McKinley builds her fantasy world with the same patient, immersive detail Lewis uses—you'll find yourself believing in the magic because the characters treat it as utterly ordinary. Like Narnia, this has that particular quality where a young protagonist discovers they belong to a world far richer than their own, but McKinley grounds it in a more grounded, almost anthropological approach to how magic and society interweave.

by Diana Wynne Jones

Jones has that same playful, digressive narrative voice as Lewis—she'll pause mid-adventure to explain the peculiar logic of her world's magic system, and somehow it's delightful rather than tedious. The novel is stuffed with the same kind of whimsy you find in Narnia (a castle that moves between worlds, a fire demon with opinions), but filtered through a more mischievous, almost comedic sensibility.

by George MacDonald

This is my gentle surprise for you—it's fantasy, yes, but it's more interested in court intrigue and kindness than battles and prophecies. What it shares with Narnia is that same sense of wonder at discovering an entirely functional magical society with its own rules, hierarchies, and cultures. Addison writes with a warmth toward her characters that echoes Lewis's affection for his creations, and the pacing has that same unhurried, almost cozy quality despite the high stakes.

by Norton Juster

Published in 1961, this predates much modern children's fantasy, and it shares Lewis's gift for making intellectual concepts feel like genuine adventures—kingdoms of words and numbers, a city of Dictionopolis. Where Narnia uses talking animals and mythological creatures, Juster uses puns and wordplay as his magical currency, but both authors trust young readers to follow them into genuinely strange, semantically playful worlds.

by Giambattista Piranesi

Clarke's novella has that same quality of stepping into a world whose rules you must gradually understand—like entering Narnia, you're disoriented at first, but the author is patient and precise about revealing how things work. It's more mysterious and unsettling than Lewis, with a literary density that rewards rereading, but both works share an almost architectural approach to worldbuilding, where the physical space itself becomes a character.