The Last Battle

The Last Battle 

by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the final book in the Narnia series, which I wrote a shelf-control post about,  and I enjoyed it. I thought it wrapped up the whole arc of the Narnia tale very well. The religous symbolism in this story was more overt than in some of the other tales (which didn't bother me). Characters from the earlier tales reappear and there are also some new faces. Overall I really liked the Chronicles of Narnia, but I'm not sure I would have enjoyed them as much when I was a child. There is a lot of depth here that I would not have understood.

This book is one of my alternates for the 2022 TBR Pile Challenge.

Shelf Control #3

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out the introductory post, Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday.

Title: The Last Battle
Author: C. S. Lewis

Published: 1956 
Length: 211 pages

What it’s about (publisher's blurb): "One last battle against evil, one final journey to the magical land of Narnia. Narnia ...where the last king makes a stand and sad farewells turn to joy ... where the adventures begin again. The Unicorn says that humans are brought to Narnia only in a time of great need--and that time is now. The Great Lion, Aslan, the heart of Narnia, is missing. An imposter roams the land in his place, enslaving Aslan's loyal creatures and spreading treachery and lies. Only King Tirian and his small band of loyal followers are left to fight the last battle in this magnificent ending to The Chronicles of Narnia."

How and when I got it: I was talking about these books with my then husband who was surprised that I had never read them. At Christmas 2015 he gave me a lovely box set of all 7 books with color illustrations by Pauline Baynes. This is one of those books.

Why I want to read it: I have been working my way through the set since I got it--slowly to make it last. I now have just the one book left to read. I listed it as an alternate for this year's TBR Pile Challenge.

How it begins:  "In the last days of Narnia, far up to the west beyond Lantern Waste and close beside the great waterfall, there lived an ape."  

The Horse and His Boy

The Horse and His Boy
by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the 3rd story in the Chronicles of Narnia and takes us away from Narnia and the familiar characters to tell the story of Shasta, a boy who was taken in by a fisherman when he was found as an infant in a boat that drifted ashore. Queen Susan and her siblings do play a role here, but it is a supporting one. I was struck by how Christ-like Aslan is in this story. It was an exciting adventure and had the same delightful narrative style as The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
This is one of my Classics Club titles and counts toward the Back to the Classics 2018 Challenge as a children's classic.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This wonderful book has the same narrative tone that I loved in The Magician's Nephew, but is a bit more serious. Lion was the first book written in the Chronicles of Narnia but comes second in the storyline. I am reading the series, in a beautiful boxed set, with illustrations by Pauline Baynes. 

In this book we meet Aslan who is a huge and frightening powerful lion who is also kind and wise, "good and terrible at the same time" (p, 126). That seems to me the key to the whole story--characters who are both good and terrible--and it is what makes it timeless. 

My favorite supporting character in this tale was Mrs. Beaver. I love how she arranges things and lets the others know when they should have listened to her. She is very cozy and domestic--she was at her machine sewing while Mr. Beaver was out and about--but is ready with practical plans when adventure calls. 

This book counts as a classic about an animal for the Back to the Classics challenge.

Review: The Magician's Nephew

The Magician's Nephew
by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love the narrative voice of this book -- the story is humming along full of excitement and adventure and the author pops in with a word or two of omniscient observation which brings you back to a broader perspective (and keeps it from getting too scary). This is a beautiful book and echos familiar stories (I won't spoil the book by telling you what stories).

"This was a difficult and delicate job but they managed it in the end. The little paper bag was very squashy and sticky when they finally got it out, so that it was more a question of tearing the bag off the toffees than of getting the toffees out of the bag. Some grown-ups (you know how fussy they can be about that sort of thing) would rather have gone without supper altogether than eaten those toffees." (p. 164)

This is my final book for the What's in a Name challenge (one with a familial relationship in the title) and is the 105th book I read this year, which completes by GoodReads goal for 2015. I'm looking forward to the 2016 WIN challenge.