The Horse and His Boy (original 1954; edition 2005)

A delicious classic, suitable for children of any age - including adults. The cultural flavor of a fairy tale or a medieval romance, with suspense and adventure, this novel can be read separately from the Narnia series, though I can't imagine wanting to skip the other volumes. Chivalry and perfidy, courage and cowardice, and a story that illustrates the fundamental importance of character - and that character is a choice. ( )

Out of the all the books in the Chronicles of Narnia series I have read so far, this was my least favorite. I kept getting confused by the various characters' names and had a tough time staying interested in this story. It wasn't a terrible book, but it also wasn't great. It just wasn't as compelling as some of the other books in the series. ( )

This is the one that kept me from making it through the series all of those other times. There just wasn't the same engagement with the characters. I found that 3/4 of the way through the book I was actually enjoying it though. ( )

The Horse and His Boy isn't one of my favourite books of the series, now. I think when I was younger it might have been one of my favourites -- I think I owned a BBC dramatisation of it, or something like that, which was pretty good and helped my very positive memories of it. Shasta wasn't my favourite protagonist even then, I think, though I did love Aravis and wished we saw more of her.

Looking at it now, The Horse and His Boy feels like a bit of an aside, really. Shasta/Cor, Aravis and the two horses aren't that important, ultimately, to the history of Narnia. The other books all cover pretty important moments -- creation, freedom from oppressive regimes, new rulers, daring rescues... This book hardly has Narnian characters in it, and when it does, they're not absolutely central to the plot. It's more about Archenland and Calormen -- which is nice, in seeing more of the world, but it just doesn't seem to quite fit.

The writing is still beautiful, the narrator still a benevolent omniscient storyteller type. The book makes me want to go to Narnia as much as the others do. If I say I don't love it as much as the others, that doesn't mean I don't love it very much.

But now for Prince Caspian! ( )

This used to be one of my favourite Narnia books, but it's definitely fallen in my favour now. Part of that is the painfully obvious exoticisation of Calormen (and through it, the countries it's obviously an analogue of). It's not completely black and white -- there's Aravis, who's "obviously" a good person because she wants to go to Narnia, and there's Lasaraleen, who does help Aravis (but is fussy, girly, and cowardly), there's the old slave who forges the letter for Aravis... but for the most part, we are to believe that all Calormenes are Bad People.

I still have a great fondness for the book out of nostalgia, but this one's pretty egregious as regards racial issues. ( )