The Last Battle

I remembered nothing about this book from my previous reading.

This book is sad. You know what's going to happen because Lewis tells you in the first pages that it's the end of Narnia, but it's still sad. I know they technically live happily ever after, but it's heartbreaking watching Tirian and the others fight so hard and know they will lose. Also, poor Susan. She loses her family in one fell swoop and will never get to see them again, even after death, since she isn't a friend of Narnia.

For the Chronicles of Narnia as a whole, it's quite an enjoyable series. However, there are some major sexist and racist themes, some of which came from the time period in which it was written, but still are not things to be proud of. It irked me show more that the women were frequently kept from battles and were archers if they were included. I hated that the Calormenes were portrayed as evil, hedonistic black/brown people, with only 2 notable exceptions.

Final series favorites: Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Magician's Nephew; The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy; Prince Caspian; The Last Battle; The Silver Chair. show less

A crafty Ape named Shift finds a lion skin and, using it to cover a donkey named Puzzle, tricks him into masquerading as Aslan and the Talking Beasts of Narnia into following his whims, even going up against King Tirian.

I'll be honest here... this book is probably one of the ones that had the most impact on my decision to be an English major. When I was 8-9 years old, I most often named it my favorite book. Okay so the plot is razor thin and choppy, and reading it as an adult I was a little disappointed at times that things didn't quite match my recollection. But as a kid...oh, as a kid I was so proud to have figured out some of the parallels between this book and prophecy in the Bible. Reading "between the lines" was new to me, and the show more ability to match one thing with another and see Lewis's interpretations of end times and heaven and the rest just fascinated me. I still love the last few chapters and the very last line especially gets me every time. show less

This book makes me uneasy, quite frankly.

Look, I'll give Lewis props for a rather unexpected ending to the series. It's bold, mature and the exact opposite (in some ways) of the "everyone lives" philosophy of Russell T Davies or JK Rowling. Completely destabilising Narnia is something that feels visceral to anyone who fell in love with the books as a child. And I did enjoy, somewhat, the comic allegory of the faux Aslan.

But... pardon the pun, Jesus Christ this is skeevy. For the most part, the series as Christian allegory could be wilfully ignored if you wanted to just enjoy the texture of the books and their creation of a world. Not so much here, quite frankly. Even aside from Lewis' infamous "screw you" to Susan for, you know, being show more interested in sex and make-up, the book is rather blatant in what it wants to push on to children.

As I mentioned in my "Silver Chair" review, I'm not inherently against this. After all, it worked for such luminaries as Dante and Evelyn Waugh. But there's a clear difference here, I feel, and - while I can still appreciate the allegory even from my anti-religious bias - this simply doesn't feel like a fitting end to the Narnia series. Instead, it feels like an overly aggressive Sunday School teacher who's tired of just sitting around and telling kind stories. I completely understand Lewis' passion, from his point of view, to try and show the true terror of losing his world to a more secular one. It's just a pity that rather than simply writing essays about the perceived problem, he had to incorporate it so thoroughly into the final book of a much beloved children's series.

In spite of my beliefs, and the fact that Philip Pullman and his ilk have eradicated our generation's need for Narnia, I still treasure these books from my childhood, and always will. It's just a pity, that's all it is. show less

This isn't quite as fun as the others, but it's still a cool way to close out the series. I read the series in publication order this time, and it was neat to see the beginning and end of Narnia back to back. As always I loved the Christian allegory, but parts of the book really have not aged well. And I hate that stupid ape.

And then there's the Susan thing. I like to think that she makes it to Super Narnia eventually, but it sucks that she lost her entire family in one day. Yes, I know, she no longer believes in Narnia and her family all thinks she's shallow, but her punishment is still ridiculously harsh. It just bugs me that the series ends with the idea that there's no hope for Susan—and no one seems to care, or even remember that show more she exists. Grrr. I still believe in you, Susan. show less

I really enjoyed "The Last Battle." Then again, I'm also one for allegory. This final book in the Chronicles of Narnia is the most clearly allegorical of the lot—even including "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." This is the primary reason why I liked it so much.Like the Talking Beasts of Narnia, so many people are deceived and convinced that our God is an unkind, impatient, and vindictive God.To think so of our "Aslan" causes many horrible things (of which, I'll give three):1) People learn to feel genuinely frightened by Him. And when that happens, they can be easily manipulated. Fear is by far the easiest path for coercion to take. In "The Last Battle" the ape, Shift, is able to convince people that he speaks for Aslan, and show more with this power, he is able to redefine the way they conceive of him. At this point, he manipulates their new fears and is able to make them do his will under the guise of Aslan's will. Fear gives undeserved power to those who have the ability to induce it and it destroys the opportunity for relationship. It stratifies equal people into unnatural hierarchal structures.2) When someone comes along and convinces people that their God is not the cold, mean God they thought him to be (as Tirian did for the Dwarfs), some people _do_ rejoice when it dawns on them that He really _is_ as kind and loving as they hoped he was. But, some people jump to the conclusion that there is no God at all. They hear the proof against the idea that "Aslan" is bad, and rather than decide Aslan _must_ therefore be good (which is the only natural conclusion, they exceed the evidence, deciding instead that Aslan must not exist at all—which is almost as horrible. So, in the end, the lie can destroy not just one's concept of who God is, but one's acceptance of his existence as fact.3) When people are frightened by something, the usual response is to put as much distance between them and it as is possible. They run, they hide, or they guard themselves. They seek a shield or a wall to keep it from touching them. They seek a buffer to lessen the power of its terror on them. They seek a mediator to deal with it so they won't have to. It is simply too horrible a thought for them to interact directly with it.Read it in the allegory in chapter 10:t just as you please. Who'd like to go in first? Don't blame me if he swallows you whole or blasts you into a cinder with the mere terror of his eyes. That's your affair. Now then! Who's first?"...br/ But the Beasts all stood looking at one another and began backing away from the Stable. Very few tails were wagging now. The Ape waddled to and fro jeering at them. "Ho-ho-ho!" he chuckled. "I thought you were all so eager...?"br/ ...br/ "Mercy! Mercy!" wailed the Beasts. "Spare us, Lord Shift, stand between us and Aslan, you must always go in and speak to him for us. We daren't, we daren't." >> show less

I have to say, I'm really glad I completely forgot these stories since my childhood. As I reread them now I am pulling so much more from them as an adult semi-first time reader. As the final chapter of the Narnia series, no other book in the series grabbed me and kept me turning pages like this one. You've spent all this time falling in love with Narnia and it's inhabitants. The situation starts off bad, get's worse, get's even worse, and continues getting worse until the inevitable conclusion that will leave you completely satisfied and maybe even a little touched.

From a Christian theology perspective, this is the story of the antichrist, false prophets, religious pluralism, refusal to see the signs put in front of you, and how people show more can be led astray by not keeping to what they have known to be true all their lives.

Even if you're not reading it for it's Christian allegories, and you've made it this far in the series, you will DEFINITELY not be disappointed with this tale. show less

Pretty awful. This is not its own book, it's a weird follow-up to/treatise on the rest of the series, where Narnia is depleted and depressing, racist and Islamophobic stereotypes abound, and we are happy about the death of children because they get to go to heaven. C.S. Lewis still obviously has some powers of vivid description, but I just can't get over the blatant allegory, or the awfulness of death and defeat in this book (the train, the cat who can no longer speak, the massacre of the horses, Eustace borne off into the door, Jill dragged by the hair, the bear killed in his confusion), and how it all supposed to be smoothed over into religious ecstasy of further up and further in. No. It's too unsettling. And Susan is left all alone, show more without even her parents.

But I see why so many people set out to rewrite or send up Narnia--The Magicians, Piranesi, His Dark Materials. It's an interesting, polarizing series, and there is a lot of it left unwritten. And if you can lean into the disturbing qualities, it can become even more evocative. The most interesting part of this book, in my opinion, is when Jill and Eustace talk about their lives in the real world-- that they know they're the only Friends of Narnia who can come back, so they've been training in archery and swordfighting, and their brief story about Peter and Edmund going back to Diggory and Polly's old row of houses to dig up the rings for them. Also the scene where Tirian appears to the Friends of Narnia like a ghost and Peter is the only one who does not move. Come on Lev Grossman, there's your material for a gritty Narnia-inspired book! show less