Although this book was reasonably action packed and less boring than some of the others, I think it might have been my least favorite of the whole series. From the start it just felt overly preachy, talking about a false Aslan, as though it would be a surprise later when no good comes of that. It had a whole “don’t worship false idols” feel to me, and knowing ahead of time that it turns out Narnia was all just fake and there was a “real” Narnia waiting, made everything feel more religious the whole way through.
The little about the author bit at the end said CS Lewis drew on all kinds of myths and fairies, but really all I saw were elements of Christianity and things borrowed from the Wizard of Oz.
*****
The premise of this one is basically that Narnia just ain’t what it used to be. Talking beasts are lying and being deceitful, the big offender being the Ape, Shift…who finds a large lion skin and ties it to his poor Donkey friend Puzzle. Shift manages to convince Puzzle that he must pretend to be Aslan. Oh the wonderful things they can accomplish if they say Aslan wants it!
Pretty much Shift is a right shit from the start and is super selfish. He doesn’t really want to do any good for Narnia and just wants to make things better for himself, like having a permanent supply of bananas. He’s also quite awful to Puzzle. His mischief gets him a sort of alliance with the Calormenes and they all go on their way scaring the rest of the Narnians, basically enslaving them.
The current King, Tirian, finds out and goes to stop it, but can’t and gets himself captured instead. So he calls on the legendary “friends of Narnia” to help him, which brings Eustace and Jill back. But unlike previous times, it doesn’t all work out happily and they ultimately wind up getting pushed into this skeery shed where some evil is supposed to be lurking.
Turns out that for them, the shed is really good and it takes them to Aslans country where all the previous friends of Narnia are waiting. Cept for Susan cuz she grew into a big bitch and doesn’t believe in Narnia anymore. Oh, and it turns out that they all died in our world…there was a train accident in which they all perished. This is really just an easy way to make it so that time doesn’t stop in our world because they were in Narnia. Also, their parents died in the same accident and they are in “the real England” because all countries are really Aslan’s countries and they all have fake versions where everyone lives and real ones you go to when you die. If you’re good. Blah, it’s kind of sickening to be honest.
So they live in peace and happiness with all their old friends, including Mister Tumnis and King Caspian, although they never speak to Caspian so maybe they aren’t friends anymore.
Aslan also tells everyone that if they are doing good all their lives, they are doing it for him, but if they are doing bad, they are doing it for Tash, the god of the Calormenes. Apparently all Calormenes except for one are bad, cuz one of them ended up in Aslan’s country and the rest got eaten by Tash. I guess it’s to show that if you’re bad, bad things happen to you at the end, but in any case I didn’t like it and thought it was silliness.
*****
Out of all the books, I think The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was ultimately my favorite. Second would probably be Prince Caspian. I can really see why The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the most popular, everything felt more fresh and exciting. Maybe it’s that I’m the most familiar with it, or the knowledge that it’s the only one I’m positive I was exposed to fully as a child, but it will likely be the only one I read again anytime soon.
Next will either be The Golden Compass which I started last week, or else a Sweet Valley Twins book. I didn’t ever read The Golden Compass when I was a child because it wasn’t out at the time, so that will just be a blogging for the sake of it. I definitely read all the Sweet Valley Twins books I now have in my possession, but they aren’t in full order so we’ll see. Hopefully I will soon have a big stack of Nancy Drew’s and BSCs to read!
