Book Review - 'The Chronicles of Narnia' by C.S Lewis - Book Seven: 'The Last Battle'

‘The Chronicles of Narnia - The Last Battle’ by CS Lewis

“… all find what they truly seek.”

‘Good King Tirian faces the fiercest challenge ever to any Narnian King’s rule. There is a false Aslan roaming the land, commanding all Narnians to work for the cruel Calormenes.
Narnia’s only hope is that Eustace and Jill, old friends to Narnia, will be able to find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land.’

The final story begins ‘In the last days of Narnia’ in an area with ‘very few Talking Beasts or Men or Dwarfs, or people of any sort…’

The beasts that do live there include ‘the cleverest, ugliest, most wrinkled Ape…’ called Shift, and his ‘friend and neighbour… a donkey called Puzzle.’

It’s a very one-sided relationship for the crafty Shift always succeeds in getting Puzzle to do all the work.

And Puzzle ‘never complained, because he knew that Shift was far cleverer than himself…’ The times he does try to argue about anything, Shift never fails to remind the donkey he’s not at all clever.

Trouble begins when they find a lion’s skin.

Once he’s altered it to fit, Shift more or less bullies a very reluctant Puzzle into donning the skin.

When Shift says, ‘“If anyone saw you now, they’d think you were Aslan, the Great Lion, himself”’, Puzzle doesn’t agree; he thinks it would be dreadful.

But Shift takes it further, telling Puzzle, “You will pretend to be Aslan, and I’ll tell you what to say.”

Puzzle refuses, knowing how wrong that would be.

Shift argues that Aslan would probably be pleased with their plan, and he eventually succeeds in getting Puzzle to do what he wants.

The next characters we meet are ‘the last of the Kings of Narnia… King Tirian’ who’s in his early twenties, and ‘his dearest friend, Jewel the Unicorn.’ These two ‘loved each other like brothers…’

They’re talking of the ‘wonderful news’ that’s doing the rounds – ‘“… Aslan is here, Aslan has come to Narnia again…”’

They are joined by the ‘great, golden bearded Centaur… Roonwit…’

Skilled in the study of the stars, he brings worrying news, having seen ‘“terrible things written in the skies… The stars say nothing of the coming of Aslan, nor of peace, nor of joy…”’

He warns Tirian not to believe the rumours that Aslan is in Narnia; ‘“The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do. If Aslan were really coming to Narnia the sky would have foretold it…”’

Tirian sends Roonwit to Cair Paravel to gather his men-at-arms while he and Jewel endeavour to uncover the truth, which they discover involves not only Shift but the Calormenes as well.

With the Narnian beasts mired in hopeless despair, believing Shift’s deception about Aslan, Tirian and Jewel find themselves in dire need to aid.

And this comes in the form of two characters from the past, Eustace and Jill, who suddenly find themselves in Narnia.

Along with Tirian and Jewel, the youngsters do all they can to free the beasts and reveal the truth about the false Aslan.

I found this story the darkest in the entire series.

For once, characters who find themselves on the brink of disaster aren’t saved in the nick of time and are either captured or have to retreat.

Bad situations invariably get worse with the bad guys getting the upper hand more than once.

In that sense, while still a children’s novel, there are times it reads more like an ‘adult’ tale.

I was more than a couple of chapters in before I finally settled into this story, and I think that’s because I knew some of what was going to happen.

Of the new characters, Tirian reminds me of a heroic knight who endeavours not to let his doubts and fears stop him fighting the good fight.

Jewel is everything I believe a unicorn should be and agree completely with Jill thinking him to be ‘the shiningest, delicatest, most graceful animal… and… so gentle and soft of speech…’ yet ‘fierce and terrible… in battle.’

I enjoyed the relationship between Tirian and Jewel, which never comes across as sappy.

Shift is well-written for a character who’s not as cunning and devious as he believes himself to be.

While it might be easy to get annoyed with poor Puzzle for not standing up to Shift, how many of us who battle and/or are still mired in self-doubt can say we’d act any differently?

If Puzzle represents deep self-doubt, Shift is the constant negative thoughts and words that keep us down even when we strive to overcome, but we don’t believe in ourselves enough.

I wondered how it could be that the Narnian beasts could be taken in by a false Aslan, and the setup is so good in its simplicity and believability.

The most poignant and evocative chapter, for me, is the one titled, ‘Night Falls on Narnia’. Unfortunately, as much as I want to, I won’t share any of the descriptions from that chapter as I want to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

The ending is very bittersweet, to do with one loved and missed character.

I have no problem with how Lewis handles the fate of this character who isn’t present with the others because of denial and lack of belief.

For me, it’s more the what’s not said and how this character would have had to deal with the ‘real world’ consequences of a situation.

In letters to his young readers, Lewis explained his reasons, also saying he could not write the rest of that character’s story, instead inviting his readers to try writing the story themselves, which I found quite the generous gesture.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series, which is quite the adventure yarn for children and for adults too, who, if they so wish, can pick up on the deeper meanings.

The series talks of taking responsibility for your actions, of facing your fears, finding your courage and stepping up to do the right thing.

Although I mentioned in an earlier review that I might do a post defending Lewis and his books against accusations of being racist and sexist, I’ve decided against that as it would definitely have to include spoilers.

What I will say is, for someone who’s been accused of being sexist by authors such as Philip Pullman and JK Rowling, Lewis has written female characters who are, across the board, confident and capable.

Considering he wrote these books in the 1950s, he allows them to make their own decisions, even deciding their own futures. It’s not a given that all the female characters will marry and have children. And those who don’t marry are portrayed as accomplished, not pitiful.

All his characters, from human to animal and dwarf to giant, are never ‘all good’ or ‘all bad’. As in real life, each race is made up of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters.

I can’t remember if I mentioned this in any of the earlier reviews, but another thing I like about Lewis’ writing is that he puts what are clearly evil remarks, for example racial slurs, solely in the mouths of evil characters, making it crystal clear that such comments are evil.

In that way, instead of coming across as preachy, it flows naturally from the storytelling, as do the other factors I’ve mentioned.

I’ve already said how much I enjoy Lewis’ worldbuilding, which gradually builds up a more expansive view of Narnia and the lands beyond, even across the seas.

Having read the series in chronological order, next time I’m planning on reading them in published order.

For those who are interested, that order is:
‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ (1950)
‘Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia’ (1951)
‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ (1952)
‘The Silver Chair’ (1953)
‘The Horse and His Boy’ (1954)
‘The Magician’s Nephew’ (1955)
‘The Last Battle’ (1956)

It was only after I’d written last week’s review, did I realise that I hadn’t included any of Pauline Baynes’ lovely illustrations in each review.

Next week, I shall rectify that and do a post purely with a few illustrations from each book.