3.5 ⭐️

Don’t get me wrong, this was a lovely read, but I was just kind of expecting a little more? Like they seemed to get through the desert in like 2 seconds when I was expecting for there to be some issue where they get lost and end up at the oasis instead of going the right way then having to make up some plan or I don’t know??? Just something more than the simple A to B to C that Lewis gave us in the this. It was lovely, just needed more substance - twists, turns, problems. Ya get me?

Do not dare not to dare.

One of my favorite in this series thus far!

Y'all. I get that C.S. Lewis wrote this as a white man from Britain in the 1950s, but this shit is P.R.O.B.L.E.M.A.T.I.C.

I THINK there's supposed to be some kind of metaphor in here about yoking yourself to the world and making yourself a slave even though, if you chose to become a Christian/Narnian, you could be free, but... if that even was the intended message, it's heavily buried in SO MUCH racist subtext (and actually overt text) that you can barely pick it out.

All of the brown people in this book are presented as some degree of barbaric. They keep and abuse slaves. They don't eat the "right" food (eggs and bacon), and they wear "curious clothes" which are perceived as less nice than the Narnian (read: British) clothes. They beat, enslave, and sell their kids, they arrange child-marriages, they go back on their word to their friends, family, and possible love interests, they are vapid, self-interested, and unnecessarily cruel, they LITERALLY WORSHIP A DEMON GOD*, etc, etc, and because of all of this, it is of the upmost importance that we get the one white kid who's stuck there back up to Narnia where he belongs (with the other white people).

Spoiler

It even turns out that Aslan's been literally watching over him all his life to help guide him back home to Narnia, where, you know, the white people are.

Spoiler

And don't even get me started on the stuff about Shasta/Cor being of a royal bloodline and this making him inherently more dignified and noble than other people and thus predestined for greatness.

It just felt... gross.

Plus, there are some weird implications from how self-impressed Bree was, and how HE was a Free Narnian who didn't deserve to be a slave, but fuck all those other non-Narnian horses, amirite?

Spoiler

Admittedly, he did get a dose of humble pie about halfway through, but then Lewis just used that to double-down on how Bree, as a talking horse, was still superior to all those other, dumb, non-talking horses. Who, I guess we're supposed to conclude, just deserve to be slaves?

Yeah, that's a good message.

Overall, it was a muddled, uncomfortable mess, and it does not translate as anything but xenophobic in this day and age. I will not be reading this one to my kids, and if they decide they want to read it, we're gonna need to have some serious talks about the cultural perceptions of that time period and how none of this is accurate or okay.




*Which is REALLY icky because the brown people in this particular book are pretty effing clearly meant to be analogues for Muslims, what with how they wear turbans and other traditionally Islamic clothing, use the term Vizier, don't eat pork, live in the Middle East... It's not outright stated in this book that Tash is a demon god, but... he is.

Some parts were a bit slow or drawn out for my tastes, and I think part of me missed the journey of real kids from our world traveling to Narnia. Some of the magic was lost for me. This was also the most violent of the books so far. But overall I liked it, and I love Aslan in it. He seemed to be more involved in interceding and protecting than in other stories (with the exception of his crucifixion in The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, of course).

Some favorite parts:

"'If you run now, without a moment's rest, you will still be in time to warn King Lune.'
Shasta's heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one. But all he said out loud was:
'Where is the King?'"

Spoiler:
"'I was the lion.' And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. 'I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.'"

"...they were going in single file along the edge of a precipice and Shasta shuddered to think that he had done the same last night without knowing it. 'But of course,' he thought, 'I was quite safe. That is why the Lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge all the time.'"

Book 3 of the Chronicles of Narnia. It actually takes place while Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are still in Narnia and are the reigning kings and queens (so I guess you could say it is in the middle of TLTWaTW), but the story has very little to do with them. We get to see more of the "talking beasts" and humans from other lands bordering Narnia. I felt like this was a good set up for "Prince Caspian" and giving us background of the Telmarines and of Achenland. We understand their history a little better. And I love to see Aslan. The religious undertones aren't nearly as strong in this book as in the previous two, but whenever you have Aslan you can feel the similarities between him and God. I find it comforting and lovely. :)

Loved it 💗Exciting with some lovely lessons in it. My favorite moment is when Edmund subtly mentions knowing a traitor who changed.