Read with my 8yr old daughter. The language and tone of this book is dated and so very different from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. We're still glad we read it, but it was a tough one to stick to!

Es una historia entretenida pero tampoco memorable. No sucede en Narnia pero algunos de los personajes que conocimos en el libro anterior hacen su aparición como personajes secundarios.
Puedes saltarte este libro y leer El príncipe Caspian si lo que quieres es seguir la historia de los reyes y reinas de Narnia.

3.5/5

Once again Lewis returns to his well of the same tactics. Casual misogyny. Perfectly good heroes and perfectly evil villains. Aslan the supreme, who this time doesn't simply Do The Thing and render the main conflict moot, but reveals that he and he alone causes and has caused every good thing, because everything happens for a reason. It's all a lovely piece of work for those who are comforted in things like faith and fate. Lewis actually takes the time to chide a skeptic of Aslan (a woman, natch) who dares to express logic and mention things such as luck. There's also casual othering of people who are different; in this case a thin veneer for Muslims as a savage, barbarian people given to excess, slavery and bloodlust.

Female characters in this book: a horse who only rarely gives her opinion, which is dismissed by the male horse; the return of Susan and Lucy, who are used as objects and said to be "as good as a man, or at least a boy," respectively; a ditzy friend who lives in luxury and who is utterly subservient; and of course the main character Aravis. Aravis is chided throughout the book for acting differently than a girl ought, and although she does very well for herself the end of the book sees her reduced to simply a plot device for the main male character (who is, in traditional Lewis fashion, of unimpeachable noble blood). Her last spoken word and mention come right as she is welcomed to her well appointed women's chambers, leaving the men to talk, and she is of course married off to the male main character at the end.

The othering of the Calormen is frustrating as from the beginning it's clear they are the villains. The only "good" native Calormen is Aravis, who of course leaves her people and marries into white, perfect Archenland in the end. The rest are all obstacles or outright impediments to the main party. Lewis, as is his wont, reminds the reader that Calormen are greedy and hungry for battle; Archenland and Narnia only go to battle as a last resort. They live in the desert, which is strange and alien and harsh; not like the goodly green fields and bacon and eggs of Narnia. They rule through terror; Narnia rules through love.

As much as reading the Chronicles of Narnia has become an exercise in spite to simply finish the series and be done with it, I enjoyed parts of this more than The Silver Chair. But once Aslan arrived and Lewis announced that everything happened for a reason -- absolutely everything -- it ruined what interest I had. Aslan, whom Lewis reveres as much as his characters do, is the single greatest impediment to my enjoyment of these books. It's sad, because I suppose Aslan is the whole point: the Christian allegory revealing his great power and love and how comforting and enlightening that all is. I greatly enjoy reading about characters who struggle and win out in the end, but not via the same tired deus ex machina, with the same good vs. evil plot, the same infallible royalty, the same blind adherence to rigid, dogmatic lessons learned. I've only two books left, and the sooner I'm through them, the better.

like nails on a chalkboard