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A review by grrr8_catsby
The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
2.0
The Horse And His Boy chronicles the adventures of young Shasta and talking horse Bree, as they escape the morally gray land of Calormen into the paradise of Narnia.
If you've ever wondered why I have only read through the Chronicles Of Narnia once in my entire life, it's because of this book.
The pacing feels way off in this book; segments of long adventuring fly by in mere sentences, while the most inane of events garnish multiple crawling chapters dedicated to its meticulous retelling. While I do not need to know every footstep our adventurers take, there is a severe lack of balance to the storytelling. The pacing directly affects our relationship with the characters, as well. The Horse And His Boy has an enormous cast of primary (Shasta, Bree, Aravis, Hwin) and secondary (Aslan, Prince Rabadash, Prince Corin, Queen Lucy, King Edmund, King Lune) characters, that we experience little-to-no-time with. The book is so short and the cast is so large, that there is simply no way to either become well acquainted with the characters or to observe any iota of growth and development.
While observable and benign in The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, author C.S. Lewis's Christian allegory feels more problematic in The Horse And His Boy than in previous entries in the Chronicles Of Narnia. Most uncomfortably, the antagonistic Calormene people are not-so-subtly Islamic-coded, while the innocent, fair Narnians are clearly Christian-coded. While Lewis has never been shy about directly relating major events in his books to major Bible stories, keep an eye out for a groan-inducing iteration of "Footprints in the sand".
There is nothing cancel-worthy in The Horse And His Boy; it's just not a very good book. The true shame comes in following two spectacular entries into the Chronicles Of Narnia series in what amounts to a bit of story filler.
If you've ever wondered why I have only read through the Chronicles Of Narnia once in my entire life, it's because of this book.
The pacing feels way off in this book; segments of long adventuring fly by in mere sentences, while the most inane of events garnish multiple crawling chapters dedicated to its meticulous retelling. While I do not need to know every footstep our adventurers take, there is a severe lack of balance to the storytelling. The pacing directly affects our relationship with the characters, as well. The Horse And His Boy has an enormous cast of primary (Shasta, Bree, Aravis, Hwin) and secondary (Aslan, Prince Rabadash, Prince Corin, Queen Lucy, King Edmund, King Lune) characters, that we experience little-to-no-time with. The book is so short and the cast is so large, that there is simply no way to either become well acquainted with the characters or to observe any iota of growth and development.
While observable and benign in The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, author C.S. Lewis's Christian allegory feels more problematic in The Horse And His Boy than in previous entries in the Chronicles Of Narnia. Most uncomfortably, the antagonistic Calormene people are not-so-subtly Islamic-coded, while the innocent, fair Narnians are clearly Christian-coded. While Lewis has never been shy about directly relating major events in his books to major Bible stories, keep an eye out for a groan-inducing iteration of "Footprints in the sand".
There is nothing cancel-worthy in The Horse And His Boy; it's just not a very good book. The true shame comes in following two spectacular entries into the Chronicles Of Narnia series in what amounts to a bit of story filler.