The Last Battle (Thorndike Large Print Young Adult Series)

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Spiritual Experience
Review: The Last Battle is the last in the series of Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, and my personal favorite. Most people think this book is for children, but I think many people can enjoy it, as it can be understood on many levels. For example, a child may appreciate this story as a group of kids on a fun adventure. I, however, really got a lot of spiritual meaning out of this book, as I found a lot of biblical parallels. In this book, the children are battling the greatest evil to exist in Narnia since the White Witch. A cunning ape and his lackey Puzzle (a donkey) find a lion skin in the river. The greedy ape convinces Puzzle to dress up in it and convince the Narnians that he is great Aslan the Lion, king of Narnia. Through Puzzle, Shift the ape exploits the Narnians devotion to Aslan by giving cruel orders that will only profit Shift. Out of fear, the animals follow his orders. "Aslan" invites the enemy Calormene army into the land to help him rule the country. The animals at this point turn to the real Aslan, and the people he sent (all the humans from the previous books in the series) to save them, but there wasn't much they could do Aslan came just in time however, bringing with him the final Judgment Day. The good creatures left Narnia through a lone standing door frame and entered into a magnificent place of which I haven't space to describe the magnitude of its beauty. The evil were rejected, and Narnia began to fold in on itself, much the way it had formed in The Magician's Nephew. Once in this paradise, the children are told that they were here after having been pulled by Aslan into Narnia after their Earthly deaths. The children grappled with this, as it must be a very difficult thing to be told you are dead, but accepted it happily in the end, seeing as everything they loved on Earth and more was there. This was the most spiritually enlightening aspect of the book, and it really left me in awe. Aslan accepted all the good into this "heaven." Not caring whether they had worshipped the Calormene God Tash, Him, or any other deities, he simply accepted them on their goodness. This to me is very interesting because on Earth, it seems, all the various religions are in some sort of competition with each other. Wars are fought over religion often, but as this shows, none of these specifics really matter.

Rating:
Summary: Wrapping things up
Review: This last book in "The Chronicles of Narnia" is another fast read, requiring only a few dedicated hours of page turning. It is vastly different from any of the other books, and is the one most laden with theology and imagery.

The ruler at the time is King Tirian, and he soon has his hands full. Lantern Waste is being destroyed, apparently in the name of Aslan, and along with Jewel the Unicorn, Tirian must get to the bottom of the mystery. Closer investigation reveals that men from Calormen are cutting down the Narnian forest, astonishingly being assisted by talking Narnian animals.

But there is treachery afoot, and a false prophet succeeds in confusing the living daylights out of the Narnians, until they no longer can distinguish wrong from right, or Aslan from Tash, the God of the Calormenes.

Eustace and Jill are again summoned to the rescue, returning one year after their last adventure, but in fact over two hundred years have passed in Narnia since "The Silver Chair".

The story rapidly advances, with the age old theme of good against evil. The most important physical place in the story is a stable, which has a lot more to it than is immediately evident. People who believe in a supreme being see amazing things within, non-believers see nothing at all. People and animals that pass through its humble door are rewarded according to their purity of heart, and are appropriately greeted by either Aslan or Tash.

The somewhat abrupt ending came as a surprise to me, especially after the joyous reunions and discovery of the true Narnia, even though there had been hints casually dropped along the way.

This is a fine book to end a wonderful series, a classic if ever there was one,

Amanda Richards, September 17, 2004