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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?? I want to give this a bad review just as much as I want to give it a good review. I like The Last Battle and I found it to be fast-paced and so much more tense than the previous novels—but also ENTIRELY TOO DARK FOR CHILDREN!!!! Everyone died. I mean EVERYONE. The children, the horses, the bad Calormen and the good Calormen—Narnian dwarfs go to hell!! I mean THEY LITERALLY GO TO HELL. Something of it at least since I guess they are stuck in torment for all eternity??! ALL OF THE CHILDREN DIE IN A RAILWAY ACCIDENT!! WHY??!! THERE WERE SO MANY DEATHS AND TEARS AND UNICORN STABBINGS!!! I liked the beginning and the seriousness of the battle but the ending is just so bad… I can’t believe the things I’d heard turned out to be true (also Eustace and Jill turned out to be the best characters). They were all so young! What message are kids supposed to get out of this? 12+ (11 is the lowest age kids should be reading things like this! And I’m 17!) —Note: This also contains racism which is much more prevalent in this novel than the others (made up slurs and such) and Susan (one of our leads), is said to go to not be a friend of Narnia anymore?! I found her siblings indifference to not be a very good message for young children either!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Violence
Moderate: Child death, Racism
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The worst series ending I’ve ever read! I never made it to the final book as a kid,‘so I was just as surprised as my kids when we learned the ending. And baffled. It doesn’t really make much sense. I even did some reading after the fact to wrap my head around it. It’s such a cop out! This story was too much telling and retelling from each character’s POV.
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First half or so is great - easily the darkest Narnia gets. Ending is really odd, though. Probably requires the most theological thought of the series
This is the last book in the series and it's just okay. The ending, especially, drags on and on and on and on without any reason for doing so. In my opinion, the first couple of books were strong, and they just got weaker and weaker as the series went on. I have heard that the whole series is a religious allegory, and maybe if I knew more about Christianity in great detail I would appreciate it more, but as it stands I don't. Also maybe reading all 7 right in a row is not a great idea--I got tired of the stories, which really aren't all that different from each other.
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Rightly maligned as the worst Narnia book, this is interesting for several reasons - unfortunately none of which make it good.
Straight up ending the series with finally assembling and then killing all the characters we have grown to love off screen in a railway accident is a super bold move, one that can only be understood as a happy ending from Lewis’s particular ideological standpoint.
Lewis’s vision of heaven was interesting, and I got a kick out of one of the characters explicitly saying it was directly based on Plato. The absolutely strangeness of the end of the world was also interesting to see, and the author can never be criticized for an unwillingness to make weird stuff.
But the story itself is an absolute slog, with horrible things happening to everyone and every place we have come to hold dear - talking animals being enslaved and massacred without hope is not fun to read. The racial caricature Calormenes are of course the villains and agents if the apocalypse, slaughtering the Narnians and being repeatedly referred to as “darkies”. Our heroes even don literal brownface to sneak into their camp. All around a perfect expression of how nasty and unkind Lewis can be - especially his famous passage about why Susan does not deserve heaven.
One particularly clear example of the author straw maning his religious opponents comes from “Tashlon”, the heretical concept that the (pseudo-Muslim) Calormene devil-god Tash and Aslan are the same being. Even as a small kid I was keenly aware Lewis was talking about the popular notion that we should be tolerant because all religions are basically the same at root. Lewis spends most of this book repeatedly underlying why this is false, his God is the only true God, and all others are just horrific demons who can only work evil.
The whole series as seen Lewis’s immense creativity, sharp writing, and ability to tell a great story balanced against his worst instincts. In this book, his cruelty, callousness, and bigotry finally overwhelm what had made this series so magical - perhaps a fitting thematic end to Narnia.
Straight up ending the series with finally assembling and then killing all the characters we have grown to love off screen in a railway accident is a super bold move, one that can only be understood as a happy ending from Lewis’s particular ideological standpoint.
Lewis’s vision of heaven was interesting, and I got a kick out of one of the characters explicitly saying it was directly based on Plato. The absolutely strangeness of the end of the world was also interesting to see, and the author can never be criticized for an unwillingness to make weird stuff.
But the story itself is an absolute slog, with horrible things happening to everyone and every place we have come to hold dear - talking animals being enslaved and massacred without hope is not fun to read. The racial caricature Calormenes are of course the villains and agents if the apocalypse, slaughtering the Narnians and being repeatedly referred to as “darkies”. Our heroes even don literal brownface to sneak into their camp. All around a perfect expression of how nasty and unkind Lewis can be - especially his famous passage about why Susan does not deserve heaven.
One particularly clear example of the author straw maning his religious opponents comes from “Tashlon”, the heretical concept that the (pseudo-Muslim) Calormene devil-god Tash and Aslan are the same being. Even as a small kid I was keenly aware Lewis was talking about the popular notion that we should be tolerant because all religions are basically the same at root. Lewis spends most of this book repeatedly underlying why this is false, his God is the only true God, and all others are just horrific demons who can only work evil.
The whole series as seen Lewis’s immense creativity, sharp writing, and ability to tell a great story balanced against his worst instincts. In this book, his cruelty, callousness, and bigotry finally overwhelm what had made this series so magical - perhaps a fitting thematic end to Narnia.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A