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lgrunwald 's review for:
The Last Battle
by C.S. Lewis
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
1/5
I am stunned. I'm absolutely and completely taken aback at how this is, probably, the worst ending to a series I've read to the current date of me writing this. Wow. Listen, I don't normally listen to others when they start screaming things like "This book is racist and sexist." But...the criticism was extremely correct this time. To the point where even I couldn't justify it in any fashion. This book is deeply, deeply, deeply racist and sexist. It's also flat out insulting to everyone who doesn't subscribe to C.S Lewis and his Christian religious fanaticism. Im also stunned that a children's novel can be so deeply disturbing and violent. What on earth was Lewis thinking? No parent on planet earth would read this to their young children no matter if they bought into his religious bulls*** or not. The prose was bad, the speed of the plot was neck breakingly fast and confusing and just didn't fit well into the rest of the Narnia series. After just coming out of reading "The Magicians Nephew" and what a wonderful experience that was I'm absolutely appalled at the idea that this was written by the same person.
Lewis is completely unjustified at this characterization of anyone who isn't this pure, white, Christian ideal. I mean, for crying out loud he kept calling the Calormen "darkies" and how, after the characters doing the equivalent of black face, felt like "real men" again when they got back to their white appearances. Esh. Yuck. Gross on every level. I don't know this for a fact but I have a feeling that Lewis possibly based his Calormen off of Arabs just from the descriptions of some stereotype culture clothing and if that's what he thinks about Arabs it makes me wonder what he would think about me as a Jew. A gross thought to think about. Also the fact he seems to think all cultures and religions that aren't his pure, white, english ideal is backwards and evil is just laughable. Seems Lewis forgot about the Christian love of discriminating against atheist (poor Susan by the way), LGBT people, Jews, Muslims, or women. If you are going to point a finger Lewis maybe look at the ones pointing back at you first.
I am not a Christian but Christians deserve much better representation than this and thankfully they have it! Maybe Lewis should have taken advice from from his friend Tolkien about good Christian representation or even someone like Dante Alighieri. Even Lewis himself did well in his books such as the before mentioned "The Magicians Nephew", "The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" and "The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader". All fantastic in their own right. To fall flat at the ending was just embarassing and falling how hard this story did is even worse. Makes Lewis look like a real prick if I'm being honest. But what do I know? I'm just a Jew with a much different ideal than Lewis's idea of what he claims Christianity says. I absolutely hated this book and everything about it. If I ever reread this series I'll just not read this last one.
I am stunned. I'm absolutely and completely taken aback at how this is, probably, the worst ending to a series I've read to the current date of me writing this. Wow. Listen, I don't normally listen to others when they start screaming things like "This book is racist and sexist." But...the criticism was extremely correct this time. To the point where even I couldn't justify it in any fashion. This book is deeply, deeply, deeply racist and sexist. It's also flat out insulting to everyone who doesn't subscribe to C.S Lewis and his Christian religious fanaticism. Im also stunned that a children's novel can be so deeply disturbing and violent. What on earth was Lewis thinking? No parent on planet earth would read this to their young children no matter if they bought into his religious bulls*** or not. The prose was bad, the speed of the plot was neck breakingly fast and confusing and just didn't fit well into the rest of the Narnia series. After just coming out of reading "The Magicians Nephew" and what a wonderful experience that was I'm absolutely appalled at the idea that this was written by the same person.
Lewis is completely unjustified at this characterization of anyone who isn't this pure, white, Christian ideal. I mean, for crying out loud he kept calling the Calormen "darkies" and how, after the characters doing the equivalent of black face, felt like "real men" again when they got back to their white appearances. Esh. Yuck. Gross on every level. I don't know this for a fact but I have a feeling that Lewis possibly based his Calormen off of Arabs just from the descriptions of some stereotype culture clothing and if that's what he thinks about Arabs it makes me wonder what he would think about me as a Jew. A gross thought to think about. Also the fact he seems to think all cultures and religions that aren't his pure, white, english ideal is backwards and evil is just laughable. Seems Lewis forgot about the Christian love of discriminating against atheist (poor Susan by the way), LGBT people, Jews, Muslims, or women. If you are going to point a finger Lewis maybe look at the ones pointing back at you first.
I am not a Christian but Christians deserve much better representation than this and thankfully they have it! Maybe Lewis should have taken advice from from his friend Tolkien about good Christian representation or even someone like Dante Alighieri. Even Lewis himself did well in his books such as the before mentioned "The Magicians Nephew", "The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" and "The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader". All fantastic in their own right. To fall flat at the ending was just embarassing and falling how hard this story did is even worse. Makes Lewis look like a real prick if I'm being honest. But what do I know? I'm just a Jew with a much different ideal than Lewis's idea of what he claims Christianity says. I absolutely hated this book and everything about it. If I ever reread this series I'll just not read this last one.