The Last Battle

Well, I finally did it. I finished the Chronicles of Narnia. I was a little sad to finish off the seven books, part of me wanted the adventures to go on and on (much like the adventuring children in the novels)... I wanted to explore the furthest reaches of the land, witness the histories of Narnia, Archenland, Calormen, Telmar, the Lone Islands and Bism as they were played out, meet more interesting races and characters. I could've journeyed on and on through this world C. S. Lewis created.

In The Last Battle our story starts in Narnia. For once we do not enter into the world alongside the Pevensie children or Eustace and Jill... instead we see the beginnings of some events within Narnia via the viewpoints of the native characters that are directly involved. This lends a kind of foreboding and ominous air to the proceedings... it just doesn't feel quite right.

Shift is a rather clever and devious ape. Puzzle, a donkey, is his somewhat dimmer friend. Shift is always taking advantage of Puzzle's dimness and a chance discovery of a lion's pelt sets in motion a series of events that will see Narnia finally perish altogether. Shift convinces Puzzle to dress in the lion pelt, and using the disguised donkey he presents his fellow Narnians with a false Aslan, making them his slaves. From here he enters into alliance with the swarthy and evil Calormenes (see The Horse and His Boy for more on them) and this becomes the beginning of the end.

King Tirian, descended from King Caspian, is furious with this blasphemous usurping and, failing to stop it on his own, he manages to call Eustace and Jill back to Narnia to lend him a hand. But from here, things only seem to get worse, especially when Tash - the satanic vulture-headed Calormene god - shows up to wreak havoc.

Lewis pulls out all the stops for his last tale of Narnia. The Last Battle starts right in the thick of the action, and Lewis continues his exploration of Christian themes and values - continuing to cover new ground within this framework. Here we learn of the dangers of false prophets, and the woes of blasphemy and new age thinking (Lewis warns against the 'all Gods are one' mentality). Being the last book in the Chronicles, Lewis doesn't miss any chances to make his messages clear... amongst the themes covered or alluded to are the danger of the Church misusing symbols for power (shown by the disallusionment of the Dwarfs), the dangers of a Godless world (greed will run unchecked) and the tragedy of the unbelieving (shown through the fate of the aforementioned Dwarfs). Not since The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe has Lewis been so heavy-handed in his Christian preaching, but the apocalyptic elements of The Last Battle seem to excuse it to some degree. It's almost like a payoff.

So, how does the series weigh up at the end of it all? I really liked The Last Battle, it managed to break new ground in the Narnia story (whereas the previous book, The Silver Chair, is a little bit more formulaic - if such a thing could be said for the Chronicles), and the revelations at the end were suitably dramatic and unexpected. Even if you're not really into Christianity (I'm personally not much of a fan), you should still find a lot to enjoy in these books. Adventure ahoy!