The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

Book Synopsis:

NARNIA... where dwarfs are loyal and tough and strong—or are they? ...where you must say goodbye... and where the adventure begins again.

The unicorn says that humans are brought to Narnia when Narnia is stirred and upset. And Narnia is in trouble now: A false Aslan roams the land. Narnia's only hope is that Eustace and Jill, old friends to Narnia, will be able to find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land. Their task is a difficult one because, as the Centaur says, "The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do." Who is the real Aslan and who is the imposter?

My Review:

4/5 stars. Out of all the books, this wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't my least favorite. There were a lot of weird and confusing elements I wish were explained, but it was also very action-packed and exciting. It had some of the same pacing issues as TLTWTW, though I think the pacing was a little better in this one. As for the allegory, some parts of it I loved, but other parts were iffy. There were also a few problematic racist aspects that didn't age well.

Right away, this book was much darker than the rest of the series. The beginning set the tone for the rest of the story when it had characters representing the antichrist. Speaking of, Shift was awful, and I felt so bad for Puzzle.

The aforementioned racist parts definitely lower the rating of this book a bit. There was the part that was basically blackface, where Tirian told the kids "Here's this stuff we can put on our faces to look as brown as the Calormenes, and then we can wipe it off and be our white selves again." I wasn't expecting that to be included. There were also multiple times that dwarves referred to the Calormenes as "darkies." Most of the other books had been fine, if a bit outdated, so I was surprised by these aspects.

I can see why the allegorical elements of The Last Battle are off-putting for many Christians. Some of it was questionable. My main concern was with Susan not wanting to return to Narnia. That makes it seem like Lewis believes you can lose your salvation, which I disagree with. The other detail people point out is when Aslan says, "everything you've done to Tash has been added to me." That doesn't exactly line up with Scripture, but I also don't think it's necessarily indicative of universalism. There were still the talking animals that lost their ability to speak and didn't go through the door, which kind of represents people who don't make it to heaven.

However, the allegory I loved the most was with the New Narnia, representing the idea of the new heaven and new earth. I liked the ending a lot. I'm a sucker for cameos, so it was great to see all the important characters from the previous books return. I also loved the very last line: All their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Content:

Language: a**

Sexual Content: None

Violence/Gore: Death, war, wounds

Drugs/Alcohol: Smoking tobacco