About this title: During the reign of Peter the High King, a boy named Shasta discovers that the man he thought was his father is, in fact, not. Distraught by this news, Shasta runs away to Narnia but on his journey he is mistaken for another runaway.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
"It's pretty sad that the books I read for my daughter have been better written and more interesting than the books I read for myself lately.
C.S. Lewis is awesome as usual. Plot moves smoothly without any long boring parts. It's nice to see Edmund play a role of protector rather than traitor. Lucy is a great warrior queen. Susan is wise as ever. It was also nice to see the family reunion at the end.
The way the Calormenes talk is just funny. "Oh my father.." Rabadash is an ass..literally.
And a quote: (This is going fast because this review is a month or so late.)
Aravis immediately began, sitting quite still and using a rather different tone and style from her usual one. For in Calormen, story-telling (whether the stories are true or made up) is a thing you're taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays."
"I first found this book in the library at my school when I was twelve or so, and started reading it - however, I put the book back after about six chapters because I was bored. Remembering this, it was with some trepidation that I picked up The Horse and His Boy for a second try.
Okay, it's not that bad. Yes, the whole story has an unpleasantly racist aftertaste (Lewis doesn't go quite so far as to call the Calormens filthy dark Muslims, but the implication is clear), but it was a nice story. I liked the characters, mostly because they actually had flaws and were a nice break from the aren't-we-perfect Pevensie kids. Naturally they make an appearance later on, but they stay mostly on the sidelines.
I really didn't think this one was going to have Aslan in it, though. In fact, I almost wish he hadn't been part of the story; it seemed like Lewis was working really hard to put his characters into situations where divine help was actually needed. It seemed to me like everyone in the story probably could have managed by themselves."
"These books are meant to be Christian literature, but they only resemble Biblical stories in very superficial ways. In order to get from Biblical stories to the Chronicles of Narnia, you have to remove all the horrible details, like God commanding 'every living thing that breathes' to be killed in Jericho, and you have to add a good deal of charisma and nobility. For instance, you wouldn't see Prince Caspian whoring his wife out. That's just not something he would do. However, that is exactly what Abraham did to Sara, when they had to cross Egypt (he knew the pharoah would want his wife, and yet chose to go anyway. Telling Sara to lie about their marital status doesn't make Abraham a hero--it makes him a pimp). If Prince Caspian was given such a choice, he would have fought the pharoah and won, he would have gone through some horrible trials as he went around Egypt, or he wouldn't have gone at all, and the God that had commanded him to go would have learned a lesson.
As books go, they're fast reads and cute, but they don't belong in Christian literature."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
