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    The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 7)
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    The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 7)
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    The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 7)
    Ebook194 pages2 hours

    The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 7)

    By C. S. Lewis and Pauline Baynes

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 5, 2009
    ISBN9780007325108
    Author

    C. S. Lewis

    Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and have been transformed into three major motion pictures. Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) fue uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo veinte y podría decirse que fue el escritor cristiano más influyente de su tiempo. Fue profesor particular de literatura inglesa y miembro de la junta de gobierno en la Universidad Oxford hasta 1954, cuando fue nombrado profesor de literatura medieval y renacentista en la Universidad Cambridge, cargo que desempeñó hasta que se jubiló. Sus contribuciones a la crítica literaria, literatura infantil, literatura fantástica y teología popular le trajeron fama y aclamación a nivel internacional. C. S. Lewis escribió más de treinta libros, lo cual le permitió alcanzar una enorme audiencia, y sus obras aún atraen a miles de nuevos lectores cada año. Sus más distinguidas y populares obras incluyen Las Crónicas de Narnia, Los Cuatro Amores, Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino y Mero Cristianismo.

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    Reviews for The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 7)

    4/5

    3,342 ratings101 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great! Wrapped the entire story.
    • 5/5
      I reread the Narnia series every year, and this last story in the series completes the annual 'fix'.
    • 1/5
      This book makes me uneasy, quite frankly.

      Look, I'll give Lewis props for a rather unexpected ending to the series. It's bold, mature and the exact opposite (in some ways) of the "everyone lives" philosophy of Russell T Davies or JK Rowling. Completely destabilising Narnia is something that feels visceral to anyone who fell in love with the books as a child. And I did enjoy, somewhat, the comic allegory of the faux Aslan.

      But... pardon the pun, Jesus Christ this is skeevy. For the most part, the series as Christian allegory could be wilfully ignored if you wanted to just enjoy the texture of the books and their creation of a world. Not so much here, quite frankly. Even aside from Lewis' infamous "screw you" to Susan for, you know, being interested in sex and make-up, the book is rather blatant in what it wants to push on to children.

      As I mentioned in my "Silver Chair" review, I'm not inherently against this. After all, it worked for such luminaries as Dante and Evelyn Waugh. But there's a clear difference here, I feel, and - while I can still appreciate the allegory even from my anti-religious bias - this simply doesn't feel like a fitting end to the Narnia series. Instead, it feels like an overly aggressive Sunday School teacher who's tired of just sitting around and telling kind stories. I completely understand Lewis' passion, from his point of view, to try and show the true terror of losing his world to a more secular one. It's just a pity that rather than simply writing essays about the perceived problem, he had to incorporate it so thoroughly into the final book of a much beloved children's series.

      In spite of my beliefs, and the fact that Philip Pullman and his ilk have eradicated our generation's need for Narnia, I still treasure these books from my childhood, and always will. It's just a pity, that's all it is.
    • 4/5
      I officially finished The Chronicles of Narnia! This series is definitely very interesting. On the surface it is a kids series about a place called Narnia, with a bunch of fun adventures. On a deeper level it is completely and utterly about Christian theology. The creation of Narnia, the belief in and ability of Aslan, the good and evil in the land and people, the place beyond Narnia, etc. This is Revelations retold as children's stories. I remember not liking The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe movie when it first came out because of it's obvious religious undertones throughout the whole story, but ~20 years later I am able to look at it and appreciate it for what it is and it didn't bother me as much. I am so glad I finally read this series.
    • 5/5
      I cried at the end. Oh god I love this series!
    • 5/5
      The Chronicles of Narnia really define my childhood in so many ways. I remember being read to at night before bed as my parents made their way through each of these books and my imagination went running rampant. I absolutely adored each one of these stories, the children and their tumbles into Narnia, the lessons that they learned from Aslan and his people, and the greater implications it had on me as a reader and human being. I adore British literature, and especially children's British literature from the master, C.S. Lewis!
    • 5/5
      A crafty Ape named Shift finds a lion skin and, using it to cover a donkey named Puzzle, tricks him into masquerading as Aslan and the Talking Beasts of Narnia into following his whims, even going up against King Tirian.I'll be honest here... this book is probably one of the ones that had the most impact on my decision to be an English major. When I was 8-9 years old, I most often named it my favorite book. Okay so the plot is razor thin and choppy, and reading it as an adult I was a little disappointed at times that things didn't quite match my recollection. But as a kid...oh, as a kid I was so proud to have figured out some of the parallels between this book and prophecy in the Bible. Reading "between the lines" was new to me, and the ability to match one thing with another and see Lewis's interpretations of end times and heaven and the rest just fascinated me. I still love the last few chapters and the very last line especially gets me every time.
    • 5/5
      This is the last Chronicle of Narnia for which C. S. Lewis won the Carnegie Medal as the best book published for children in 1956. The battle is between King Tirian and the forces of evil, as represented by Shift the Ape and his poor dupe, Puzzle the donkey. Shift dresses Puzzle up as the great Aslan himself, corrupting the animals, slaughtering the talking trees and destroying the harmony of the kingdom. The children from the previous books return to Narnia to help and many other characters from previous stories make appearances as well. C. S. Lewis wrote no more fiction after this book, a great pity.
    • 2/5
      This is the worst of all the Narnia books. While I have a strong personal dislike for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and rated it two stars as well, I can at least see why others like it. I just found it mind-numbingly boring. This, on the other hand, is hard to like and, more importantly, hard to defend.

      It starts out strong, with an ape tricking his donkey friend into wearing a lion pelt that washed into a pond they frequent so that he can pretend to be Aslan and get people to do stuff for him. It's obviously analogous to the Antichrist but I'm fine with that. It's a fascinating part of the Christian myth and makes for good drama and tension.

      The second half is where everything falls apart. The Antichrist signals the end times, and as you can imagine that's exactly what happens. Unfortunately it happens rather slowly, and boringly. After much ado about nothing Aslan shows up, kills Narnia, ushers everyone through a magical door into the 'real' Narnia (Heaven) and they live happily ever after, theoretically. Except all the kids actually died in a horrible train accident back in our world and Susan gets to stay behind in the world where her friends are dead because fuck her, am I right?

      It's not so much the heavy-handed Christian apologist on the other end of these words that I have a problem with. After all, that's been there from the start and I've been pretty okay with it. It's more that this is the first time I've truly felt that Lewis let his faith worsen his storytelling instead of mining the Christian myth for all it's worth. The descriptions of 'Heaven' go on forever and are uninspired, which grinds the pace to a halt. All conflict disappears in the build up to the end times because you know what's going to happen so early, and that none of these struggles in the moment will really mean anything by the end.

      Oh, and did I mention that it's got some pretty obvious racist undertones? And that it says Susan is denied Heaven primarily because she's off having sex, basically, and that's wrong and stuff? Like I said, it's pretty hard to defend. Still, I give it two stars instead of one because the book started off simply in the style of a parable with a donkey pretending to be Aslan because of his mean ape friend, and as that it was enjoyable for a short time. Also because it's the end of the series and it brings back all your favorite characters in the end, which does feel a little nostalgic and heart-warming. I may have only gotten around to reading all the books in the last couple of years, but Narnia has technically been a part of my life since I first read Magician's Nephew, Wardrobe, and Silver Chair back in middle school. Even with all the Christian propaganda, it's bittersweet to see it go.
    • 5/5
      I really liked how The Chronicles of Narnia was rounded off. It was nice to see everyone back together again, where they belonged. The overall moral story of this series is really unique and different to a lot of kids books. The real meaning of what Narnia was and who Aslan was, was really touching and well written.
    • 5/5
      When I was a kid, I thought the story was just the last of the adventures in Narnia, however, when I reread it recently gave me goosebumps, Lewis actually showed us hidden meaning to each characters, places and events. Narnia is more than just an adventure.
    • 4/5
      I'm surprised how little I remember this story. The only part I remembered was the end.

      A good conclusion to the Narnia novels.

    • 2/5
      Narnia 7.The end, at last. Fine children's books, but hardly as durable as Lord of the Rings?Read in Samoa Dec 2002
    • 2/5
      I know people who have read and enjoyed the Narnia books without even really noticing the Christian theological subtext. Lewis made that hard to do with this one. It was impossible for me to avoid noticing his thinly disguised commentary on those who would conflate Jesus...er, Aslan with other, well, gods. And Lewis runs into the same problem as Dante did in Paradisio; it's much harder to describe heaven than hell (or at least hellish problems). Lewis does a lot of "the taste, sight, sound was indescribable if you've never experienced it..." Well, um, thanks. But that's why I'm reading the book. And I admit to a deep disagreement with Lewis' theology (though I respect his work and his creativity); he professes the "one way" of Christianity that led me to embrace the non-creedal religious community of Unitarian Universalism.
    • 5/5
      Another classic tale from C.S. Lewis. Listened to the audio book on a road trip with my family - it made the time (and miles) fly. This is the final book of the Chronicles of Narnia.
    • 5/5
      Last of the seven 'Narnia' chronicles. This is an exciting adventure with a fairly overt underlying message about the Christian doctrine of the End Times. Manipulative Shift the ape persuades the gentle donkey Puzzle to dress up and pretend to be someone else... disaster follows until two children from our world go to join King Tirian. Lovely ending.
    • 5/5
      This book would be good to use when talking about the end of the world. I think students will like this because it is an integrating view of how the world might end.
    • 3/5
      I never think I like the Last Battle until I read it. Still, with no new children to get to know and the average bland Narnian king, it's not the best in the series. The end is a little ghoulish at times (Haven't you guessed, children...).
    • 4/5
      The Last Battle was when the Christian undertones began to dawn on me, but even the religious and racist subtext couldn't ruin this book for me. If I didn't have so many problems with it, this would be my favorite Narnia book--as it is, it remains the one I am troubled by and yet return to, again and again.
    • 5/5
      As a kid, this was my favorite Narnia book. I don't think it's that anymore, especially since the whole "Problem of Susan" has become much more multi-faceted in my mind, but it's still a good story. The tone is darker than the previous books, and I don't enjoy the PLOT is much, but I get what C.S. Lewis was doing, and as far as diving in to the philosophy and theology behind his works, I think this book comes second only to Voyage of the Dawn Treader in fascinating spiritual themes.
    • 2/5
      My daughter (age 9) said that this was a good ending to the series. My son (nearly 5) was just excited that he had listened to a seven-book series. They're playing Narnia-inspired games together now. I hear them calling out, "Those who are my children, come hither!" from the playroom.

      I wasn't so thrilled with the book myself. It was fine, but the religious stuff was a little too obvious and the racist bits were a little more squirm-inducing. I found it disappointing after The Silver Chair.
    • 2/5
      this is the only book of the series that i really honestly dont like.
      I hated the donkey & the lion thing
      HATED IT
      I think I just dont like humilation and stupidity and I dont like it when bad things happen.
      Im not making any sense lol.. but I just avoid this book
      The ending is ok. But not ideal

      Read it if you like. But I dont encourage you to
    • 1/5
      Up until the last three chapters, I enjoyed the book. Save for the rather poorly written and equally poorly veiled retelling of Revelations in the last three chapters, The Last Battle is a parable about the dangers of blindly following. It starts with a monkey's deception and coercian of a donkey. From there it leads to the corruption and invasion of Narnia and the dethroning of the last monarch. At the last battle (actually the only battle in the book) C.S. Lewis stops telling a story and just starts preaching. It would have been a more powerful book if the characters had just been allowed to be defeated. Instead the entire world is destroyed and all the characters killed just so they can all be "happily" reunited in the last chapter with characters from previous chapters. LAME ENDING to an otherwise well written book.
    • 2/5
      The adventure/battle stuff is nice enough, although "The Last Skirmish" would be a more appropriate title. The allegorical aspect is not so great; the pretense of this being fantasy gets thinner and thinner as the book becomes purely religious in the end.
    • 3/5
      The Book of Revelation, for children, by C.S. Lewis. I'm a Narnia fan, they are wonderful introductions to the interior life. Even adults will like the series, and if reading them in order, this is the sad ending of the world. But readable.It was written in 1956.
    • 4/5
      Suddenly the King leaned hard on his friend's neck and bowed his head.

      "Jewel," he said, "what lies before us? Horrible thoughts arise in my heart. If we had died before today we should have been happy."

      "Yes," said Jewel. "We have lived too long. The worst thing in the world has come upon us." They stood like that for a minute or two and then went on.
    • 5/5
      I had forgotten how well written the last of the Narnia series is. Lewis is more open about the Christian basis of the series in this than in any other, I believe, but weaves it into a compelling story. There are so many elements at play, and all are done so skillfully, that it is difficult to single any one out. New well developed characters meet those from the prior stories and it is a very satisfying conclusion for all (with one exception). It is nice to finish on such a high point.
    • 4/5
      Oddly, this was always one of my favorite books in the series as a child. When rereading as an (agnostic) adult, it lost much of its appeal.
      C.S. Lewis continues his allegory of Christianity to the next logical step: the end of the world. The main characters here are actually some of the creatures of Narnia rather than the children, and Puzzle, the donkey, was always one of my favorites. Even as a child, I found Lewis's picture of heaven to be...well...boring. But he certainly captures beauty and longing that are so much a part of the true believer's faith.
    • 5/5
      My favorite book ever! This book is perfect
    • 4/5
      The final chapter in the Chronicles of Narnia saga, Eustace and Jill must solve the problem of the false Aslan roaming Narnia and acting unlike the Aslan that they know.