The Last Battle – Likes and Dislikes

[lostin1800]

Since I loved most of it (its my fav book) i'll just mention the few negatives:

1. I wish Jack would've given us more insight into their more grown(or mid teen) lives in England. And explained a bit more about Susan's new ways then just three words. Then again it does leave room for imagination so it isn't as big of an issue than the following for me. What would've been their ambitions and aspirations would be nice, to give more of a feel of the sad part of loss,then have the 'softening the blow' in that fine bittersweet ending.

2. I wish there were more interactions between them all, to see how they matured and get along with eachother e.g. Jill and the rest of the Pevensies and their relationships, did Polly ever marry, what was Jill's family situation? Was Lucy Jill's best friend? What of Edmund?.....

3. I wish the battle was done differently, because I honestly wasn't shaken , only when stuff happend to the world( if you get my meaning) was I saddened.

But yeah, just my opinions.....

[DOECOG]

Lady of the Green Kirtle wrote:
The one thing I didn't like about the book is that we are sort of left hanging as to what happened to Susan. I know the book says that she is no longer a friend of Narnia, but what happened to her when the others died? Was she in the train accident too? If so did she survive or not? If she wasn't in the train accident where was she? Personally I like to imagine that she was nowhere near that accident. Although it would be sad for her to have lost her whole family so tragically, at least then there would be some hope of her becoming a friend of Narnia once again and reuniting with them some day.

I don’t think Susan was in the train accident. The reason the other Friends of Narnia were all kill was they were meeting so Ed and Peter could give Jill and Eustace the rings (Polly, Digory, and Lucy wanted to stay with Eustace and Jill as long as possible). Susan no longer believed so she had no reason to go with them. I agree with you I never liked how Jack never resolved Susan’s story. Susan’s fate is probably the thing I liked least about LB and the entire CON for that matter. I think she will find her way back to Narnia one day.
Despite my problems with Susan’s fate, LB is one of my favorites. I like how the rest of it ends although it’s bitter-sweet. I believe the Friends of Narnia and the Narnians going to the Real Narnia ( and the Real England) is the best way it could end.

[220chrisTian]

I really liked The Last Battle. It's not my favorite book, I like LWW and VDT better, but I prefer it to HHB, MN, and PC.

What I liked: brief comedy [mostly scenes with Jill and Eustace]; everything that happens after Tirian sees the Narnian kings and queens; descriptions of Aslan; themes, characters, scenes and lines with biblical parallels [astounding to me sometimes].

What I didn't like: Shift's deception, the Talking animals not being able to see through the deception, the Dwarfs [enough said].

What confused me about Susan is that the Pevensie parents die but they never knew anything about Narnia. So where are they? They're not in the real Narnia but in the real England. I don't think Susan was on the train. So when she dies, if she continues in unbelief, will she go to the real Narnia or the real England?

And the ending! Coming home to the True Narnia and "the story that no one on Earth has ever read." It's beautiful. I don't think it would be as beautiful if we didn't have to go through the last battle fought by the last king and so on through the stable door. Without the darkness to compare the light to, the light becomes meaningless.

Agreed! It's my favorite part of the book! I liked Puzzle too, especially the parts where Jill said she had her arm around his neck [one of those excellent comic bits ], when she and Lucy hugged him, and when Aslan said something that made his ears perk up.

Also, this book seems really relevant to our time. Just as Shift, Rishda, and the gang spread the lie that Tash and Aslan are really the same person, people today often embrace and spread the same lie about Christ and other gods.

Agreed! God led me to read this book last week and when I did, I was shocked at the relevance to today, i.e. the mass deceptions and unbelief.

However, the Narnians also make me angry. They remember that Aslan is not a tame lion but forget all about the part of him that is good.

You make an excellent point here. If we forget either that God isn't tame or that He's good, what do we end up with? A distorted picture/portrait/view, what have you. We must have both qualities for reverent obedience.

[Narnian_Warrior]

I extremely dislike The Last Battle. I never liked the way it was written. The end seemed sort of odd ad a bit strange, and the battle and all was just really annoying. Not to mention the dwarves. They were so annoying.

[Mehinen]

The Last Battle is my favorite book, indeed, it would be in my top 5 list of all fiction books.

Someone commented how that book was from a Narnian's point of view. I really liked that, because we usually see Narnia from children's viewpoint and Tirian bought some level of seriousness into it. We have seen Narnia during it's creation, Golden Age and Caspian's rule, not to mention the hundred-year winter and Telmarines' reign. Then, in LB, we see all that come into an end; there is despair and lingering hope that all might turn into good with time. In other books, there has always been hope for better; now we know, as Tirian said, "Narnia is no more". (That, by the way, is one of the most impressive quotes in CoN, in my opinion; it always gives me shivers.)

Then, about half way through the book, as everything has gone worse and worse, it all changes. We see a sudden change from darkness to light when Tirian enters the stable. Then we see the destruction of Narnia, partly from a native Narnian's point of view! Somehow, I have always nearly loved that scene; the stars, the sun, the rising sea... Just beautiful and bitter-sweet and dramatic.

After that, everything gets better and better. The ending sentence is my absolute favorite in all fiction. And Susan's fate doesn't bother me at all; the ending wouldn't have been that great if absolutely everything had been well, and as she didn't die, she being missing from the crowd is no problem.

Dislikes? The scene where Tirian is bound to the tree and the Emeth scene (partly). I don't know why I don't like the former, but there were some strange parts in the latter.

[220chrisTian]

Mehinen: beautiful reading of LB. I loved reading it.

I didn't like Tirian being bound to the tree [the incident], and yet I did like his vision of the 7 Friends: its seriousness, their reactions, etc.

Emeth? I didn't mind the Emeth bit. I especially loved the Biblical allusions, like Emeth sitting under a tree next to a stream. Check out Psalm 1:3 and Jeremiah 17:8.