The Horse and His Boy by C.S. LewisMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I liked this book better than its predecessor, largely because it felt like more of a proper story than, "A girl goes through a wardrobe to a magical land, and here, have some Christian allegory. And how about a bit more Christian allegory, with a side of Christian allegory, topped with Christian allegory?" Aslan is still Jesus, obviously, but he only shows up toward the end of the book, so you don't get overwhelmed by the religious message.
The rest of the book is a fun, fast-paced little adventure with interesting characters to meet and places to see. It sometimes requires a suspension of disbelief, and also suffers throughout from POV issues (I usually loathe third person omniscient, which reads like exactly what it is: a spastic writer with the neurotic compulsion to tell the story from every single character's perspective), but since this is a children's book, rather than something really intended for the more discerning adult, I'm willing to overlook that. Mostly.
Kobra Kid, signing off.
[You can't stop the signal.]
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I love this whole series and have since I was ittle!
ReplyDeleteI've been working my way through this series this year, and just read this one last month. It's been interesting picking up the books I missed when younger (like this one) and rereading others in the series. Overall I've liked them, but did prefer "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" to this one. And, being the "heathen" that I am, I miss out on most of the Christian allegory.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, Heather, because I'm the complete opposite; I far preferred this one to LW&W. My favorite overall, though, was the one with Puddleglum (the title of it is escaping me just now).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you can enjoy the series without being overwhelmed by the all the Christian symbolism and allegory. I wasn't so fortunate. Although I'm not sure whether I was hyperaware of it because I'm overly analytical by nature, or because I'm a dirty infidel. ;)