The end of Narnia is told in this, the seventh published and last chronological, tale in the Chronic-WHAT?!-cles of Narnia.
The Last Battle
Author: C.S. Lewis
Pages: 211
Format: Paperback
Published: September 4, 1956
Publisher: HarperCollins
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: June 26, 2024
My rating: 
Thoughts
Wow – I’m a couple months away from turning 42 and I have finally finished reading the Narnia series!
This, the final book of the series, really does end it all, doesn’t it? It’s not called The Last Battle for nothing!
It’s been a long time since Aslan has appeared to the residence of Narnia and the lands surrounding it. But now there’s an imposter afoot! Dun-dun-dunnnn…
That’s all well and good and things progress similarly to other stories in the Narnia-verse. But here’s where I’m going to get a little spoiler-y so I can talk about my thoughts on the part I found truly dark…
…
Ready?
…
So we get Peter, Edmund, and Lucy back! They’re older, but not Narnia older. Real world older. Susan isn’t there because she doesn’t believe in Narnia or Aslan anymore… see where this is going?
We also get characters from the other books returning as well! Yay!
But wait a minute… once people get older, they’re not supposed to be able to visit Narnia again. That’s because they’re not in Narnia. They’re in the “real” Narnia (read: Heaven). That’s right. They’re all dead! Somehow, several of the children whose adventures we’d read in the previous books all ended up together on a train that crashed and they all died. Well, all except Susan because she was too into nylons, lipstick and invitations. Basically, she didn’t believe in God Aslan anymore.
But wow what a dark story! I think I understand what Lewis was trying to do in this book. We’ve got creation, the Garden of Eden, and the Fall in The Magician’s Nephew. We’ve got the story of Jesus in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And now we get an end-of-days kind of story. Okay, makes sense. But I can’t imagine reading this as a kid! I understand that Christians are supposed to find hope and peace in going to Heaven. But as a kid I would be traumatized by this.
Ultimately, I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars. I didn’t like it as much as others in the series, but it’s still up there for me. It’s pretty dark, but I like that sort of thing. I’m just glad I waited until now to read it!
