หลังจากอ่านเล่มที่แล้วจบไป พอมาอ่านเล่มนี้รู้สึกดรอปลงไปนิด ตอนจบดูตลกขบขันราวกับนิทานอีสป ว๊อยซ์ในการเล่าเรื่องดูขลังน้อยลง แต่คงเป็นเพราะว่าโทนการผจญภัยในเรื่องที่เรียบเป็นเส้นตรง ไม่ได้น่าตื่นตาตื่นใจ อีพิคเหมือนกับเล่มที่แล้ว อ่านไปได้ครึ่งเล่มนี่ก็นั่งหลับสัปหงกโยกเยกไปได้เหมือนกัน หนังสือบางๆไม่ได้หนาอะไร แต่เราใช้เวลาอ่านทั้งวันเลย ปกติถ้าสนุกๆนี่สองชั่วโมงก็จบแล้ว คงเป็นเพราะบทสนทนาตอนกลางๆเรื่องมันยืดยาวเกินไปหน่อยนะเราว่า ถ้าเน้นความกระชับ คงจะดีกว่านี้ ยังไงฝีมือการเล่าเรื่องของลูอิสเป็นเอกลักษณ์ที่น้อยคนจะเลียนแบบได้เรารู้สึกไปเองหรือเปล่าว่าเล่มนี้มีการใช้คำโบราณเยอะพอสมควร บางคำนี่ unseen มาเลย พอถึงประโยคสนทนานี่ต้องรีบตั้งสติ เข้าใจว่าตัวละครเป็นมุสลิมโพกหัวนุ่งส่าหรี ฟังตัวละครตอบโต้กันบางทีก็หนักใจเบาๆนะ ... O enlightened Prince , O loquacious Vizier , O my resourceful son , O eternal Tisroc , O impeccable Tisroc จะ O โอ้ ! เยอะไปไหนละจ๊ะนายจ๋า อิชั้นแทบจะเปิดเพลงจีนี่จ๋าแล้วฮัลเลวองก้าตามแล้วนะ...สนุกนะ ... แต่สนุกแบบง่วงๆอ่ะ ไม่ค่อยบ้าพลังสมบุกสมบันอ่านให้จบเหมือนเล่มที่แล้ว อาจจะเป็นเพราะเปลี่ยนตัวเอกสี่พี่น้องหรือ ... ก็ไม่น่าใช่ ! เพราะเล่มแรกเป็นเด็กสองคน เรายังอ่านได้เลย ... หรืออาจจะเป็นเพราะตัวละครระแวดระวังกันอยู่ตลอดเวลา ไม่ไว้เนื้อเชื่อใจกัน ดูไม่มี unity ใกล้จะจบแล้วยังตัวใครตัวมันกันอยู่เลย อืม...คงเพราะสาเหตุนี้แหละที่ทำให้ไม่ว่าจะจับตรงไหน ตรงนั้นก็ดูห้วนๆไปหมด(นี่นั่งพิมพ์รีวิวไปตาก็ปรือๆไป หนังสือเล่มนี้เป็นยากล่อมประสาทชั้นดีเลยนะ 555)(view spoiler)[ชาสต้าเป็นเด็กชายที่หลบหนีออกจากบ้านพร้อมกับบรี...ม้าที่พูดได้ ชาสต้าต้องการเดินทางไปยังดินแดนแห่งนาร์เนีย ระหว่างทางเขาได้พบกับอราวิสและพาเธอเดินทางไปด้วยกัน ทั้งคู่เดินทางไปถึงเมืองๆหนึ่ง ชาสต้าได้พบกับราชันย์เอ็ดมันย์และราชินีซูซาน หลังจากนั้นอราวิสก็ได้ล่วงรู้ถึงแผนการณ์อันชั่วร้ายของเจ้าชายราบาดาชที่ต้องการพิชิตนาเนียและต้องการเอาชนะใจราชินีซูซานชาสต้าและอราวิสจึงควบม้ามาผ่านทะเลทรายเพื่อมาเตือนให้ราชาสามารถรับมือกับกองทัพของราบาดาชได้ทันท่วงที เมื่อพวกเขาใกล้ถึงนาร์เนีย ชาสต้าได้พบกับอัสลานและได้รับคำชี้แนะ เมื่อเขาเข้าสู่ศึกกับเอ็ดมันด์และลูซี่ นาร์เนียเป็นฝ่ายชนะ และชาสต้าก็ค้นพบความจริงว่าเขาเป็นพี่น้องฝาแฝดกับเจ้าชายแห่งอาร์เคนแลนด์ และชาสต้าก็ได้เป็นพระราชาองค์ต่อไป...ส่วนราบาดาชที่ไม่สำนึกในความผิดของตนถูกอัสลานสาปให้กลายเป็นลา และไม่สามารถที่จะย่างกรายออกจากเมืองของตัวเองไประรานใครได้อีกต่อไป (hide spoiler)]
Of all the Narnia books this one will ever be my favorite. The story takes place during the time of the Golden Age of Narnia, when the Pevensies were still reigning in full and incontestable power. Unfortunately, there is actually not much of them in this book either, but the few parts when they do appear are quite entertaining. To be honest, this is a little grudge I hold against these books: the little information I got about the events that happened during the reign of the Pevensies, in majority, was given by scattered conversations between some random characters here and there, through all the books. I wish Lewis had written at least one book about the Golden Age. Sadly, it’s not the case when it comes to The Horse and His Boy. This story is set in the countries to the south of Narnia, which provides a totally different scenario.Also, differently from the other Narnia books, it doesn’t begin with some kids randomly being kidnapped to the magical land; the main characters are already there. One of them is Shasta, a young boy who was found as a baby by a Calormene fishermen who adopts him. The second is Aravis, a young Calormene aristocrat. The Calormenes… the reason why some literary critics consider The Horse and His Boy the most racially prejudiced of C.S Lewis’ oeuvre; the reason for that lies on the portrayal of them as aggressive, bad and, sometimes, evil people, plus the fact that they come from a land with cultural and geographical features which resemble the Middle East. Granted that giving all those characteristics to the poor Calormenes is somewhat questionable, but I don’t see the point of such a fuss. There are portrayals of evil characters in each of the other installments: the narrow-minded Englishmen from The Magician’s Nephew; the Telmarines from Prince Caspian, which, as I see it, resemble people from the Iberian Peninsula; Jadis, the White Witch, who is clearly Caucasian. Moreover, not all the Calormenes introduced are bad. For instance: Aravis herself and other characters that end up helping her on her attempt to escape Tashbaan - the town that serves as a political and trade center for the Calormenes.Still, coming back to the actual review, by the works of destiny, Shasta and Aravis meet during their separate attempts of escaping their insufferable lives. Along with their talking Narnian horses, Bree and Hwin, both decide to join each other on their journey to escape Calormene territory. The horses suggest they could lead a way better life were they in Narnia, so getting there becomes their dream. From this point forward there is a lot of riding across forests, mountains and moors at midnight; hunting for food and small talks around campfires; sleepless nights on the unforgiving sands of the deserts. To this day I have really vivid memories of all that. I guess Lewis was just a genius when it came to writing scenes of characters interacting with the environment.Speaking of characters and their interactions, here is one more point that makes me love this story: more than any of the characters on this series, Shasta and Aravis are not plain black or white; they commit mistakes, some of them really bad; both of them have done things which they regret. Such complexity turned out to be good, mostly, for two reasons. First of all, it turns the whole experience of reading much more entertaining, since the characters are way more believable than a plain good guy or a predictable villain. Secondly, on this particular story, the fact of Shasta and Aravis having committed, sometimes unintentionally, acts unexpected from good guys, allowed Lewis to display the varied facets of Aslan’s personality – being that he, as everyone should know at this point, is Narnia’s version of God, it falls onto his shoulders to punish people who he finds deserving. It was a very different experience to see Aslam guiding Shasta and Aravis through their endeavor, directly and indirectly; punishing and comforting them at alternate times, until the time for them to acknowledge his existence comes.The final few chapters of The Horse and His Boy are just everything anyone could expect from a Narnia book: shocking twists and turns, great battles, timeless lessons on human nature. Overall, it is a super tight book, packed with adventure, constant displays of hopefulness and understanding of the motivations that drive humanity to keep living a normal life – for this is, for certain, the book on which Lewis less takes advantage of “the magic factor” to get his point across. Some cool new characters were introduced, including the new good royal family of Archenland. The action scenes are extremely well-executed, the chase scenes leave you breathless, the lessons are meaningful and powerful and the end left me with a deep feeling of longing for an opportunity gone which I never actually had: the opportunity to travel to those magical lands and meet all those awesome characters. Interesting quotes that I didn't include in the review: Do not dare not to dare. When things go wrong, you'll find they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and better. The Last Passage(view spoiler)[ Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I’m afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarreling and making up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently. And after King Lune’s death they made a good King and Queen of Archenland and Ram the Great, the most famous of all the kings of Archenland, was their son. Bree and Hwin lived happily to a great age in Narnia and both got married but not to one another. And there weren’t many months in which one or both of them didn’t come trotting over the pass to visit their friends at Anvard. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Horse And His Boy (1995)?
This used to be one of my favourite Narnia books, but it's definitely fallen in my favour now. Part of that is the painfully obvious exoticisation of Calormen (and through it, the countries it's obviously an analogue of). It's not completely black and white -- there's Aravis, who's "obviously" a good person because she wants to go to Narnia, and there's Lasaraleen, who does help Aravis (but is fussy, girly, and cowardly), there's the old slave who forges the letter for Aravis... but for the most part, we are to believe that all Calormenes are Bad People.I still have a great fondness for the book out of nostalgia, but this one's pretty egregious as regards racial issues.
—Nikki
One word: Orientalist.Sorry, I could not get past it - nor should I have to. This was a terrible book, full of so much imperialist racist anti-Arab/Indian tones that I could not appreciate any aspect of it. Quite frankly I couldn't believe that I was reading this garbage. I don't really care if the story is good - if it's offensive it's not good. And even then, I really didn't care for the story.The characters were completely new and it takes place during Susan/Edmund/Peter/Lucy's reign in Narnia. The end was beyond predictable. The journey was ok. The Hermit not explained. Far too much polarizing with the genders as well. Everything that I had given slack for in the previous novels was forgotten in this one. The writing, the "presently" scattered over every page. I could only look at this book critically.I couldn't get past the barbaric, turban-wearing, dark-skinned, slave-owning, women-stealing men depicted in this book. Thank you C.S.Lewis for combining the images of both Arabs & Indians into this book and demonizing them, creating yet ANOTHER conflicted representation of two completely different types of people. Of using incorrect representation and assumptions regarding these cultures to create an enemy for your Christian Land, Narnia. I had a problem with Aladdin, and I have a problem with this book. Both dictate a stereotypical image and portrayal of characters & values that are offensive. Perfect book to use for orientalism and imperialism embedded within Children's books (much like Alice in Wonderland). They set up Calormen (questionable meaning) completely opposite to Narnia, again pretty much drawing this nice and clean line between these coloured barbarians from the south and civilized free white folk.The sentiment is present in all the novels I've read so far but nothing as strong and overt as this. I couldn't believe it. Especially given the time period there was some forward thinking happening by then.I don't know what else to say. I would not recommend this to any one, in fact I would never want to ever read this book again. I probably will burn it when I get near an open fire.
—Jay
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis is one of the books in his series, the Chronicles of Narnia in which Christianity is portrayed through various fantasy creatures. God, for instance is portrayed as a talking Lion. What a wonderful series! What child hasn’t climbed into a closet and explored the back cracks in hope of finding an entrance to a new and exciting world after reading this book? I used to sit in a closet with the door closed and a flashlight reading my favorite books after reading this series, in hopes that someday a door would open and take me to another realm. Of course, the white witch is my favorite character. I’m always attracted to the bad ones. The Lion, Aslan, is a wonderful character as well, but I have to admit, knowing that he was an analogy for God, changed my view of the story a bit and left me a bit disappointed. He was a bit cheesy. Or maybe typical is a better word. Which is why I almost wish I wouldn’t have known the true meaning of the books until after I read them. In any case, the stories were great, the first one being the best. (You always lose a little of the naiveté of the children as they get older) But the movies did them justice as well. Reading them again as an adult, found me a little bored, but still enchanted overall with the series. The next movie is due out soon and I can only hope they will continue to make the movies which were incredible. I highly recommend this series and consider it a classic as well.Note: I've recently started these again with my 5 yr old and we are loving it. I get to see it again through a child's eyes. And this time I haven't told him anything about the analogy to Christianity, however I do point out certain lessons such as forgiveness. (When Aslan has his talk with Edmund) I want him to figure it out on his own. We had a popcorn movie night and watched the movie together curled up under a blanket a few days ago and as I sat there, I thought to myself, this is why I had children. To experience all my favorite things over again through a child's eyes. It was the best time. ClassicsDefined.com
—midnightfaerie
