Catholic-ometer: 4.5 of 5
Enjoyability: 4 of 5
The last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, both published and in chronological order, is the Last Battle; the Narnia series answer to the End of the World, where everything finally comes to a head, and the story is finished at last. However, although no book in this series is really all that bad, I think that this book may be my second least favorite of the series.
I have three reasons for not liking this book as much as some of the others. The first is that in this book, there are still creatures in Narnia after the final judgment. I know they're ment to be symbolic of the fire and destruction of the physical world as we knew it, but this is one of those things that too many people have gotten wrong in the past. Everything gets judged at once. There's no evacuation before the end.
The second reason I have for not liking this book as much is that the Last Battle isn't won. I know, you're going to say "Isn't won? How much more could they possibly win?" Yes, the good guys won and the bad guys lost. That's true, but not during the final battle. All of that happened later.
This second complaint is more of a storytelling one than a theological one. We know, after all, that mortal man can't win the fight against evil on his own terms, no matter how hard he tries. Still, half of the point of pursuing Heaven is so that we can be purified, and be useful in some manner, when we're needed the most. God doesn't crush evil by himself. He gives that honor to two very special creatures, one of whom crushes the serpent's head, and the other casts him into perdition for eternity.
Creatures are involved in the final defeat of Satan; intimately involved. It's not our job to just get out of the way, nor to be content with the battles that we lose. The Last Battle isn't the one we fight while we're alive. It's the overwhelming thrashing that the saints give the devil from Heaven. I only wish that stage of the battle had been depicted; the humans, recently-defeated, joining the fallen armies of their comrades from all the ages for one last fight; a fight they can't possibly lose. From a storytelling perspective, it would have been pure gold to depict such a thing. The fact that the book could theologically support this in its allegories, yet deliberately chooses not to is, in my mind, a major point against it.
However, once again, I'm afraid that we must get back to the villains for the third point against the book. Most of the villains in the Narnia series just weren't all that threatening, and in my opinion, the only one who seemed threatening at any point in this book was Rishda Tarkaan. There were four major villains in this book; Shift, Ginger, Rishda and Tash, and only Rishda really struck me as a sufficient bad guy.
Shift was a petty, uncreative dictator with transparent motives and a somewhat empty head. Ginger was cunning, but not intimidating, because she never really established herself as anything more than a trickster working behind the scenes, and Tash only really appeared twice. Neither time was he around for very long, and the second time, he gets shooed off before he could do anything really terrible. Honestly, I thought the shed that Shift had kept the fake lion in was more threatening than Tash was.
Still, these shortcomings don't make this a bad book. Its end-of-the-world theology might be a little imperfectly-described, but its understanding of human nature, and of the final judgment are spot-on, and as petty and unthreatening as he is, Shift is a fine allegory for all those who try to squash different religions together in the name of their own greatness. All such people; anyone who claims that all religions are the same, except with different words and names, are simply wrong, and are following false faiths; or even trying to create them, because they want people to follow them as the messiah, the way that Shift does. Ultimately, they don't want to save or help anybody but themselves. They just want to distract people from the teachings that matter, so the public doesn't realize that their "messiahs" are just two-bit peddlers of their own, self-ruled, Earthly kingdoms, none of which will last beyond the current age. It's a sobering lesson for the rest of us.
Ginger is the type who thinks she can craftily manipulate people with her brilliant, secret knowledge about God and the supernatural not really existing, so she helps the false religions get their start, and doesn't fully realize how much evil she's done until she does the stupidest thing of all; walking right through the doors of Hell.
Rishda is the trusted military, or town government, or public service authority, who deploys his men against the faithful because he personally agrees with the regime that the other two have set up. He may even have closer ties to the higher-ups than they do, being only the ones who thought of it, after all. Shift (Lenin) may do the commanding, and Ginger (Marx) may do the thinking, but without men like Rishda, willing to carry a sword in their name, no one ever really gets hurt. The commander is ignored as the mindless psychopath he is, and the thinker is dismissed as just another nut with a goofy philosophy. What really gives these people in authority the power to kill is us. We do. We fight in their militaries. We enforce their phony, anti-religious "laws," and we acknowledge their decisions as acceptable, or at least tolerable in polite company. Rishda is the point where people fight for those who don't deserve it; where the worst harm is done.
As you can see, I appreciate the allegories found in the villains in this book, and there's a very good reason why Rishda was so much more threatening than the others. I just wish he'd gotten a bit more time in center stage during the story itself.
I was also very impressed by the types of people who wound up in Aslan's Kingdom at the end. Some follow Aslan, not even realizing it (Emeth,) while others turn away from him, despite the crowns that they once wore (Susan.) The reason for this is quite clear. Even a person who doesn't know God can still do their best to do the right thing, and even a person who knows him very well can still turn away from the faith. Just ask the Galatians.
In retrospect, the theological confusion I experienced near the beginning of this review probably wasn't that big a deal, but I still feel it's worth mentioning. I suppose the real reason why this book was my second least favorite in the series is that I found it so unsatisfying emotionally; particularly the ending. Then again, feelings don't really matter when you get right down to it, and mine certainly don't.
All in all, though, I really liked this book, and if you don't identify happiness with excitement as much as I do, you'll probably like it even more.
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