The Last Battle
by C. S. Lewis
When I was a kid reading through The Chronicles of Narnia once every year, The Last Battle was usually my least favorite (my favorite changed every year). Reading the series as an adult (more than once) changed that forever. The final book in the series has become my favorite, and it will probably remain so. Of all of the books, it is probably the most fleshed out, and offers the most meat to chew on.
In this book, we'll see all of the kids who have traveled to Narnia over the years, except one. But for most of the duration of the story, we accompany Eustace and Jill once again, as they fight desperately to save Narnia, just as the children from our world do in most of the other books in series.
But, for this time, it is not to be. This is the last battle, the end of Narnia.
In The Last Battle, it is an ugly picture of what the end of the world can be. But it is followed by a beautiful new version, a renewal that invites us to an even deeper understanding and appreciation of the things we've loved in the old, now destroyed, Narnia. It is a fuller, richer world. And it draws us right into its very center.
There could probably not be a more fitting end to The Chronicles of Narnia than what we have in The Last Battle. Of all books that come in a rather lengthy series like this one (lengthy in the number of books, though each is very easy to read, and can be finished in a day or two), there are very few that provide such a satisfying conclusion as The Last Battledoes for The Chronicles of Narnia.
Reviewed by Shelly Bryant © 2010