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A review by isabellarobinson7
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
Rating: ? stars
I read The Last Battle for the first time yonks ago... don't remember when, but the first chapter with the ape and donkey was very familiar. I can remember thinking it was bad because it said "ass" and I showed my mum. I'm not going to even bother reviewing this book properly, I just have some points to bring up.
The first is that my decision to reread The Last Battle was 1000% based on the fact that Patrick Stewart narrated the audiobook. His narration was stellar by the way, but that is not the only reason why I bring it up. I mention the audio also because this was the blurb attached to the book:
On 9 December 2005, Andrew (Shrek) Adamson's live-action film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will be released by Disney, and it is already being hailed as the biggest film franchise of all time, guaranteed to appeal to adults and children across the globe. The second film is already in development.
I remember when the movies came out. They were even filming around where I lived in NZ. NO ONE was thinking like this. I get that you need optimism for upcoming projects, but the second half of this quote is wholly untrue, from my perspective at least.
Another thing I would like to mention is about the book itself. There is one positive thing I can say about The Last Battle, and that is that Jill had essentially the same amount of battle/action scenes as Eustace did. One thing that really annoyed me when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time was when Father Christmas was giving all the Pevensie children their gifts. He gave Peter a sword and shield, and to Lucy and Susan, a dagger and bow with arrows respectfully. (This all got younger me very excited because we were already half way through the book and there had been little action.) But then, right after handing the two girls literal weapons, he then says something like "but I don't mean you to fight". Well then what is she supposed to use the dagger for?! Buttering toast?!?! The Last Battle had more of an even field when it came to the treatment of gender in terms of combat, but then that is all overshadowed by this line:
So everything she did was right. She didn't do anything wrong. The only thing that was keeping her from being rewarded for her bravery was that she was a girl. Weren't there dames at this point? She can still be congratulated! She doesn't just get nothing just because of what's in her pants!!! This did grind my gears. Just a tad.
And there’s this whole distasteful thing with these people called the Calormenes, a Middle-eastern inspired race of people. Yes, I get that Lewis wrote this in a different time, so I'm not going to give him too much flack about it (I won't even quote anything) but there is even a part where the dwarves jeer at them, calling them “darkies”, and that does make me grimace a little.
So that's it. That's all I have to say. Why did they write this? I don't know. Did I need to write this? Probably not. Did I write it anyway? You bet.
I read The Last Battle for the first time yonks ago... don't remember when, but the first chapter with the ape and donkey was very familiar. I can remember thinking it was bad because it said "ass" and I showed my mum. I'm not going to even bother reviewing this book properly, I just have some points to bring up.
The first is that my decision to reread The Last Battle was 1000% based on the fact that Patrick Stewart narrated the audiobook. His narration was stellar by the way, but that is not the only reason why I bring it up. I mention the audio also because this was the blurb attached to the book:
On 9 December 2005, Andrew (Shrek) Adamson's live-action film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will be released by Disney, and it is already being hailed as the biggest film franchise of all time, guaranteed to appeal to adults and children across the globe. The second film is already in development.
I remember when the movies came out. They were even filming around where I lived in NZ. NO ONE was thinking like this. I get that you need optimism for upcoming projects, but the second half of this quote is wholly untrue, from my perspective at least.
Another thing I would like to mention is about the book itself. There is one positive thing I can say about The Last Battle, and that is that Jill had essentially the same amount of battle/action scenes as Eustace did. One thing that really annoyed me when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time was when Father Christmas was giving all the Pevensie children their gifts. He gave Peter a sword and shield, and to Lucy and Susan, a dagger and bow with arrows respectfully. (This all got younger me very excited because we were already half way through the book and there had been little action.) But then, right after handing the two girls literal weapons, he then says something like "but I don't mean you to fight". Well then what is she supposed to use the dagger for?! Buttering toast?!?! The Last Battle had more of an even field when it came to the treatment of gender in terms of combat, but then that is all overshadowed by this line:
“ '...if she was a boy she’d have to be knighted!' ”
So everything she did was right. She didn't do anything wrong. The only thing that was keeping her from being rewarded for her bravery was that she was a girl. Weren't there dames at this point? She can still be congratulated! She doesn't just get nothing just because of what's in her pants!!! This did grind my gears. Just a tad.
And there’s this whole distasteful thing with these people called the Calormenes, a Middle-eastern inspired race of people. Yes, I get that Lewis wrote this in a different time, so I'm not going to give him too much flack about it (I won't even quote anything) but there is even a part where the dwarves jeer at them, calling them “darkies”, and that does make me grimace a little.
So that's it. That's all I have to say. Why did they write this? I don't know. Did I need to write this? Probably not. Did I write it anyway? You bet.