The Last Of Everything

Finished The Last Battle, took me a while, but it is all finished now. I rarely read the this last book in the Chronicles of Narnia because it always makes me sad.  The whole tone of the book is pretty dark and depressing, and even the glorious ending cannot make up for the permanent loss of the character I always identified with the most.  This is not to say this is not a great book, a good ending to the best series ever written (in my most humble opinion), but it still makes me sad.

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert

Here's how the end of Narnia happens.  We start out our final story with an Ape named Shift and a donkey named Puzzle. Shift is a cunning, conniving, manipulative talking ape who has a tyrannical relationship with the slow and sweet Puzzle.  One day they find a lion skin, which Shift convinces Puzzle to wear as a coat.  Shift figures out that they can use this disguise to trick the rest of the Narnians into believing that Aslan is back and use this belief to get the things he wants.  Meanwhile King Tirian, the last of the Narnian King's (although he does not yet know this) is relaxing with his best friend, the unicorn Jewel when he brought news of the wholesale slaughter of the forests Dryads.  Tirian is furious and vows to make things right.  

He and Jewel leave to find out who dares to cut down the sacred tree's of the forest.  What they find is Calormen from the south using Talking Beast as labor to cut down the forest.  Tirian is told that this is all done on the order of Aslan who has returned to Narnia at last.  Tirian has a hard time believing that Aslan would ever order the harm of his own people and he decides to investigate further.  Tirian eventually comes to blows with a Calormen guard and kills him in a fight.  Tirian feeling that if the guard was only acting on Aslan's orders, he did not deserve to be killed, so the young king turns himself in to be judged by Aslan.  Jewel accompanies him and both are held captive.  As the night wears on Tirian hears and sees things that lead him to believe that the Aslan that is supposedly giving these insane orders is really a false Aslan.  King Tirian calls upon the true Aslan to send him aid as he had in dire times past.  Jill and Eustace, two children from our world who helped rescue the enchanted Prince Rilian.  The children free the king and make their escape to a tower that has been stocked and readied for just this purpose.  The children and the king arm themselves and  sneak back to rescue Jewel and attempt to find out about the false Aslan.  Jill manages to free Puzzle, who is still wearing the lion skin and being presented as Aslan against his will.  With this proof of fraud, the king hopes to win his people back to his side and free his country from the Calormens.  The group run into a bunch of dwarfs being held captive 

by a few Calormens and set about freeing them.  Instead of being grateful and joining back with the rightful king, the dwarfs declare themselves free of any king and decide to rule themselves.  The dwarf Poggin is the only one to remain loyal to the king.  The next day as they are headed back to show the Narnians the fake Aslan and hopefully raise an army.  On the way back they are intercepted by Farsight the Eagle who bears dire news.  The castle Cair Paravel has been taken by the Calormens and the Narnians all slaughtered.  Tirian feels a sense of dread and doom, feeling that Narnia is set to perish.  They arrive at the site of the Stable where Shift had been passing Puzzle off as Aslan, and hear them telling the group that the violent and bloody god of the Calormens Tash, and the great Lion Aslan are one and the same and are to be called Tashlan.  A battle ensues and the group is pushed into the stables, were the Calormens intend to burn them alive as an offering to Tash.  After a bloody battle in which many friends loose their lives, Trilian is finally pushed into the stable, but instead of a small dark stable, he finds himself in an open sunlight land in the company of seven other people.  The people turn out to be Digory Kirke, Polly Plumber, Peter, Edumund and Lucy Pevensie, and of course Jill and Eustace.  Susan is not present, because she no longer believes in Narnia, preferring instead to think it was all a game they played in their younger days.  In this land they meet Aslan and watch the destruction of Narnia and it's surrounding lands.  

At first everybody is sad and mourns the loss of their land, but soon realize that the land they are in, is actually a brighter, cleaner, happier version of Narnia.  Aslan leads them further into this new land and they start to meet friends and family who have died, or been dead for a very long time.  They eventually all meet at the garden the Digory plucked the apple from in The Magicians Nephew and Aslan explains that they were all killed in a train accident and they are essentially in Heaven.  Aslan also informs them that they can meet with their family their as this country connects all places in existence.  The book ends saying everybody lived happier then we could ever imagine, and that happiness will last forever.

Like I said earlier the tone of this whole book is pretty dark as far as the rest of the books are concerned.  Compared to a lot of other books it is still pretty tame, but it is not what you would expect after reading the other books.  Of all the books in the series I think this one probably has the most overt religious tone to it, but to me not so much that it detracts from the story.  I like how the author wraps everything up in one neat package, bringing together all the characters, places and stories into one grand finale.  I thought it was pretty brave of him to essentially kill everybody and everything, including his own world.  I know this review sounds a little stilted and choppy, but...well....I kinda hate this book. Not in a don't read it because it's badly written, or is objectionable, or anything like that.  I just hate the idea that it has to end.  I know the ending implies that Narnia lives on in Aslan's country, but it is still sad to think that if
Narnia ever did really exist it is gone now.  I think reading this last book (remember I was only like 6 years old) crushed any hope that my young self had of ever actually getting into Narnia (not that it stopped me from pushing the back of every coat closet I found).  The destruction of the world in the book, meant that no other children from our world would ever be able to go their.  I knew that it wasn't a real place, but especially being that young you always wanted to have the hope that maybe, just maybe places like that did exist. To have this world that I was in love with be destroyed was a bit soul crushing to my young self.  Every time I reread it (which isn't often) I still feel a bit of my 6 year old soul wither just a bit.  My other issue with it is Susan being unable maintain her belief in Narnia.  As the oldest girl in my family, I always identified with Susan and her bossy ways and it came as one more blow to me that she ended up not being able to hang on her belief.  I understand why the author put that scenario in, he was trying to make a point about belief in general, but it still sucks.  Ok enough with the depressive reviewing. As much as I personally hated the book (which isn't really true, I don't hate it, it just makes me sad), the reason is because I love this series so much and any reminder that it ever has to end is just not cool.  I will do a series summation soon 'cause this post has gotten completely out of control.  Happy reading everybody.

Have you ever read a book you hated because it was the end?  Have you ever had your soul crushed by a book?  Do I invest way to much of my emotional self into my reading for being a supposedly sane "adult"?