Archives: "The Horse & His Boy"

Howdy duty to whoever actually reads this.

I'm am keeping a steady pace on "The Chronicles of Narnia," by finishing Arabian Nigh- I mean "The Horse and His Boy," within two days.

I actually wrapped it up earlier, but work has kept me too busy to post until now. It's just like work to keep you from doing the things you love, eh? This is the part where I give the disclaimer that I love what I do at WPSD. But I really do.

See? I'm a happy little worker!

Anyways, I would argue that this is my favorite so far. While the main part of the story, running away, is simple; the details, characters, and other plots are fascinating! Plus the children and the horses' dream of freedom was beautiful and so real. I feel the consequences, dangers, and stress took on in the name of freedom made their dream more of a reality. It's one thing for a fantasy to come true all on it's own. It's another to make that dream work, even if it is not easy.

Even though Shasta follows the "pauper runs away and finds out he is a prince," word for word, I enjoyed his character and his development. I was impressed by his morals that were set since the beginning (like not to steal) and loved how Aslan was "with" him since the beginning. Speaking of, I still see Aslan as a God/Jesus figure, but oh well. 

Beyond Aslan's small, yet huge role, I'm surprised to note that I didn't feel any other religious undertones to this book. Not to say there is not, but it didn't feel forced like the first two books. There is arguably a trace of politics, but when is there not? Especially if an Arabesque country is fighting with an English society. It's odd to look back and see that the divisions between Western and Middle Eastern culture have lasted so long to make pop culture in the 1950's (though obviously that is not the earliest). But enough about Islam extremists war against every other religion/culture.

Aravis proved to be a strong and smart heroine. I did like that Aslan made sure she did literally feel the consequences of running away. And it's impressive that a girl written in the 50's could be more than frills.

The Tisroc (I will not add any sort of blessing) and his son Rabadash were good villains, even though we did not meet them until 3/4 through the book and they lasted a short time. The nerd in me was hoping Rabadash was going to be turned into Rapadash, but that would make him too grand.

And as a horse geek, I cannot forget to mention the horses! Bree and Hwin were great- and I liked how Bree learned the biggest lesson of them all, not the children. And if horses could talk, I believe it would be similar to Bree & Hwin's language. 

All in all, great read. But I'm finding it hard to get the motivation to read onto "Prince Caspian." I'm sure I'll push on though.