Book Review

I finished the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia yesterday. I continue to be extremely pleased with the books. They're really nice fantasy and yet, they also contain teaching about Jesus Christ. The third book is titled The Horse and His Boy. It is about a boy named Shasta who helps his poor fisherman father Arsheesh. It tells of his adventures when he meets a horse from Narnia who was horseknapped and sold in Calormen. The horse (Bree) talks and tells Shasta that a local lord plans to buy him. In order to avoid being sold by his father, he and the horse run away with the hope of reaching Narnia. Along the way, Shasta meets a young female runaway named Aravis who has left home because she is determined she won't marry a 60-year old man who becomes the Grand Vizier. She too has a talking horse that likewise had been horseknapped and sold in the empire of Calormen (a very Arabesque type empire). The party of four suffer various misadventures in the capital of Calormen. Shasta will discover and make friends of a prince of Archenland who happens to look just like him. Aravis will discover a plot that threatens Archenland and possibly Narnia. Later, the four get back together and do their best to foil the plot against Archenland. In the process, Shasta discovers that his true father is the King of Archenland. He helps foil the threat against Archenland through the help of Aslan. It is the meeting between Aslan that another allegory is drawn with Christ. Shasta moans about all his misfortune and Aslan shows that he wasn't misfortunate at all. Aslan shows that he repeatedly came to Shasta's aid when he was in grave peril. The allegory is about when Christ repeatedly comes to our aid during our darkest hours. I remember reading about a story of meeting between a man and Christ. The man looks along a beach and sees the walk of his life. At times, he sees two sets of foot prints and other times one. He notices that at the worst times in his life, there was only one set of foot prints. He remarks to Christ that Christ seemed to only be with him during the good times. Christ remarks that he was indeed with him during the good times BUT the reason there is only one set of foot prints during the man's hard times is because it was Christ who walked and carried the man. The story with Shasta is the same. It is a very touching story. Another interesting aspect of this book is that it is during the reigns of the Pevensy children after they defeated the Witch in the second book. We get to see Queen's Susan and Lucy and King Edmund. King Peter is mentioned in the story but plays no real part in the plot as he is off fighting evil giants in the north of Narnia.

The book is an easy read. It has only 241 pages. The storyline moves along well and never drags. Overall, the book is excellent. It should delight readers of all ages. I look forward to reading Prince Caspian which is the next book in the Chronicles of Narnia series.