“The dream is ended: this is the morning.” #Narniathon #TheLastBattle

Well, I can hardly believe it, but I’ve stuck to the schedule for Chris’s Narniathon and have made it to the final book in the series – “The Last Battle”, first published in 1956. Alas, as I’ve mentioned before, this is not my original copy from my childhood as that’s currently AWOL (though hopefully somewhere in the house); I have substituted with this cheap and temporary copy with a modern cover and I can’t say I like it much – anyway, onward and inward as they say! ;D

As the book opens, Narnia is in decline; Aslan appears to have deserted his land, and the last King, Tirian, is full of excitement when a rumour reaches them that the lion has returned. However, he soon discovers how wrong things are going when he hears that trees are being felled and sold to Calomen as well as talking beasts enslaved – all apparently on the orders of Aslan. It soon becomes clear that this is no true Aslan, simply an imposter which needs to be dealt with quickly. However the Narnians appear to be outnumbered by the Calormenes, faith in Narnia and its king has fallen by the wayside, and Tirian has no option except to call for help from the children who came from our world in the country’s past. Amazingly, Eustace and Jill appear from nowhere; and the battle is on to save their beloved Narnia from betrayal and colonisation. The Last Battle will indeed be a mighty one…

I must admit to approaching this book with a little trepidation… Although I recall not being over-fond of “The Horse and His Boy“, I also remember finding “The Last Battle” hard to take because it’s so sad at the beginning. Seeing Narnia in decline, the horrors of occupation and the dominance of those with vested interests is very painful (and actually still very resonant nowadays). Although things take a turn for the better when the true Aslan appears, the loss of the world we’ve become used to is very moving (and having Digory there at start and finish a lovely touch). Lewis’s writing is still stellar, though; in the same way as he painted some marvellous word pictures with the creation of Narnia in “The Magician’s Nephew”, he deals with its end equally brilliantly, leaving you quite stunned and emotional. Having almost all the human characters together is wonderful, though I’m sure I’m not alone in regretting Lewis’s dismissal of Susan; presumably she’s being used to reject the idea that religion is something childish you should grow out of, but it does come across as a bit of a betrayal of her, and a tad misogynistic.

Re-reading these books now, I certainly found this one to be the most overtly religious of the series. It’s quite obvious what Aslan’s Country is meant to represent, and here Lewis does conjure a beautiful land containing all the countries you might ever want to see. It’s clever to portray this as the *real* version of all worlds too; but I’m not well-versed enough in theology to know if his shadowlands and real world concepts are original. There are a number of explorations of what I would call faith or lack of it, too; the dwarfs are a case in point, declaring “the Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs” and stubbornly refusing to recognise the reality around them. Then there’s the fearsome god Tash; an evil figure, it’s made clear that only bad actions can be done in his name, and any good actions supposedly taken on behalf of Tash are actually in Aslan’s name.

Getting to the end of any immersive series of books, ones where you’ve lived rather than read them, is always an emotional experience, leaving you feeling a little bereft. I certainly always felt so with these books when I was young – and also with the “Lord of the Rings” series. In both cases, I’ve gone through phases of finishing them and going right back to the start to relive the experience; and having now got to the end of the #Narniathon I can still feel that pull to do so… It’s been quite wonderful revisiting this series of books, which were so important to me in my younger years and still are! Thanks to Chris for setting up the #Narniathon – I most likely wouldn’t have gone back to these right now without it, and it really has been a heck of an experience!

May – another swine of a month…

Yes, I suppose that’s a bit of a clickbaity headline but May really *was* exhausting and stressful when it came to the day job… 🙁 I was up against a lot of horrible deadlines and struggled to get uninterrupted time to actually do my job; and as I work in a school, the emotional effect of the awful events in Texas was strong. As you can see from the pile of books I read, I deployed my usual coping mechanism…

So if nothing else, May really was a bumper reading month. There wasn’t a single dud amongst them – each book was marvellous in its own way, and my brain feels thoroughly stimulated and saturated with images and ideas and memorable tales. Not all of these are reviewed yet, and some will be up on Shiny New Books, so look out for reviews and links this month!

Heading into June, I am as usual making very limited plans (which certainly seems to work and keeps me reading what I want, when I want and loving it!) There will, of course, be the final book in the Narniathon, The Last Battle – this is the copy I’ll be reading:

I can’t say that I’m particularly fond of the cover, but my original version is MIA somewhere in the house. We are in the process of having a major declutter and re-organise of the Offspring’s old rooms and so I am hoping it will turn up to be reunited with its fellows, but in the meantime needs must…

The only other event I’m currently trying to follow is the LibraryThing Virago Modern Classics group with our monthly themed reads. I have failed to keep up with the last two months, but June’s choice is books by Virago authors but published by another imprint. I have this fragile old Penguin Penelope Mortimer and may try to get to it during June as she’s an author I keep meaning to read.

Apart from that, I’m intending to read these two titles next – the Poplavsky is coming out this month from Columbia University Press in their Russian Library series and looks to be a wonderful example of Russian emigre writing. The Brackenbury is a reissue from Michael Walmer and she’s been getting quite a bit of attention recently which reminded me I really should read her!

Apart from that I’ll be keeping things loose – where the reading whims take me, that’s where I shall go! What about you – do you have reading plans for June??