Rating:  -
The Horse and His Boy
Lewis, C.S. The Horse and His Boy: Book three from The Chronicles of Narnia. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1954. 224 pgs.
The Horse and His Boy is a book about a young boy who hates his home and wants to run back to where he is really from, the north. He meets some friends and has some crazy things happen to him on his escape to the north. It starts out showing how terrible this poor kids, Shasta, life is. He lives with this man named Arsheesh who had found him when he was a baby. Arsheesh now forces Shasta to work for him, making fishing nets, in Calormen which isn't a nice country at all. "There was always something to find fault with for Shasta had plenty of work to do, mending and washing the nets, cooking the supper, and cleaning the cottage in which they both lived."(pg.1). One day a Tarkaan came by the house looking to buy the boy as a slave. While he was discussing the price with Arsheesh, Shasta found out that the horse the Tarkaan was riding was really a Narnian horse who could talk and his name was Bree. They discuss a plan and decide to run off together and try to escape into Narnia for neither of them liked where they lived now. So they ride off to the north and on their way they meet up with a girl trying to escape where she lives with another Narnian horse. The girl's name is Aravis and the horse's is Hwin, they decide to go together even though they have their differences. Throughout their adventure they have many close calls including almost being killed by lions and one of the most shocking is when Shasta was mistaken for a prince and taken in to the castle. They mistook him as the prince while he was trying to sneak through the city of Tashbaan. He was taken in and he had to sneak out and when he finally did he couldn't go on with his journey because Aravis was in another castle trying to get to a shortcut through the city, while she was in this castle she over heard a desperate plan to over throw Narnia by trickery and a lot of horsemen. She finally met up with Shasta and the horses but now they really had to hurry to Narnia so they could warn them about the oncoming army. They cross the desert and make it into Narnia's neighbor, Archenland and make it in time to warn them, from there they have a great battle, Shasta talks to Aslan, and there is a big twist at the end of the story. This is a great book for anyone who is an to adventures, it isn't quite like the other Narnia books, its not so much about the Country Narnia is it as about a boy trying to find his rightful place.
Rating: -
This is the third volume (chronologically) in The Chronicles of Narnia (after The Magician's Nephew; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and before Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Last Battle).
In this book we meet Shasta, a young boy who's been raised by Arsheesh, a poor fisherman far south in Calormen. One day comes a stranger on a strong warhorse, although it soon appears that this is a tyrannic Tarkaan who wants to buy Shasta and make him a slave. But his horse is actually Bree (does that name ring a bell?), a talking horse from Narnia, who come night, decides to gallop home to freedom, taking Shasta along.
While on the run across the desert, they meet a girl named Aravis and her talking mare Hwin, who's also fleeing, but from her future marriage with Ahoshta Tarkaan the vizier.
Their first stop will be the city of Tashbaan, where Shasta is mistaken for Corin, King Lune of Archenand's son. There he'll also make the acquaintance, among others, of Queen Susan, whom we met in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and learn that she's also about to marry Rabadash, the mighty Tisroc of Calormen's son, but doesn't want to.
Later, Shasta will become a hero by warning King Lune of an imminent attack by both disappointed bridegrooms.
My opinion on this book is so-so. Again, I think Avaris and Shasta's tumultuous adventure is something that can really appeal to a younger audience but, this makes me feel sorry, I personally just failed to get into it. Mark you, I still think I'm going to read the Chronicles of Narnia to my kids when I have some... I'm sure they'll enjoy them.
Rating:  -
Though it's one of the oddball pre/midquel episodes of the Narnia Chronicles, "The Horse and His Boy" is a deeply entertaining story. C.S. Lewis shifts his focus from the land of Narnia to a more exotic Middle-Eastern setting, and an archetypical story about a mysterious orphan, a fierce runaway, and two talking horses.
Shasta has always lived in the land of Calormene, with a fisherman claiming to be his father. But one day, he hears his "father" agreeing to sell him as a slave. So Shasta escapes on the visitor's horse -- a talking Narnia horse called Bree, who wants to escape Calormene as much as Shasta does. No sooner have they run away than they encounter a nobly-born girl, Aravis Tarkheena, who is escaping a terrible arranged marriage. Like Shasta, she has a talking mare named Hwin.
The two bickering kids decide to escape together, but they soon find themselves pulled to the capital city of Tashbaan, where the Narnian royals are currently staying. And as Shasta starts to unravel the mystery of his own parentage, he and Aravis uncover a plot to kidnap beautiful Queen Susan, and conquer Narnia.
"The Horse and His Boy" is a bit of an oddball story, which doesn't fit into the main storyline of the Narnia Chronicles. Instead, it's a side story which explores the enemies and allies of Narnia, as well as telling readers just what the four Pevensies were doing for all those years in Narnia before returning to our world -- visiting Calormene, a sort of generic Middle-Eastern country.
Don't worry, it's not a case of good-Europeans-versus-evil-Middle-Easterners. Prince Radabash is nasty for plot reasons, but Lewis has good Calormenes, bad ones, noble ones, and dizzy ones. And though Lewis' veddy veddy British writing sometimes clashes with the setting, he does an excellent job of bringing traditions and exotic settings to life.
Shasta and Aravis are definitely strong lead characters -- Shasta is an archetype orphan who uncovers his true ancestry, and Lewis handles this without any clumsiness. And Aravis is probably Lewis' strongest female character. She's tough, a fighter, smart and resourceful, even when dragging her ditzy pal along to spy on their nasty prince. And neither character tolerates idiocy from the other.
"The Horse and His Boy" is only loosely linked to the other Narnia Chronicles. But it's a highly enjoyable adventure story, and a fun midquel.
Rating: -
The Horse and His Boy was one of the best books I have ever read. It had little magic in it, but scenes were very gory and intense. Sometimes things were very exciting especially in the beginning which most books don't. During this story many odd things happened to the four adventurers. Those four are Bree, Shasta, Hwin, and Avaris. One of my favorite events in the book is when they four were attacked by lions! So pick up a copy of The Horse and His Boy, by Clive Staples Lewis, to figure out what the title means!
Rating: -
The second book in Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia is a more traditional "heroic quest" story than the previous book. The character of Aslan takes a bit of a different role in the story this time around. Whereas in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe we are introduced to the lion Aslan, the Son of the Emperor-Across-the-Sea, and his sacrifice to atone for a character's sins, in this book His sovereignty is the focus, as it is He, unbeknownst to the reader for most of the story, who drives the events that happen to the main characters. Lewis also throws some important theology into the mix. One of the characters postulates that Aslan can't be a "real" lion, that He must be some other sort of higher being. Aslan Himself quickly corrects this thought, however, pointing out that He is a "true beast," a real lion like other lions in the world. This corresponds to the Christian doctrine that Jesus was both true God and true man. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
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