[Review] Narnia : The Horse and His Boy by C.S.Lewis

Title: The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicle of Narnia, #3)

Author: C.S. Lewis

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: September 1^st, 2009

Pages: 239p

ISBN13: 9780007323081

The first and second book of the series told about Narnia from the very beginning of the land to the reign of White Witch and fulfillment of the prophecy where two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve came to Narnia and released the land from the power of the witch. As a reader, I have been told that Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy came to Narnia through an old wardrobe, and I thought there was only Narnia at the other side of the wardrobe, but when I opened the third book, I looked at a map and learned that Narnia wasn’t the only land in the story, there were another places called the Archenland, Mt. Pire, the Calormene and Tashbaan along with the desert and the mountain.

Thou the characters from the previous books also appeared in this story, the main character were two children and two talking horses. The story began when a boy named Shasta who live in the Calormene as a son of fisherman discovered that his father whom he believe not his biological father was about to sell him to a nobleman who came to their house. Then suddenly, when he stood alone outside the house, the nobleman’s horse, Bree, talked to him about running away north into Narnia. The beginning of the journey was pretty easy for them and they even met companion along the way, Aravis, a girl who also escape from her father with another talking horse, Hwim. Together they got into the capital city of Calormene, Tashbaan, where something happened to each of them which brought great danger not only to themselves but also to Archenland and Narnia.

I felt like Lewis told the story directly to me, I love the way he did it using the third person point of view. But compare to the previous book, it is the least complex and toneless. The story took place in the golden age of Narnia where the four children of Adam and Eve sit at Cair Paravel as King and Queen of Narnia. Through this story, the reader will also learnt that another human, other than the four children were living outside Narnia, in Archenland and Calormene. If the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was an allegory of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, I guess this one was pretty much similar to the journey of Moses and Israelites through the desert and wilderness where God (Aslan) was with them all the time and helped them with everything their need. When Lewis spoke through Aslan, it was saintly, beautiful and divine.  

“I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you” – p.130

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