The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

Synopsis:

Narnia... where dwarfs are loyal and tough and strong—or are they... where you must say goodbye... and where the adventure begins again.

The Unicorn says that humans are brought to Narnia when Narnia is stirred and upset. And Narnia is in trouble now: A false Aslan roams the land. Narnia's only hope is that Eustace and Jill, old friends to Narnia, will be able to find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land. Their task is a difficult one because, as the Centaur says, "The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do." Who is the real Aslan and who is the imposter?

In the conclusion of the saga that began with The Magician's Nephew, a false Aslan is roaming Narnia, commanding everyone to work for the cruel Calormenes. Can Eustace and Jill find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land? The last battle is the greatest of all and the final struggle between good and evil.

Review by Patrick:

I didn't wait around to read this one. I wanted to get through it to say I finally read the series. So I did. I picked this one up every chance I got and read through it.

You know the old saying, all good things must come to an end. Well, that's true here as well, except it doesn't. And I'm not going to say more than that because... spoilers.

The story in this one was pretty good. It starts out in Narnia, instead of in the human's perspective. So that was a little odd, although similar to The Horse and His Boy. Eustace and Jill are once again the main human characters, but one of the things I love about this book is that it brings everyone back in and at least mentions them. All the humans, even Diggory and Polly. All the Narnians, even my favorite, Reepicheep. And of course, new characters to this story. We even get to meet the Calamenian god, Tash.

This book was wonderful. It described beautiful things in a way I've never imagined. I enjoyed the magic and mystery of it, and the eventual conclusion of Narnia itself. I think there was a wonderful and perfect transition from the beginning story of the book to the end, because once you got there, it was obvious that that would be how you got there... in complete bliss. And even though you had arrived, and were a little sad that you had left, you knew that everything was going to be okay in the end. Better than okay... perfect.

I'm really not sure what to think about this book. It was good, and it was certainly a conclusion. I don't know if it was the conclusion I wanted, but it was wonderful. If you've read the previous six, you must finish reading the series with this one. I'm going to give it 4 stars.