The Horse and His Boy Book Review.

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Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and his Boy.

Author: C.S. Lewis.

Gene: Christian Fantasy, Classic.

Plot: The third book in the Chronicles opens with something of a mystery. Shasta has never known any life other than the one he’s always had with Arsheesh, the Calormene fisherman, until one day a Tarkaan {a great lord} arrives unexpectedly and demands to buy Shasta whose skin is fair rather than dark like the Calormenes. Shasta, of course, eavesdrops on this conversation and then sneaks away to ponder what he’d overheard. His whispered ponderings in the stable are interrupted by the Tarkaan’s horse who tells him that his name is Bree and that he is a Talking Horse from Narnia; having wandered too far from home when a colt, he was captured by Calormenes and had been living as a dumb beast for years. Together, the two make a plan to escape that very night and unknowingly embark upon a great adventure.

Not long into their journey, the twosome are joined in dramatic fashion by Aravis, a young Tarkheena fleeing from a forced marriage, and her horse Hwin, who is also a Talking Horse. The two horses hit it off right away but Aravis and Shasta take longer to get use to each other. Still, through the next series of adventures, the two become close friends, despite their frequent quarrels. The party soon comes to the capital city of Tashbaan, through which they must pass to continue heading toward the north. When in the midst of the crowded city, a visiting group of Narnians mistakes Shasta for one of their own and carries him off to their quarters where he overhears their troubles and plot to escape Tashbaan. The runaway he was mistaken for pops in and the two trade places, with Shasta racing to the meeting point in hopes of finding his friends. When the group is back together they exchange information and race across the desert to warn Archenland that they are about to be attacked by the foolish prince of Calormene.

Arriving just in time, Shasta gives his warning and then gets lost and ends up in Narnia where he bumps into a couple friendly dwarves and meets his look-alike runaway friend again. Those two mischievous boys disobey orders and join the following battle dressed in dwarf mail. When the battle is over the boys, Aravis and the horses are all rounded up and join the respective kings of Archenland and Narnia after several interesting conversations have taken place and Aslan appears to judge the silly prince of Calormene who heads back home, from which he never again leaves in battle. Shasta’s mystery is cleared up and his real name is learned, Bree {a wiser horse than when the story began} and Hwin go home to Narnia but often trot over the pass to visit Shasta and Aravis in Archenland and those two continued to frequently quarrel “so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so use to quarreling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.”

Likes/Dislikes: There is no magic in this book because it takes place during the Golden Age of Narnia when Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy reign together. The Calormenes do worship a terrible god but this is hardly worth noting in this adventure story. A good read-aloud!

Rating: PG.

Date Report Written: July 16, 2010.