C.S. Lewis and Narnia: The Horse and His Boy

I just finished reading, for the third time (or is it the fourth), the short novel The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. It is one of the later published books in his Chronicles of Narnia series, although the chronology of Narnia has it placed right after book #2, which is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Well, actually, to be more accurate, The Horse and His Boy takes place chronologically within the last chapter of that book, while the series main characters Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy are sitting on Narnia's throne during its Golden Age.  This isn't the only thing that distinguishes this story among the seven Narnia tales: it is also the only one in which no one from the not-so-fantastic world of Earth travels to or from Narnia.  The reason for this is self-evident, as the protagonist here is a boy native to southerly lands within Narnia's world.

Shasta is presented as an orphaned boy who grows up under the near-slavery yoke of his "adopted" poor fisherman father in a country called Calormen.  Calormen resembles our world of the Middle East of the old caliphate days with its stark landscapes and glorious and ornate cities.  There is a religion there alien to Narnia and the god Tash is worshiped.  One day Shasta finds himself about to be sold into slavery by his "father" to a visiting Calormen official, but with the aid of that official's horse (a Narnian talking horse named "Bree"), he makes his escape from them.  Along the way as he makes his way northward toward Narnia he encounters another fleeing child, this one a girl named Aravis who is escaping an arranged marriage.  Then they enter Tashbaan, the capital city, where Shasta runs into Edmund and Susan, who were visiting and involved in their own problems with the Calormens.  In the end, the "good guys" are all fleeing (some by desert and some by sea), the Calormens are pursuing them, and eventually a great battle takes place across the desert in Archenland, a kingdom lying between Calormen and Narnia and which carries its own secrets... including a boy named Corin who is a dead ringer for Shasta.  Exactly how this battle takes place, why it happens in the first place, and who are involved in it are matters that I leave you, the future reader, to discover for yourself.

Oh, there's one element to The Horse and His Boy that I omitted, which is actually its most important element...not to mention that of the rest of the Narnia series as well.  And that is Aslan the Lion Lord, the embodiment of Christ the Son of God on Narnia.  Aslan's presence is subtle and mysterious...but ultimately he is the one on which everything hinges.  As with the other tales in this series, Aslan does not force his authority on people except in his merciful administration of justice. Although he is ultimately all-powerful and all-knowing, he allows all around him to make their own choices in life, according to their free will...including whether or not they freely choose to follow or reject him.  A crystal-clear analogy to Christianity...

I liked The Horse and His Boy, although as has been the case with other fantasy series I've read, including George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, that aforementioned Middle Eastern "Arabian Nights/Aladdin" type of society is predictably depicted as being brutal, oppressive, and corrupt.  Wait a minute, what am I saying...ALL of Martin's lands are brutal, oppressive, and corrupt!