osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2023-06-05 10:03 am
osprey_archer) wrote2023-06-05 10:03 am
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Book Review: Prince Caspian
I've been sitting on this review of Prince Caspian for a while, because Prince Caspian was and remains the solidly "eh, it's fine" Narnia book for me, which is the hardest thing of all to review. It's easy to go on for pages about something you hate, and somewhat more difficult (but still, usually, doable) to go on and on about something you love, but what is there to say about fine?
However, even a meh Narnia book is better than most other books, and has some wonderful bits. I love the beginning, where the Pevensies find themselves on some random island, and as they explore it slowly dawns on them that these are the ruins of Cair Paravel.
I also love the bit at the climax where Lucy and Susan go off with Aslan and the dryads and the maenads and go coursing across Narnia, setting people free from Telmarine tyranny and generally spreading joyful anarchy across the land. (Lewis's festival anarchy scenes are always fantastic.)
This scene exists to a certain extent to get Lucy and Susan away from the battle (just as Lucy and Susan are the ones to free Aslan at the Stone Table in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe partly to get them away from that battle), and in both cases it's striking that Lucy and Susan's part is so much more fun and exciting than the boys'. This is usually not the case in children's book where the girls get shunted off to the side! But of course Lucy and Susan aren't being shunted off: they're taking part in the main action, whereas the boys' battle is necessary (God helps those who help themselves!) but also kind of a side issue; God/Aslan is the one doing the real work.
Also AMAZING feast scene afterward, good work Lewis, I too want to sit around a giant bonfire feasting with all my talking animal friends until we are all so happy and tired we fall asleep where we sit.
I do sort of wonder how the Telmarines are going to adjust to their uninhabited island back on Earth (which is where Aslan sends the unreconstructed Telmarines at the end of the book), but as with the question of "what are the psychological effects of being a grown-up king or queen and then going back to England to be a schoolchild?", this is not something that Lewis is interested in.
Plus of course this is the book where we meet Reepicheep, a fearless doughty warrior who is also, inconveniently for him, a mouse. LOVE Reepicheep. Reepicheep will truly come into his own in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (I've been so dilatory about this review thatlittlerhymes and I have almost finished Dawn Treader!), but I love him here too. The scene where all his companion mice are willing to cut off their tails because Reepicheep has lost his tail... ah, that's the good stuff.
However, even a meh Narnia book is better than most other books, and has some wonderful bits. I love the beginning, where the Pevensies find themselves on some random island, and as they explore it slowly dawns on them that these are the ruins of Cair Paravel.
I also love the bit at the climax where Lucy and Susan go off with Aslan and the dryads and the maenads and go coursing across Narnia, setting people free from Telmarine tyranny and generally spreading joyful anarchy across the land. (Lewis's festival anarchy scenes are always fantastic.)
This scene exists to a certain extent to get Lucy and Susan away from the battle (just as Lucy and Susan are the ones to free Aslan at the Stone Table in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe partly to get them away from that battle), and in both cases it's striking that Lucy and Susan's part is so much more fun and exciting than the boys'. This is usually not the case in children's book where the girls get shunted off to the side! But of course Lucy and Susan aren't being shunted off: they're taking part in the main action, whereas the boys' battle is necessary (God helps those who help themselves!) but also kind of a side issue; God/Aslan is the one doing the real work.
Also AMAZING feast scene afterward, good work Lewis, I too want to sit around a giant bonfire feasting with all my talking animal friends until we are all so happy and tired we fall asleep where we sit.
I do sort of wonder how the Telmarines are going to adjust to their uninhabited island back on Earth (which is where Aslan sends the unreconstructed Telmarines at the end of the book), but as with the question of "what are the psychological effects of being a grown-up king or queen and then going back to England to be a schoolchild?", this is not something that Lewis is interested in.
Plus of course this is the book where we meet Reepicheep, a fearless doughty warrior who is also, inconveniently for him, a mouse. LOVE Reepicheep. Reepicheep will truly come into his own in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (I've been so dilatory about this review that
littlerhymes and I have almost finished Dawn Treader!), but I love him here too. The scene where all his companion mice are willing to cut off their tails because Reepicheep has lost his tail... ah, that's the good stuff.
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This is where I am with a lot of books I read lol.
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