The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

“Do you think I care if Aslan dooms me to death? That would be nothing, nothing at all. Would it not be better to be dead than to have this horrible fear that Aslan has come and is not like the Aslan we have believed in and longed for?”– Chapter 3, pg. 30

“The Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve were brought out of their own strange world into Narnia only at times when Narnia was stirred and upset, but you mustn’t think it was always like that. In between their visits there were hundreds and thousands of years when peaceful King followed peaceful King ‘till you could hardly remember their names or count their numbers, and there was really hardly anything to put into the history books.” – Chapter 8, pg. 99

“Remember that all worlds draw to an end and that noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.” – Chapter 8, pg. 103

“The spreading blackness was not a cloud at all: it was simply emptiness. The black part of the sky was the part in which there were no stars left. All the stars were falling: Aslan had called them home.” – Chapter 14, pg. 173

“I hoped that it might go on forever. I knew our world couldn’t, but I did think Narnia might. I saw it begin. I did not think I would live to see it die.”
– Chapter 14, pg. 182

“For us, this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” – Chapter 16, pg. 211

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from The Last Battle.

Finally done with Narnia! I was getting tired of reading children’s books. It makes no sense for Aslan to call on a bunch of kids to save his country. Why not John McClane or Jack Bauer? And what enjoyment do they get out of

visiting Narnia anyway? The world is three hundred years behind on technology. If some centaur told me to skin and gut my own dinner I’d be like, 'No thanks, take me to KFC, please.' I did, however, enjoy how the last few chapters tied everything together. James McAvoy (er, I mean Mr. Tumnus) even made an appearance! By this point in the series, despite my embarrassingly limited knowledge of Christian fairy tales, I figured Lewis was going to pull some apocalyptic stunt. But I wasn't expecting his vision of heaven to be so confusing: Narnias within Narnias, Englands within Englands? Let’s just get to the explanation of how they all died. Oh, train derailment. I guess technology isn’t so great after all…

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

“We’ve brought the anger of Aslan on us. That’s what comes of not attending to the signs. We’re under a curse, I expect. If it was allowed, it would be the best thing we could do, to take these knives and drive them into our own hearts.”
– Chapter 9, pg. 129

“That is old Father Time, who was once a King in Overland. And now he has sunk down into the Deep Realm and lies dreaming of all the things that are done in the upper world. Many sink down, and few return to the sunlit lands. They say he will wake at the end of the world.” – Chapter 10, pg. 146

“Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.” – Chapter 12, pg. 182

“Then he opened his mouth and blew. But this time they had no sense of flying through the air: instead, it seemed that they remained still, and the wild breath of Aslan blew away the ship and the dead King and the castle and the snow and the winter sky." – Chapter 16, pg. 237

“The opening into the hillside was left open, and often in hot summer days the Narnians go in there with ships and lanterns and down to the water and sail to and fro, singing, on the cool, dark underground sea, telling each other stories of the cities that lie fathoms deep below. If ever you have the luck to go to Narnia yourself, do not forget to have a look at those caves.”
– Chapter 16, pg. 243

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from The Silver Chair.

Wow, that Jill Pole girl really sucks at obeying simple instructions. I like how they still saved Prince Rilian (which, for some strange

reason, I kept reading in my head as Prince Ritalin) without following Aslan’s word. Allegory fail. I’m still not 100% sure what is meant by marsh-wiggle or Puddleglum, but I loved the description of the underworld. I’d like to see what Andrew Adamson and a little CGI could do with the Land of Bism. My only question: Where did this Queen of the Underland come from? How did she get into Narnia? C.S. Lewis never said anything about Digory and Polly bringing two witches into Narnia during The Magician’s Nephew. Ah, those tricky witches and their totalitarianism dictatorships...

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

“What awaited them on this island was going to concern Eustace more than anyone else, but it cannot be told in his words because after September 11 he forgot about keeping his diary for a long time.” – Chapter 5, pg. 75

“Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.”
– Chapter 6, pg. 91

“But here part of the magic of the book came into play. You couldn’t turn back. The right-hand pages, the ones ahead, could be turned; the left-hand pages could not. And she could never remember what she had read; and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician’s book.” – Chapter 10, pg. 157

“And every night they saw that there rose in the east new constellations which no one had ever seen in Narnia and perhaps, as Lucy thought with a mixture of joy and fear, no living eye had seen at all.” – Chapter 13, pg. 190

“Very soon after they had left Ramandu’s country they began to feel that they had already sailed beyond the world. All was different. For one thing they all found that they needed less sleep. One did not want to go to bed nor eat much, nor even to talk except in low voices. Another thing was the light. There was too much of it. The sun when it came up each morning looked twice, if not three times, its usual size.” – Chapter 15, pg. 218

“Do you mean to say that you three come from a round world and you’ve never told me? It’s really too bad of you. Because we have fairy-tales in which there are round worlds and I always loved them. I never believed there were any real ones. But I’ve always wished there were and I’ve always longed to live in one. I wonder why you can get into our world and we never get into yours? If I only had the chance! It must be exciting to live on a thing like a ball.” – Chapter 15, pg. 231

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
I almost liked this one as much as The Magician’s Nephew. It was a nice break from the format of the three previous books in the series (which all culminate

in some epic battle between your choice of witch, tyrant or neighboring nation). Instead, the characters sailed from undiscovered island to undiscovered island, allowing Lewis to put that crazy imagination of his to good use. And apparently Stardust wasn’t the first book about a star-person falling out of the sky (I’m on to you, Neil Gaiman). My only qualm with this story was when Aslan appeared as a lamb instead of a lion (I’m guessing that was some religious reference and not Twilight-related) and told the kids he has a different name in their/our world. I’m sure he meant God, but the first thing that came to my mind was 'Endangered species?'

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

“If I hadn’t believed in Aslan before, I would now. Back there among the Humans the people who laughed at Aslan would have laughed at stories about Talking Beasts and Dwarfs. Sometimes I did wonder if there really was such a person as Aslan: but then sometimes I wondered if there were really people like you. Yet there you are.” – Chapter 5, pg. 70

“Lucy had the feeling (as you sometimes have when you are trying to remember a name or a date and almost get it, but it vanishes before you really do) that she had just missed something: as if she had spoken to the trees a split second too soon or a split second too late, or used all the right words except one, or put in one word that was just wrong.”
– Chapter 9, pg. 118

“They even thought they had struck an old path; but if you know anything about woods, you will know that one is always finding imaginary paths. They disappear after about five minutes and then you think you have found another (and hope it is not another but more of the same one) and it also disappears, and after you have been well lured out of your right direction you realize that none of them were paths at all.” – Chapter 9, pg. 120

“I’m hunger. I’m thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from my enemy’s body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies.”
– Chapter 12, pg. 166

“You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.” – Chapter 15, pg. 218

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from Prince Caspian.

I haven’t watched the movie yet, but now I am curious to see what Hollywood does with the storyline. Prince Caspian’s rise to “leader of the rebellion”

seemed much too rushed. And Lewis certainly has a way of ditching the big battle to describe some boring side story (this time Aslan skipped around Narnia fixing water wells). I already dislike apples (to be specific: whole apples; sliced apples are fine), so all the apple eating they did in this book put me off a bit. Although, I liked when Aslan explained that the Telmarines are actually the descendants of shipwrecked pirates from our own world. I definitely rolled my eyes when right after this explanation, Aslan tells Peter and Susan they aren’t allowed back into Narnia because they are getting too old. Yes, older than a bunch of middle-aged pirates.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

“She immediately began, sitting quite still and using a rather different tone and style from her usual one. For in Calormen, story-telling (whether the stories are true or made up) is a thing you’re taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay writing. The difference is that people want to hear stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays.”
– Chapter 2, pg. 35

“Bree was not in the least trying to leave Shasta out of things, though Shasta sometimes nearly thought he was. People who know a lot of the same things can hardly help talking about them, and if you’re there you can hardly help feeling that you’re out of it.” – Chapter 3, pg. 44

“Having been brought up by a hard, closefisted man like Arsheesh, he had a fixed habit of never telling grown-ups anything if he could help it: he thought they would always spoil or stop whatever you were trying to do.”
– Chapter 5, pg. 74

“One of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself.” – Chapter 9, pg. 137

“Shasta’s heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.” – Chapter 10, pg. 146

“I have now lived a hundred and nine winters in this world and have never yet met any such thing as Luck. There is something about all this that I do not understand: but if ever we need to know it, you may be sure that we shall.”
– Chapter 10, pg. 148

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from The Horse and His Boy.

When half a book is about some never-ending journey through a forest (or worse, desert), I find it rather boring. Riding, walking, eating and sleeping. Riding, walking, eating and sleeping. Just freaking get there already! And this

book was a tad bit more predictable than the last. Twins separated at birth? One is a prince and one is pauper? Now, that's original! At least the Christian subtext was kept to a minimum. Although, I take it C.S. Lewis has beef with the Middle East? He explains that the people of Calormen don’t like overgrown cats, so instead of killing others in the name of Aslan, they pray (and make human sacrifices) to a different being named Tash. They are basically described as an evil, dark-skinned race (with bad tasting food and turbans) who are far inferior to the decent, white-skinned inhabitants of the North. I guess we know why Aladdin never came to Narnia’s rescue…