The Last Battle

Well, the Narnia goal has been achieved. I started reading the books a few weeks ago, wanting to finish them before the movie came out. I saw the previews when the youngster and I went to see The Greatest Game Ever Played, and it looked like something I'd want to see, but I knew nothing about it. It was just visually stunning and I thought..wow, that looks so cool. I'm sure the trailer is available online somewhere if you want to go looking.

So I went out and bought the books and started reading, and the books are very good. If you've never read them, I recommend them if you like fantasy world stuff. The style is all it's own, but they involve magic and unicorns and witches and the like. This weekend I finished The Last Battle, and the movie comes out in December, so I reached the goal, and now I want to see the movie even more.

After all that, I've learned a few things about it all though. First, the movie isn't about the entire Chronicles of Narnia series. It's just about the original book that started it all, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Second, it's not a chronological trip through the seven books, so a movie couldn't cover all of it, even if it were very very long. They jump around a bit, skipping hundreds of years in Narnia, but only a few years in our world. Last and most intriguing, the books were used in Sunday School for some of my friends when they were young, throwing a biblical interpretation on it all. After reading it, I can see that happening, but if nobody told me, I don't think I would have guessed it. I mean, more often than not, as soon as you mention magic in a book, the fanatical Christians want to burn it, especially if the magic isn't seen as an evil thing (the Harry Potter books, for example), but yeah, there is a biblical aspect to the whole Aslan/sons of Adam/daughters of Eve/Aslan's world thing. For those that don't know what I'm talking about and are so inclined, the place to start is The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis. Take the first step and enjoy.