The Horse and His Boy
- Feb 24, 2010
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 18
★★★☆☆
About The Horse and His Boy, a friend told me this: It doesn't really fit in. And she was right, it doesn't. But I'd had similar fears going into The Silver Chair, with it being the first book without our long-time protagonists, the Pevensie children. Those fears were unfounded, and The Silver Chair became my favorite chronicle to date. So, I dove into The Horse and His Boy with an open mind, hoping for similar results. The verdict? It's a bit of a mixed bag. The story—about two children and their talking horses escaping to Narnia from dreadful former lives—is solid: full of danger, adventure, scheming enemies, valiant heroes, and a climactic battle scene fit for Hollywood. The trouble lies in hinging the story around a new set of protagonists, Shasta and Aravis, and their horses Bree and Hwin, and in putting the Pevensies (during their reign as Kings and Queens of Narnia) at the very periphery of the story. For me, the Narnian chronicles are as much about that magical land as they are about the role the Pevensies (and their relations) play in the unfolding of those tales. And in this regard, The Horse and His Boy fails to engage. Simply put, I found myself unable to care about Shasta or Aravis, and it wasn't until the story arc swung toward Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter that I became emotionally invested. Here's hoping the final two installments don't suffer similar shortcomings.
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