The Last Battle

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, 1956 Geoffrey Bles

     In the final episode of the Chronicles of Narnia things are not as they seem. Peace has reigned since Caspian X in The Silver Chair, and King Tirian rules in peace, but the prophecying centaur Roonwit predicts strange and evil things in the near future.
     Shift, a talking Ape, concocts a plan convincing Puzzle, a simple but well-meaning Donkey, to dress in a lion's skin and pretend to be the Great Lion Aslan. Shift uses Puzzle to convince the Narnians of Aslan's return and coerce them into working for the Calormenes, cutting down the Talking Trees for lumber and paying money into a fund for Shift's own use.
     Tirian believes the rumor of Aslan's return, but becomes suspicious when he overhears Shift proclaiming Aslan and the Calormene god Tash as one and the same. When he challenges the Ape the Calormenes attack and tie the king to a tree. Tirian calls to Aslan for help and is sent a vision of Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer, Lucy, Edmund, and Peter Pevensie, Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole, although he doesn't know who they are. King Tirian appears at a dinner party where the group is gathered to remember Narnia and their adventures and the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve recognize him as a messenger from Narnia.
     Moments later in Narnia, yet a week later on Earth, Jill and Eustace appear and rescue Tirian and the band of loyal Narnians held captive by Shift and the Calormenes. A battle ensues where Tirian, Jill, Eustace and the rescued Narnians attack Shift and the Calormenes, shoving them into the stable where the false Aslan resides. The stable is haunted by Tash who swallows the ape whole, but when the rest of the rescue party is flung inside they discover a vast and beautiful land.
     The group encounters the various people from our land who have traveled to Narnia within the series, with the exception of Susan (she regards Narnia as a game she played while an immature child rather than the real place where she was once a queen). Peter orders Tash to leave and they are joined by Aslan, who proceeds to stand at the portal to Narnia and judge all of the creatures, living and dead, who gather to pass through. Those who have been loyal to Aslan or have upheld his morality are welcomed into Aslan's Country while the rest lose their intelligence and vanish.
     In a spectacular show Narnia ceases to exist and Peter closes the door between Aslan's Country and the shell of what Narnia was. Aslan sends his party further into the "Real Narnia" where they find more companions from previous novels and "Real England". Aslan reveals that the travelers and the Pevensies' parents have died in a train accident from which only Susan survived. He reveals that this is only the beginning of an eternal story in which "every chapter is better than the one before."
     The Last Battle is very much like the biblical Judgement Day. The end of the world and salvation through the Christ-figure Aslan, but it also holds truths about a secular world: the characters who are damned are those who have attempted to take advantage of the honest, hard-working folk and their belief in something greater than themselves; not only do Aslan's followers find eternal joy, but those people of Narnia's world who are morally upright are rewarded; and the memories of their youthful pastimes create camaraderie among the English friends of Narnia--Susan has forgotten the innocence of her past and loses her entire family when they are snatched from England to Real England. Lewis's stories may have a heavy Christian overtone, but they are still stories about self-discovery, honesty, and loyalty to one's own beliefs.
     The intended audience for The Last Battle is later elementary school: between 8 and 13 years old, yet readers of all ages can find something new and interesting in the story.