ChristianFictionReview.com - Frank Peretti, Samuel White, Janette Oke, CS Lewis, Jan Karon

The Horse and His Boy

By CS Lewis

The Horse and His Boy

The Horse and His Boy, fifth book in The Chronicles of Narnia, is set in the time of the "Golden Age of Narnia" when Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were kings and queens in Narnia. It follows the story of a young boy named Shasta who lives--he believes--with his cruel father on the shore of the ocean. One night, however, he finds himself talking to a horse named Bree who tells him of a far away land called Narnia where people and talking animals live freely together. Shasta discovers that the cruel man isn't really his father (and is, in fact, thinking of selling him), and so heads out with the horse. The book follows their adventures in strange lands and the larger story being driven by a mysterious lion in which they are but a part.

This is another well-written tale, though if one were establishing a Narnian canon this would be one of the debated books. Obviously, Lewis wrote it, so it belongs, but none of the action takes place in Narnia. And while The Silver Chair took part largely away from Narnia, it at least dealt with the future and well-being of Narnia and Narnians, while this novel--aside from the horses--deals with a threat to Narnia but not with many Narnians themselves.

Additional Notes:
The most memorable part of this book (for this reviewer, anyway), is the conversation between Shasta and Aslan in which Aslan tells the boy, "I tell no one any story but their own." It seems to be an obvious reference to the passage in the Bible in which the Apostle Peter asks Jesus what will become of John and Jesus tells Peter that's none of his business (Jesus put it more tactfully).