Eustace and Jill have attempted to use the Professor's "magic rings" to get into Narnia and, while theyseem to have succeeded, it is unclear whether the rings had anything to do with their landing in themythical land or not. They are met in Narnia by King Tirian, last of the Caspian line, and his friend Jewel,a unicorn of unfailing devotion to the king and Narnia.
But all is not well. A devious monkey is claiming that Aslan is appearing to him and his cohort--apanther--and is finally "setting things to right" in Narnia. Recapturing a theme his friend Tolkien usedfrequently in his books on Middle Earth, the evil in Narnia is not just the lying and corruption of the rulingpowers, but the industrialization of the countryside brought about by those powers.
Eustace and Jill work with the king to gather those beings still loyal to the true Aslan and Narnia andcome for a final showdown in front of an old wooden shed which may be a lot more than it seems. TheLast Battle spends much of the book being the most depressing of all the Narnia books for the good guysare losing, Narnia is falling, and Aslan himself seems to be absent. Still, the characteristicallymagnificent writing, storytelling, and pacing of Lewis keep the reader in the story to the very end--inwhich we find that "the last battle" the title refers to probably isn't the battle before the stable, but themuch larger one being fought throughout the entire cosmos of Lewis's world(s).
The final conclusion of the story is perfect in that it wraps everything up marvelously (but not in acontrived way), yet this reviewer is always sad to get there because it means the great tale is over--atleast until I read it again.
Additional Notes:
This seventh and last book of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, is a wonderful adventure butalso a cautionary tale of the end of all worlds. Read as a companion piece to Lewis's That HideousStrength, The Last Battle's fantasy is a more coherent and biblical view of the end times than most of thetripe being marketed these days on the subject.
