C.A. Gray's Blog, page 45
October 16, 2020
The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog review of The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis.
The post The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis appeared first on C.A. Gray.
October 13, 2020
Review of Romanov
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This story had one of the best relationships I’ve read in a long time!
I’m fascinated by the story of Anastasia Romanov, particularly since the musical “Anastasia” is one of my favorites (the music is just. Amazing.) I picked this one up on an Audible daily deal, since it was a retelling of Anastasia involving magic. Even better.
The story begins when the entire Romanov family is under house arrest by the Bolsheviks. I expected this to end quickly, and that Anastasia would somehow be on the run for the majority of the story–but that’s not how it turned out, rather to my dismay. The rest of her family was alive for about half the book, which upset me because they stuck around long enough for me to get attached to them, particularly to her brother Alexi, the crown prince. I knew they were going to die, so I was gritting my teeth in anticipation of this. But this extra time was necessary in order for the author to set up two Stockholm Syndrome-style romances: one between the ex-Princess Maria and the Bolshevik guard Ivan, and one between Anastasia and the guard Zash. The latter relationship was very interesting. At first it was a straightforward romance, aside from the star crossed lovers aspect. But later (semi-spoiler alert) it became far more about forgiveness and second chances than anything else. In fact, I felt like this turned out to be the theme of the whole story, as Anastasia prayed to Jesus (which I thought was interesting — were the Romanovs Christian, I wondered? Her papa, the Czar Nicolai, was portrayed as being very Christian), and as she grappled with her bitterness and her conflicting emotions toward Zash. Zash, meanwhile, struggled with his self-loathing. I wondered if the author was a Christian herself, and then at the end found out the book was published by Thomas Nelson, a Christian publisher. So that explains it!
I assumed the story would have to follow what we knew of history, aside from the addition of magic and the supernatural explanation for her survival, but (another spoiler alert), in this version, Alexi lives too. I suppose that’s not any more of a stretch than Anastasia’s survival, since there are reports that all of the Romanov bodies are accounted for, hers included. For the sake of the story, I’m very glad he did survive, since he was the one family member I couldn’t bear for her to lose. The ending was as much of a “happily ever after” as they could have, under the circumstances, which definitely made me happy!
My rating: ****1/2
Language: none
Violence: none except the obvious (the family gets murdered) — but not gratuitous
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of Romanov appeared first on C.A. Gray.
October 9, 2020
Above the Bay of Angels, Rhys Bowen
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog review of Above the Bay of Angels.
The post Above the Bay of Angels, Rhys Bowen appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of The Last Battle
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The whole way through this series this time through, I’ve been trying to decide which book is my favorite. I think it might have to be this one.
Only three of the seven books are overt biblical allegories. The Magician’s Nephew is an allegory of the creation story of Genesis, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is an allegory of the passion and resurrection of Jesus, and this one is an allegory of the apocalypse, as told in Revelation. Once again, I’m absolutely awed by Lewis’s astute and subtle characterization. The story opens with a donkey and a monkey; the donkey is sweet and innocent, but simple, while the monkey is shrewd and manipulative. The monkey, Shift, manages to guilt the donkey, Puzzle, into dressing up like Aslan (the antichrist), at a time when Aslan has not visited Narnia in so long that the animals begin to wonder if he is just a myth. Shift thinks that this will mean all Narnia will just give him whatever he wants. But quickly Shift ends up over his head, as the evil merchants of Calormen use the opportunity to enslave the people using their devotion to Aslan. The poor Narnians are heartbroken that Aslan, as they think, is turning out to be “not Aslan at all,” but evil–and yet, as they all say to themselves, “he’s not a tame lion!” and use this to explain how good might become evil, and evil, good. The Calormen play on this, telling the Narnians that their demon-god Tash and Aslan are one and the same, even calling him Tashlan (though most of them don’t believe there is such a thing as Tash). In this way, they overthrow the last king of Narnia.
Meanwhile, deposed King Tirian cries out for help from the children from beyond their world, as in the stories of old. Jill and Eustace come to his aid, and uncover the plot, revealing that the false Aslan was just a donkey in a lion’s skin. They expect this will mean all the Narnians will throw off the oppression and come to their aid–but once they find out there was a false Aslan, it makes them also disbelieve in the real one. Anarchy ensues, and then the last battle begins.
The battle ends about 2/3 through the book though. The rest is a much more in-depth exploration of Lewis’s version of heaven, of which we only got a taste in The Silver Chair. (Spoiler alert): all the children from the previous stories, many of whom are grown up now, were in the same carriage accident in England. At the same moment that Narnia dissolves in fire and ice, they all die and enter Aslan’s country. Normally we think of this as a tragedy, but here it’s the most wonderful news: they don’t have to leave again this time! They can stay forever! They grieve at first for their lost Narnia, but then find that Aslan’s country contains within it the “real” versions of all of the lost places, which were only types and shadows of the real thing. Narnia is all there, only better than they remember it. Their home in England is there too. All the heroes of the previous six books return in a wonderful reunion. There’s adventure without conflict, perfectly harmonious relationships, and Aslan there all the time, forever. I was crying for joy by the end. Can’t think of an ending that tops that from any series, ever.
My rating: *****!!
Language: none
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of The Last Battle appeared first on C.A. Gray.
October 2, 2020
The Silver Chair
This week’s podcast comes from this blog review of The Silver Chair.
The post The Silver Chair appeared first on C.A. Gray.
September 28, 2020
Review of Above the Bay of Angels
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I love that I always know what I’m getting with a Rhys Bowen novel. They’re character-heavy slow boils, always set in Victorian England. The main character is usually obsessed with some kind of craft (herbs, gardening, cooking), and we’re treated to an in-depth description of her occupation, but it’s done in such a way that it’s thoroughly engaging. Then about 3/4 of the way through, there’s a “polite” (non-grisly) murder. We realize we’ve been set up for it for the entire novel thus far, speculating on motive and opportunity. Then, once our heroine solves the crime, she gets her happily-ever-after. It’s a formula, but it’s all done in such a charming way.
This time, the story follows formerly well-to-do Isabella, who falls on hard times due to her mother’s death and her father’s abandonment. She becomes a cook and a servant, to support her sister. But then her sister marries and Isabella can finally please herself. In a twist of fate, she has the opportunity to become one of the queen’s under-cooks, but only if she assumes the identity of Helen Barton, a girl whom she knows has died. She does so, though of course this provides a number of different kinds of conflict. While in the queen’s service, she travels to Nice, France, and trains under a master French chef who becomes her love interest. She ingratiates herself with Queen Victoria (and I love this about Bowen’s books: the queen is always portrayed as historically accurately as possible). Then, when a despised member of the German gentry ends up dead, they think from a poisonous mushroom, she as the chef becomes the prime suspect. She has to solve the crime to clear her name. This part of the story seemed very fast, but not too fast I guess. I was more interested in the episodic aspects of Bella’s life than the crime anyway.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of Above the Bay of Angels appeared first on C.A. Gray.
September 25, 2020
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
Today’s podcast comes from this blog review, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
The post The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis appeared first on C.A. Gray.
September 23, 2020
Review of The Silver Chair
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This was probably the book I remembered least of the Chronicles of Narnia, but man, every one of these books is just so amazing, for the same three reasons. First, it’s not just the creativity, but the whimsy that makes Narnia a world I long to escape into. Second, C.S. Lewis is incredibly astute about human nature. He captures psychological nuances of characters and motivations that are just so clever and perfect. Third and most of all: Aslan. My favorite scenes are always the ones he’s in. I can’t really think of any other fictional book that dares to make Jesus such an overt character within the story. If God comes up at all, most just talk about “religion”and make it sound stuffy and restrictive, or else (in Christian fiction) they’re usually heavy-handed and overtly cheesy. But you can’t help but fall in love with Aslan. It’s the only sane response. The fact that Lewis manages to capture this in a character portrayed as a talking lion is a testament to his incredible skill.
In The Silver Chair, Eustace (who had a dramatic character arc in Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and a new character, Jill Pole, get sucked into Narnia to help rescue Prince Rillian from the Emerald witch. Rillian is the son of King Caspian, whom Eustace knew as a young man and who is now elderly and about to die, since time runs differently in Narnia. Aslan comes into the story early, and gives Jill several signs that she needs to follow in order to find him… but then none of the signs look the way she expects them to look. Rillian is held hostage both underground and also under a spell that seizes him 23 hrs per day, and in the 24th hour when he briefly regains his sanity, she straps him to a silver chair and hides him away so no one can hear him raving the truth.
Of course, after many missteps and misadventures, Jill and Eustace succeed, with the help of a cartoonishly pessimistic creature called a marshwiggle. But my favorite part of the story comes after this, at the end. (Spoiler alert:) King Caspian only briefly sees his son, and then dies. All of Narnia mourns. But then, he’s carried to Aslan’s country, with Jill and Eustace. I cannot think of any other stories in which we get to see death from the perspective of heaven. There, it’s not sad at all–it’s so achingly wonderful, it made me tear up with joy.
If you haven’t read this series, you really need to.
My rating: *****
Language: none
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of The Silver Chair appeared first on C.A. Gray.
September 18, 2020
A Wizard of Earthsea
Today’s podcast comes from this blog review of A Wizard of Earthsea.
The post A Wizard of Earthsea appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
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Delightful, as all the others are! This one I feel is more a pure adventure story–that is to say, seeking adventure for adventure’s sake, rather than for some other purpose. In that sense there isn’t so much a plot. King Caspian, whom the Pevensie children met in the book “Prince Caspian,” is aboard the Narnian Dawn Treader, bound for the end of their world. Lucy, Edmund, and their irritable cousin Eustace all get into Narnia through a picture in Eustace’s house, and join in on their exploration of far off islands: unknown because in Caspian’s uncle’s time, when he was the usurper to the throne, he banned all sea voyages. At the same time, he sent off seven lords to the outermost parts of the world, none of whom ever returned–so the purpose of the voyage is to find the seven lords.
The story definitely reminds me of the Odyssey, but also of certain aspects of The Fellowship of the Ring (particularly Tom Bombadil and his daughter, whom I think have their analogues in the fallen star and his daughter). There are mermaids and dragons, books of magic spells, and little morality lessons for most of the characters, all presided over by Aslan, who lurks in the background for most of the story until the very end. I just love how he tells Lucy at the end that she must get to know him in our world, and here, “I am known by another name.”
I’ll never get tired of re-listening to this series!
My rating: *****
Language: none
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader appeared first on C.A. Gray.
