The Horse and His Boy: The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 3

I've loved all the Narnia books ever since I first read them, over 40 years ago (!), and I think that this is the best. I have always been a practicing Muslim and have never been bothered by the Christian subtext, which I picked up when I was 12. These are simply very beautiful stories, very beautifully told.This book is one of the principal causes of the very nasty allegations of racism that have been made against C S Lewis. I am sure that all such allegations are entirely false. One of the most important Muslims in the history of Islam in Britain was Martin Lings, who converted to Islam in the late 1930s. C S Lewis was Lings' undergraduate tutor at Magdalen College, and they were lifelong friends, despite Lings' conversion. This proves that allegations of racism, as well as animosity to Islam, are utter nonsense.This book is the loveliest reworking of the trope of the Lost Prince. A trope so old and over-used that it is almost a clchè; but Lewis turns into an engaging and satisfying narrative.Now I am so happy to have a Collector's Edition with the supremely marvellous illustrations by my fellow Indian, the incomparable Pauline Baynes.

Good book for reading.

I enjoyed the Narnia Chronicles as a child many, many years ago, and still find the series as magical today. I revisited the first two books in the series (at least in the order that Harper Collins recommends) and only picked up this third book.For readers who have already read the two books, especially "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (arguably the most popular of the series), they would already have been familiar with how the four Pevensie children stumbled into Narnia through an old Wardrobe in the English countryside during the Blitz of WWII, discovering their destinies as the rightful Kings and Queens of Narnia, after overthrowing the White Witch, who had been keeping the free creatures under her oppressive rule.While in that book, the real world connects with Narnia, in "The Horse and His Boy", the Lewis sets his story squarely in the fantasy universe. It centres on Shasta, an adopted son/slave of a fisherman from Calormen, one of the neighbouring lands of Narnia, who escapes with a talking horse in search of the free land of Narnia, when he discovers he was about to be sold to a Calormene nobleman. In their journey, they come across a young Calormene aristocrat Aravis, who was also escaping on her mare from an arranged marriage.Without being preachy, Lewis doles out nuggets of wisdom about pride, courage, and what it means to be a friend. When Bree feels discouraged about entering Narnia, an old hermit who helps them escape their enemies tells him: "Of course you were braver and cleverer than (the rest of the regular horses). You could hardly help being that. It doesn't follow that you'll be anyone very special in Narnia. But as long as you know you're nobody special, you'll be a very decent sort of Horse, on the whole, and taking one thing with another". What a gentle yet firm way to tell someone that with a good head on your shoulders, you'll do fine, rather than thinking the world of yourself. A good lesson for both adults and kids alike.

I am reading these books in published order so this was the fifth book I read in the series. This is the first book that I have read in my reading order were I have had to think back to previous happenings in the earlier books. Things in this book happened after Prince Caspian. However I didn't get confused or mixed up between the two and it was easy to read still. I actually enjoyed thinking back to previous books and linking a few things up. Like that Peter is mentioned in the books only in conversation not as himself because he is away fighting the giants.I really enjoyed this book just as much as the others and can't wait to read the next, which is the magicians nephew. The first book to read in the other rather than published!! Was a brilliant adventure and was a bit of everything in it.Please read. Thank you C.S Lewis!

I have read the seven Narnian Chronicles several times. First as a child some forty years ago and repeatedly afterwards to each of my five children. Both they and I have enjoyed them deeply every time. Lewis is able to create an exciting plot which begins very quickly and keeps you absorbed throughout. The Horse and His Boy is an atypical Chronicle in that there are no children from our world traveling to Narnia to save the day. Instead, we accompany two children and two talking horses from that world in their adventures, as they all try to escape from a grim future and their paths become unwillingly intertwined. The story takes place during the Golden Age of Narnia, and some familiar characters do make a quick appearance.As in every one of the Narnia books, there is adventure, courage, sin, repentance and redemption. Undoubtedly a must read for any child 7 to 77.

This book is my least favourite out of the saga, a good story but for me it misses that Narnian magic that the other books have.

Probably one of my favourite book from the series.

“This is a story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him. In those days, far south in Calormen…, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him father.”The boy was Shasta but really he is a foundling and his “father” doesn’t care for him, except to do his jobs for him, and is trying to sell him to “the Taarkaan Anradin. Well, he’s bad… you’d be better lying dead tonight than go to be a human slave in his house tomorrow.”Shasta is persuaded to run away to the North and Narnia by a Narnian talking horse who was kidnapped as a foal and who wants to return home and sees doing so with Shasta as his chance.The story takes a while to get going, maybe a quarter through with the chapter “Shasta falls in with the Narnians” when Peter, Edmund et al get involved in the story. But there is a lot of action after that. And Aslan features too.⭐⭐⭐⭐

My Mum used to read these books to us n bed

Inspiring book by Lewis.

Colourful, thick white sheets, beautifully issued.

Tres bien

Classic children's book that as an adult I enjoy. Best book of the series in my opinion. Do read it