Let me start this review off with a caveat. Well, two caveats. The first is that Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad set a very high bar for this book to hurdle. The second is that I’ve never much liked C.S. Lewis. I read some of the Narnia series as a kid, and I didn’t really care for it. This book was no exception. Dull, dull, dull.
I think my problem with Lewis is the same problem I have with Madeline L’Engle and Christian Rock ‘n’ Roll. They’re all so focused on the Jesus-y bits they forget to do the rest of it well. Any story with an agenda is unlikely to be a very good story, and this story is effectively agenda from cover to cover. I disliked it enough that I decided not to read the other two books in the series even though that was my original plan. Mostly because a little birdie (on Reddit) has reliably informed me that the first book is the least preachy of the bunch and that one was far too preachy for my liking.
Aside from that aspect of things, there were a couple of story things that really rubbed me the wrong way, one major and one minor. I’ll try to avoid spoilers.
The major issue occurs in a scene in which a major character, someone who has been a friend to the protagonist, Ransom, dies. Ransom shows not a moments emotion over this. In fact, later the same day he finds himself wondering that he ever thought of the Hrossa as people at all and even begins to think fondly about the two men who drugged him, kidnapped him, and planned to sacrifice him to the aliens – merely because they are shaped like him. Absurd.
The minor thing is the deus ex machina way in which the story ends. Perhaps it’s the nature of religion-infused fiction but the characters all seem robbed of agency, and the only character whose thoughts and actions matter is the “higher power”. I find it unsatisfying.
At any rate, I’ll not bother with the other two books as I’m confident I won’t enjoy them. I believe the Narnia series is higher up on the list though, and I suppose I’ll have to give them another shot when I get to them. Perhaps I’ll like them better than this one.
Next book(s) on the list is the entire Xanth series. I’ve read them before (though probably not *all* of them*) but not for a very long time. There are apparently 47 of them, so I may or may not read all of them. If I do read all of them I’ll likely write a short review of each one as I go, otherwise it’ll bee weeks before my next review.
Ta for now.
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