I always found The Horse and His Boy to be one of C. S. Lewis' weakest entries, but back in those days you couldn't just hop online to see what other people thought of it. I also never encountered anyone else who had read it, and it never received a screen adaptation, perhaps for reasons which will become evident by the end of this review. It was the fifth out of seven Narnia books to be published, but takes place during the Golden Age of Narnia when the Pevensey children from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe are still ruling. Much of the novel takes place in the Southern lands of Calormen, Lewis' attempt at enlarging the surrounding kingdoms and making his fantasy world more sprawling. The city of Tashban and the people of Calormen are heavily influenced by Middle Eastern culture, which has predictably led to lots of complaints about Orientalism due to the negative way they're depicted.
The story begins with Shasta, a poor foundling raised from a baby by an abusive fisherman. When he overhears his master plotting to sell him to a visiting nobleman, he steals the latter's horse and makes his escape. The horse turns out to be a talking steed called Bree who has kidnapped from Narnia as a foal and longs to return. Thus begins a perilous journey. They are sooner after joined by Aravis, a high born Calormen girl fleeing an arranged marriage with her own talking horse, Hwin. Accusations of racial stereotyping aside, I felt like the plot fell flatter than previous entries, lacked a lot of the humour and lightheartedness, and suffered from some pacing issues. There are some chapters were very little happens, and although the long trek across the desert is well written, it's still a very long trek to get through. I did enjoy it a lot more than I did as a child (the politics are more fun) but I'm rating it a 2 beause it's a poor Narnia entry.
Rating: 2/5
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