The best fictional portrait of Christ

The philosopher Peter Kreeft claims virtually every attempt to bring Christ into literature has failed miserably, save The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Horse and His Boy has everything I look for in fiction. Great characters, dialogues, mystery, good and evil and wit. Aslan reveals the Christ we all need in our lives as we struggle on.

6 people found this helpful

Couldn't turn it off.

Set some years after the events of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe but before Prince Caspian, The Horse and his Boy tells the tale of how young Shasta, an orphan boy raised on a small island by a solitary, dour fisherman, suddenly finds himself embarked on a grand adventure to reach the land of Narnia. He is accompanied by the talking horse Bree, former steed of a cruel lord from Callormen who intended to buy Shasta as a slave. THe pair is soon joined by Aravis, a girl who fled her father's estate with her own steed Hwin, another talking horse, to escape an arranged marriage . An excellently written tale brought superbly to life by British actor Alex Jennings. Each character has his or her own personality, from Shasta and Aravis to the horses to the sinister Tarkons of Callormen, who even now plot an invasion of Narnia to steal away Queen Susan. This of course puts Shasta in the desperate position of having to reach Narnia's southern neighbor, Archenland, in time to warn of the invasion. And in the course of his adventure, Shasta lerns a startling truth about his own past and how he came to be raised by the fisherman.
All in all this is an excellent listen. As I said in the title I could hardly turn off my IPod.

13 people found this helpful

Well read! Jennings does the voices masterfully!

I have read the book many times, but find I had not fully grasped the meanings evident in the tones of voice which Jennings portrays. The arrogance of Bree, for instance, and the cool menace of the Tisroc. I have a whole new appreciation of this well-written book.

4 people found this helpful

Great read

It was the best book I have ever read. I am 10 years old. It has a good moral of the story!!!

14 people found this helpful

Alex Jennings is one of my new favourite narrators

Have you listened to any of Alex Jennings’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is the first recording I have heard by Mr. Jennings and I will absolutely listen to more if I have the chance! He was absolutely perfect for this role. I really appreciated how his voicing of Hwin and Bree was very humanized, which is how I believe Lewis intended the characters to be. He didn't give them ridiculous "horsey sounding" voices which would have been especially tiresome to listen to for 4 or 5 hours! Really just a perfect voicing of all the characters and a soothing and enjoyable listen overall.

4 people found this helpful

Excellent Reading the only entirely Narnia book.

The performance of this story is perhaps the best of all the fine readings in the Narnia series, even though the reader is not quite so famous as some of the others.

The book is interesting in that it takes place entirely in Narnia, with not a single scene in this world. We get to see several of the Pevensey children as adults, an thus near the end of their first Narian adventures. This is the work in which Lewis introduces Calormene, the foil of Narnia in that other world. It does not worship to true god, but a false one—and yet, like Narnia, there are attractive and virtuous people in that land. The sorting of good and bad comes in the final version of the series, The Last Battle, which cannot be understood without the visit to Calormene provided here.

3 people found this helpful

Great narration

Love CS Lewis. Such imaginative writing. This is a great series. And the narration on this one was first rate.

2 people found this helpful

C. S. Lewis fabulous author

It is completely obvious that C. S. Lewis wrote this series of books for a young reader, often going so far as to speak directly to the reader. The performance is good from this perspective.

1 person found this helpful

One of my favorite stories.

This was the first of the Narnian books I was read as a kid. I loved the Title. I have read all of the books many many times over the years and ofter use lines from the books as aids to teach biblical concepts. As Aslan grew bigger as lucy got older, the world of Narnia has grown bigger in my own life and I long to be there.

1 person found this helpful

Loved it!

A remarkable adventure. Everything worked out. It was awesome. Always a great journey. As in all the stories Aslan is there. The narrator was great.

1 person found this helpful