The Chronicles of Narnia books, ranked worst to best

7. The Last Battle

The Last Battle is a strange book. Narnia fans are divided on it, but personally, I’m not a fan.

As the final book in The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle has some dar themes never before seen in the series. It feels like it exists mainly to deliver a grim ending, something I don’t think kids were expecting after six books of mainly joyous Narnia magic. It’s also undoubtedly the most controversial installment, too, with details like Susan Pevensie rejecting the reality of Narnia remaining a contentious subject

Put briefly, The Last Battle sees Shift, an ape, trick his friend Puzzle, a donkey, into masquerading around in a lion’s skin pretending to be Aslan. Shift tricks unknowing Narnians into doing certain jobs for him. The story focuses mainly on Eustace and Jill Pole, but the other children show up for cameos. It concludes with the fall of Narnia.

All of the Narnia have religious themes, and The Last Battle draws not to subtly from the Old Testament, specifically the Book of Revelation. Overall, the book lacks the enchanting and whimsical characters from previous books in favor of a much more depressing plot.

However, despite its shortcomings, I would not call The Last Battle a bad book. None of the Narnia books are particularly bad. Many would claim this is actually a good ending, but I think C.S. Lewis took it a needlessly dark direction. Growing up this was my least favorite and it still is today.