Book Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy

                                               The Horse and His Boy Review

This story takes place entirely in the world of Narnia and is set during the reign of the Pevensies. The story starts off in the southern country of the Calormenes which is a country that is desert like, there's lots of slavery and none of the animals talk in this country lives a boy named Shasta. Shasta has been raised all his life by a fisherman that isn't his father and who treats him more like a worker than a son and is planning to sell him to a Calormene noble man who is known to be cruel to those he owns but before this happens Shasta meets a talking horse named Bree who is from Narnia and he talks Shasta into helping him escape to Narnia where they would both be free.

Along the way to Narnia Shasta and Bree encounter Aravis and Hwin, Aravis is a girl from a noble Calormene family who has ran away from home after being told she will be forced to marry a man who is much older than her and Hwin is another talking Narnian horse who gave Aravis the idea of going to Narnia instead of killing herself to get out of the marriage. The group travels without much happening until they get to the city of Tashbaan where Shasta is mistaken as Archenland's Prince Corrin. While pretending to be Corrin Shasta overhears the story about how Queen Susan of Narnia doesn't want to marry Prince Rabadash but doesn't think he'd take no for an answer so the people from Narnia come up with a plan to escape before the Calormene's would notice. Later that night Prince Corrin returns and Shasta leaves to meet up with Bree, Aravis and Hwin.

While Shasta was being mistaken for being Corrin, Aravis sees a girl named Lasaraleen who she had been friends with when she was young and she has her help with sneaking her out of Tashbaan. When trying to escape Tashbaan Aravis overhears Prince Rabadash's plans to attack Narnia and Archenland because he wants to have Susan as his wife no matter how impractical it is for the Calormene's to attack Narnia.

Shasta, Aravis, Bree and Hwin travel across the desert that separates the southern and northern countries. In the end Shasta was able to inform Archenland's king of the Calormene's attack before it happened and he got word to Narnians before the attack as well so therefore Prince Rabadash's attacks where unsuccessful. In the end it's discovered that Shasta is Prince Corrin's twin and his real name is Cor and he along with Aravis are invited to live in Arachenland's palace and Bree and Hwin are able to go back to their original homes as well.

I overall enjoyed this book but it has quite a different feel to it than the other two Narnia books I've read so far because it deals a lot with a country that's in Narnia's world but isn't Narnia and it has a very different culture. I really enjoyed the main characters of this story and I liked that most of them seemed to grow over the course of the story. Please tell me your thoughts on this book.