   
|
 
LCARS
Library Computer Access and Retrieval System
A Long Story Short
Shawn Thornburg
When I write anything, I usually encounter a few false starts�this time I had at least sixteen; �How do you start a review on a book so great?� I would ask myself when I sat down to touch ink to paper; �Just write,� I would then say�and here it is: a love beyond any love I ever knew I could have for literature is what I have for this and all seven Chronicles of Narnia (that�s not to say it�s the greatest love I will ever have�though I don�t believe it will be far from the top�I just never knew I could like a book so much): underground battles against oppression; betrayal; sorcery and magic; an epic, David-and-Goliath-like bout; and an ending (O what an ending!) that made me laugh harder than I have laughed after reading anything but a good joke�these things and more wrapped up in the well-written and image-saturated book that is Prince Caspian. British writing�I can�t get enough.
Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy, the four children who once ruled Narnia in its Golden Age, are yanked by magic from their seats in a London train station (where they had been awaiting the trains that would take them back to their respective schools) back into Narnia, where, as they would find out, they are to liberate Old Narnia (that is, the Narnia that was when they ruled) from the cold-hearted grasp of the tyrannous King Miraz; it�s not an easy task, though, since all of Old Narnia has been driven into hiding, its numbers have dwindled horribly, and it has become somewhat divided by self-concerned survivalists (namely, Nikabrik the dwarf and his company). Upon their arrival, the children find help in a dwarf named Trumpkin (whom they affectionately call �Dear Little Friend,� or �DLF�), who tells them the story of Prince Caspian: how he came into knowing and ruling Old Narnia; how he was waiting at Aslan�s How (or the Stone Table where Aslan, the Creator of Narnia, was sacrificed and resurrected in another book in this series) at that very moment to wait for help to battle Miraz; and how he had sent Trumpkin to the ruins of Cair Paravel (which are on the island upon which the children first land when pulled into Narnia) to lead the help back. They follow the dwarf to Aslan�s How (and have some adventures with a mean, hungry, non-talking bear and a near-fatal decision concerning which way to cross a gorge) only to have to thwart an attempted uprising within Old Narnia�perpetrated by Nikabrik and company, no less.
I suppose I should make a long story short: Aslan returns, helps defeat Miraz, renews the land, and sends the children and Miraz�s remaining people (the Telmarines) back to this universe�back to Earth�from whence they came. Now for my favorite ending of any book: ��Bother,� said Edmund. �I�ve left my new torch in Narnia.�� Isn�t that great? Through all of the adventures and misadventures, the first thing Edmund remembers is his forgotten flashlight. British writing�I still can�t get enough.
  
|
