I want that last page read at my funeral. This book has some of the best quotes out of the whole series, and alot of good allusions to apologetics. Great parallels to the modern world that still work today, like the ridiculousness of the Tashlan lie. ( )

Such great books! I really like the series. I always cry while reading the end of this book: what we think of as Narnia ending, our world ending, but then realizing that the 'real' Narnia (Heaven) is so real and pure and amazing! In a sense, it breaks my heart, but heals it all at once, too.

https://www.tor.com/2021/05/12/the-problems-of-susan/
Matt Mikalatos says insert this:

"It was Lucy who remembered Susan then, and cried out to Aslan, “Susan, Susan, but what’s to become of Susan?”

Aslan came to her, the joy in his face replaced for a moment with sorrow. “Her story is not yours to know, Daughter of Eve.”

“But she’s alone,” Lucy said, and tears sprang from her eyes.

“She’s not alone,” Aslan said, his voice low and soft, and Lucy leaned against his broad back, just as she and Susan had done, oh, years ago. “But she must find her own way.”

“But what if she doesn’t?”

“Emeth found his way,” Aslan said. “Do you truly think our good Queen Susan the Gentle will fail to find a doorway home when the time comes?”

“I know that I’m meant to be happy here, Aslan, it’s just…it’s just that it’s terribly sad.”

Great, shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. “She will know more sorrow than you. But perhaps her joy will be greater, too, in time.”

His tears fell to the bright grass and formed a crystal pond, bright and clear. Aslan blew upon the water, and where the water was troubled she could see Susan, sitting in her room at home, looking at herself in the mirror, putting on her mascara.

“Susan, Susan!” Lucy cried, and her sister looked up for a moment, as if she heard a voice in another room.

“She does not yet know,” Aslan said, “What has happened to you and your brothers and your parents. She does not yet know the pain that lies ahead of her. But because of your great love for her, Lucy, you may speak one last sentence to her. One sentence to help her on her way.”

Lucy fell to her knees beside the pool, her tears mingling with Aslan’s. She did not know what to say, and she began to wonder whether it was better to say nothing at all, when the great lion said, “Speak, dear heart, it will mean more than you can know in the years to come.”

Lucy leaned close, so close to Susan she felt she could reach into the water and touch her, and she said, “Dear Susan—dear, beloved Susan—always remember…once a queen in Narnia, always a queen in Narnia.”

Susan set down her mascara. “Lu, is that you? Are you home so soon?” A gentle smile came onto her face. “How strange. For a moment I thought…but of course that can’t be. I’ll have to tell Lucy all about it when she gets home.”

Aslan blew on the water again, and Susan was gone.

Lucy threw her arms around Aslan’s great neck and buried her face in his golden mane. “Was it enough, Aslan? Did I say the right thing?”

As for Aslan’s answer, well, that is Lucy’s story to tell."

From the readers' comments:

"7. LynMars
"Wed May 12, 2021 1:44pm 7 Favorites [ ]
"I read the idea once that Susan’s post-series journey was Lewis’; he had fallen away from his childhood understanding of faith, then later in life became a true believer. In that case, Susan’s “too grown up” story in rediscovering Narnia and Aslan would be perhaps too personal for him as well.

"But I remember the first fanfic I ever tried to write (with a pencil in my little “locked” hardcover diary) as a young teen was Susan, married with her own children, and the kids finding a strange box of rings she had inherited from Professor Kirke. She was reminiscing of her lost friends and family, the stories of Narnia–then one of the children put on a ring and vanished, and suddenly Susan had to guide her family on a magical adventure to a new world and reunite with Aslan and have new adventures where she found herself again."

"58. Liz Williams
"Thu May 13, 2021 4:38am 1 Favorite [ ]
"The problem with Susan is that everyone sees her as a problem and everyone wants to save her from her folly except, possibly, Susan herself. The article above is a much better take on it than Gaiman’s, Rowling’s or Pullman’s, although the latter is a militant atheist so I wouldn’t expect him to get it. I’m terrible with the Bible but I did read it as a child and one of the things that such with me was Verse 11. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” I assumed that this was what Susan was doing, because she wanted to grow up in her own world. She’d already grown up into a little girl’s idea of a fantasy queen but then it was time to explore the world into which she’d been born. And hey, you may disapprove of lipstick and stockings, but a lot of us don’t: please don’t make the equally dodgy assumption that this is internalised patriarchy because yet again, here we have a man telling us how we should look and behave. I don’t want to hunt werewolves, cheers all the same.

"As a writer, I find it irritating when people rewrite other people’s work because it makes them uncomfortable. I too found Susan not getting into Narnia distressing but it set me up for the understanding that sometimes people will change in ways that you do not like, that make you uncomfortable. I’ve always been grateful to Lewis for that. Fan fiction is all about ‘making things better’ but it’s your idea of what’s better, not the person’s. Discomfort, unease and estrangement and loss are part of life, and I suspect Susan had a very good one."

Also in the comments are observations that the issue is not that Susan discovered boys or sex, nor that she would be lost forever, but simply that at that time she had prioritized worldliness. Iow, some readers do not need Matt's inserted scene.

I, too, remember being made to feel uncomfortable, and provoked to think about what was next on her journey, but not being too bothered by it. Now, note that I had *no* idea about any of the Christian stuff. Still probably wouldn't unless I sought it out... but I prolly will reread the series at some point just out of curiosity.
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So, I've finally read it, because Carnegie project. Ok, I can see why some think it wonderful. I don't, of course. After all, what are they going to do with themselves in Heaven, with no battles in which to prove their valor?

Distinctly unsatisfying.

Unfortunately the cautionary parable of Shift and the Dwarves, etc., is still painfully relevant. ( )

À luz de uma enorme fogueira crepitante, a última batalha de Nárnia está prestes a acontecer. O rei Tirian, ajudado corajosamente por Jill e Eustáquio, terá de enfrentar os cruéis calormanos, num combate que decidirá, finalmente, a luta entre as forças do bem e do mal. Mas, com tantas dúvidas e confusão ao redor, conseguirá o rei Tirian manter-se firme na hora mais negra de Nárnia?

This book wraps up the series. It is indeed a great battle, with evil fighting good, and some being led astray. In the end, all is well, mostly. Perhaps not as enjoyable as some of the other books in the series, it does explain how Narnia ends, and what happens after. ( )