Getting closer to the end, in more ways than one

I finished The Silver Chair, and it was really good. This, like The Horse and His Boy, turned out to be a good adventure story primarily, with much less allegory. Yes, I had to deal with children learning things again, and that was all pretty dull. But then Puddleglum endeavored to teach the children to be gay by watching him, so it all worked out.

I'm two chapters into The Last Battle, and already the allegory is thick and soupy. Spoiler alert! The Last Battle is based on the Book of Revelations. Actually, I take that back; spoilers are situations in which something not commonly known is revealed, and if you know anything about C.S. Lewis at all, then you know that obviously, the final book in a series by him will have to be the Book of Revelations. That's like saying "spoiler alert! On Family Ties this week, Meredith Baxter Birney is going to sing."

The Book of Revelations is tricky. There are numerous interpretations of it, and little consensus over exactly what it means. And no wonder, because it's a very strange text.

And so very early in the story, the dogs are barking and the peacocks crowing. Everyone seems to have a symbolic name that I haven't figured out the meaning of, like Shift the ape, or Puzzle the donkey, or Jewel the unicorn. Perhaps later on they will be joined by Motorcar the manticore and Tetrahydrocannabinol the girl with hippie parents.

It seems to me that a children's book based on Revelations can only be fantastic or awful. Once the verdict is in, I will let you know.