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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
The writing quality is excellent, of course. But his misogyny is on full display in the completed short stories in particular. There’s a dual irony that he mocks ugly women but also mocks women who think of things like clothes and makeup—the things women use to make themselves attractive. That said, most of these appear to have been written on the earlier side; his writing of women certainly improved with Narnia and Faces (perhaps because of his friendship with Dorothy Sayers), and there are hints that, had he completed After Ten Years, his Menelaus would have truly loved his aged Helen more than the beauty he expected. But we’ll never know for sure.
TL;DR don’t read it if you don’t want to know about Lewis’s uglier thoughts.
TL;DR don’t read it if you don’t want to know about Lewis’s uglier thoughts.
I will spend the rest of my life in agony wanting to know what happened, but I LOVED what little bit of this story we got. It's so so interesting and has so much potential. Sigh.
CS Lewis does many things well, but writing three demential female characters is not one of them.
Other than that, the ideas in the stories are compelling and his world building is on point as always.
Other than that, the ideas in the stories are compelling and his world building is on point as always.
dark
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The Dark Tower is an unfinished manuscript of C.S. Lewis. It was published, but it did not have the chance of being edited by him. Even saying this, the stories were fine. The Dark Tower was confusing for me at first (and still was throughout the story), but I could grasp the overarching concepts he was trying to portray. How he conveyed time travel was pretty interesting (matter and conservation of it). These are fragments of stories that are weird and not complete, but it was interesting to have a look at the unedited version of his mind. Would not recommend persay, but you should give it a try if it sounds interesting.
mysterious
medium-paced
I really wish Lewis had had the chance to finish The Dark Tower. I think it could've been quite a story by the end!
Not my favorite Lewis to be sure. I can't remember it well, only that I had a hard time getting through it because it never grabbed me the way most of his books do.
It can be frustrating to read a handful of partial stories which have not had the benefit of quality editing by the author, but it gives perhaps the clearest perspective on the mind at its most pure creative level. I read these and feel like I understand Lewis' creativity at a much deeper level in doing so.