hehe! go Eustace!

I'm really starting to finally appreciate Eustace because of this.

Keep writing! Thanks. :)

Wow! You did an amazing job capturing Eustace's changing character and the grace Aslan gave him. Edmund knighting him was really sweet, and even if Eustace didn't behave wonderfully during The Silver Chair, he did learn so much about what it meant to be a knight on that trip. About the one thing I would have liked to have seen is Jill discovering Eustace's knighthood - her amazement and Eustace finding out he didn't actually enjoy even semi-adoration as much as he thought he might have. However, it was probably best the way you wrote it. Really, really wonderful story, and the ending was absolutely perfect. Great job!

Elouise82,

This story made me do what only a really great story can do...

...it made me cry.

I`m not kidding, tears just came out as I was reading this! The story was very touching and I thought it had really good character development on Eustace`s part.

C.S Lewis would be proud. (At least I THINK so...I`m not him, though, so I`m only estimating. :P )

- Permanent Rose

Eustace! I love Eustace and there aren't enough stories written about him. This one was terrific. He was perfectly in character, and I loved the direction in which you took the idea. It fits with the books, and I dare say Lewis himself would approve. And you're a very good writer, both technically (it is such a joy to find a story without typos!) and artistically. I really look forward to reading more of your work!

nice i liked it

Louise, this is the kind of thing that makes me say whatever you write will likely be worth reading. I especially liked the gesture of making Ed forget his sword and Reep lend his. I also thought that you did a masterful job of weaving your story around the stories that Lewis told. My favorite was the middle one, but the bookends were also good to set up and resolve the conflict.

I almost wish that Eustace had gotten around to declaring himself a knight, at least to Jill, but I don't see how you might have done it without spoiling the nicely developed humility which is the truest mark of the noble knight.

Also, I fully agreed with the English usage of "silly **" and at least one other that I can't recall now.

A secret knight with a queasy stomach . . . may we all be so gloriously humble as Eustace!

Honestly, I think that's it; I think that's what you have caught about him that Lewis so skilfully weaves into his own work, that I wasn't able to name when I first read th books because I was just too young to understand what it was about him that I loved. It was his unstudied humility. Of all of the characters, of each of them who are in their own ways so noble, right, proper, fitted and suited for their jobs . . . only Eustace truly seems to know that suitable he may be, but when it comes to honour, he just isn't worthy. Eustace seems to have the healthiest appreciation and soundest grasp of his own inadequacy, and while he is invariably clumsy and arrogant in his own little blacksliding way, he manages to have a pretty healthy appreciation of just how undeserving he is of the place he's been given, and is as a result suitably appreciative.

That you can capture that attribute of his that is already so subtle in Lewis's work, weave it into his character as he is portrayed in your own story and at the same time do it so subtly that it's taken me this many readings of your work to actually finally pin down what that elusive something is that you've caught and reflected just ... well that is Talent.

And this was a truly beautiful, lump-in-my-throat ending to a lovely story.

Worst possible excuse indeed! Poor Jill, poor Eustace . . . that's one thing that makes me hold off reading The Silver Chair unless I'm in a really resilient mood; how very cross they all get with each other!

I am all in with your optimistic side. I have no doubt that your skeptical side has its right and proper place in life, but it is very wrong about this story. Eustace is a character I felt much affection for when I was younger, but am embarrassed to admit he got harder for me to understand as I grew older. I don't know why that is, exactly, but I do know that reading this has reminded me of much of what I loved about him to begin with. You have a real knack for making him shine, even when he is far from at his shiniest, and I admire you for that.

This is such a marvelous opening to the story. Each time I read it I see something new that I love, whether it's Eustace's earnest political declaration or Reepicheep's tiny sword being used for such a great deed or just one of Eustace's many perfectly Eustacey things that he says. The sort of shuffling, mumbling way he brings up the whole issue of knighthood and his embarrassed but heartfelt desire to belong to such a noble order as that . . . all of them are sweet, perfectly harmonious notes in a really lovely opening chapter.

I love your Eustace, he is such an inglorious schoolboy, and he's so very lovable for it! The very clumsiness of his manner that we see consistently throughout the books, even when he is at his best, is well captured here, and the idea of that awkward, put-his-foot-in-it little boy attaining such an honour and then promptly asking if it could be kept secret just . . . yes. Just yes. Absolutely wonderful opening :)

Good Job!!
I really enjoyed it. Keep on writing and your style will improve.

Wonderful story idea. The end of this chapter was really brilliant, when he determined to be "on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it." (That also happens to be my favorite line from the book :) and my motto.) I really loved the way you delved deeper into what it was like to be enchanted, as well. That was something I'd never really thought about...

No. It is not rubbish. Keep writing!

Oh nicely done!

Poor Eustace...feeling like he'd failed them all. I'm so glad that the Pevensies set him right. And I could feel his heart ache when he thought about Alberta. So sad.

I also liked when you had Eustace's 'last words' sort of as "Into your paws I commit my spirit". That was cleverly done.

Great job. I really liked your descriptions. My favorite part was in the middle where he's talking to Jill. They are such great friends. So many people think that it's a romance, but it's really just a great friendship.

Again, well done!

KC

I'm so glad you showed this section of The Last Battle from Eustace's perspective. In the battle section, he's truly Everyman, because he isn't a great warrior and doesn't really want to kill anyone. The final section, past the stable door, must have been at once wonderful and scary for you to write, because I can't imagine any happier moment, yet you must have felt as though you were holding lightning in your hands. You did it beautifully, from Eustace's realization that these weren't his cousins but Narnia's greatest rulers, to their joyous welcoming of him into their circle. King Eustace...how lovely. Thanks for a delightful story. I only wish there were need for another chapter, but you've clearly filled out all the corners as it is. You'll just have to start another story! I'll eagerly await it.

So brilliant to have Eustace think that maybe he's--gasp--the sidekick. You've found such a lovely way to show Eustace's progress through his time in Narnia. The way he thinks about Jill is wonderful, Another thing you manage to convey is something I've long considered: he isn't a coward. He's eager to help, though he doesn't have the strength or training to be the one to administer, as you say, the killing blow. He also respects the contributions of others without resenting them as he used to: for instance, Puddleglum's "wonderful obstinacy" against the Witch's seductive talk of despair. This is a splendid glimpse of a character who ranks as one of my favorite. in all of Narnian lore.