I like your solution of The Problem of Susan ...

I think this is a good transition to your AU. I look forward to reading more of it, both those chapters / stories you refer to which are already written, and what is to come next year. It's good to be reading your stories again!

"As set out in other stories, it was Peter, hoping to provide an heir and stable succession for Narnia, who urged that they all ride out, chasing his wish and the White Stag."

I haven't read those stories yet! Thank you for telling - this explains so much! It makes a lot more sense then.
Other than that, I do indeed as reader know more than Jill and Eustace do. And I'll read chapter 5 now right away.

Interesting how you tied in actual LB canon, eg. Susan calling it a children's story with everything you've done with these characters. I really like it! And it makes me all the more sad she was left behind. All the reunions were lovely, though! With Morgan and Jalur and Aiden and Merle and so many others. (Poor Lambert.) Please post more! It's always wonderful to see work from you!

One interesting realization I'm having, reading this chapter a second time (after enjoying it first on An Archive of Their Own), is that Plan A for the fab four was for them to live out their lives in Narnia, THEN return to Spare 'Oom with what they'd learned in their pockets, no muss, no fuss. So the tragedy of the train wreck is now the second time that Peter, the Greatly Obtuse High King, has pulled the plug by making assumptions. With all respect to Puzzle, we all know what they say about that...and a train wreck is as good an analogy for messing up so very thoroughly as any. Surely Peter should realize that train wrecks and White Stags that lead you into a closet may be nature's gentle way of reminding you to resist first & worst impulses.

Jill and Eustace once again provide a great point-of-view for putting together the older pieces of a long story. I adored The Great Mouse's chivalrous welcome to Jill, who deserved to know that she had as stellar a reputation as a heroine as Puddlegum did a hero-and I loved the conceit of Puddlegum becoming a namesake for generations of Narnians. A fine recompense for that great act of heroism we all remember in the Silver Chair, when he literally walks over hot coals to counter evil.

Jill and Eustace's earlier scene in the bedroom made me think of that line in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped: "Did you kiss? Or did you ask?"

Best in this chapter: Edmund leading Morgan, his candle-throwing consort, and "looking happier than Eustace had ever seen him;" second-best; Morgan glowering at Aslan when he realizes that Susan is paying the price for her husband's leap into the great unknown. There are lots of reasons why this reviewer has always enjoyed Morgan, but surely the first and most important is her fearless willingness to call even the Great Lion out, when she feels he is roaming out of line.

Once again, RthStewart has offered satisfying Midrash on a canon that always slighted moral complexities in a troubling manner that I honestly believe even C.S. Lewis would have reconsidered, if he had written the Narnia series after he found his own Morgan, Joy Davidman. I look forward to further episodes in the coming year, and am wishing every reader who enjoys this series as thoroughly as I a healthy and peaceful holiday season.

Great Chapter,
Clio1792

This has been such a fantastic couple of chapters - I love how you reconciled your world with The Last Battle. Eustace was such an interesting narrator for this, giving us an outside perspective on the situation with Susan, and also his ponderings on faith and religion. Great stuff, and I look forward to seeing where the story goes next!

It is worth pointing out, perhaps, that ringing the bell and awakening Jadis was not one of Digory's better decisions.

This chapter continues to stun, and best, certainly, as several other reviewers have remarked, is RthStewart's decision to use Eustace's point of view, so that he is befuddled by a variety of details that others are not. His memories of Caspian and indignation regarding the difficulties the Prince would face throughout his sad life were touching; his impressions of Tebbitt's clever, easy way with people; and of Susan's determination not to be sucked in by Peter's sense of urgency about return, allow for the registering of details that might otherwise escape notice. And, of course, his dawning realization that Jill is not just his bunk mate, but his soul mate is satisfying, and long overdue.

I indicated in my review of this chapter on Archive of Our Own that Susan's career choice finally supplies a perfect explanation for a plot turn that, in C.S. Lewis's original, seemed arbitrary and misogynistic. But it does leave this reviewer with one question I didn't think of earlier: is Susan getting the same nightmares as the other friends of Narnia? Or is she remembering the enigmatic lizard who once warned her that she would come to Aslan's country by a different route? Peter's arrogance and tendency to never second-guess himself is irritating; but what makes Susan so certain that she's right-even if I tend to agree that she is?

A fine chapter, with good suspense,
Clio1792

I haven't been reading for far too long. It's really good to be back at your stories again. Good writing as always :-) although darker than some of your texts. I'll wait eagerly for next chapter.

Great chapter! This is not part of the everybody lives, nobody dies though, is it? That makes the end of this that much harder. I look forward to what's next though!

Utterly fantastic as always.

Thank you!

P.s. I finally got around to reading the book that was a primary source of yours for queen Susan in tashaban. Fascinating!

And they are all excellent, and everyone should read them!

What I like here, especially, is the massive distress call sent out to everyone who was a friend of Narnia about what is going wrong (a fine romantic concept..that moment with the telegrams was great)...as well as Eustace's dissection of "The Star Husband" as a parable of perverted longing. Moving on after loss of a loved one is really hard, but real love is about letting go, not straitjacketing someone into the prison of the past. So I respect the author's concept and her evolving thinking about the many problems with "The Last Battle," and the intervention she is envisioning.

Also good: Jill's pushing back against the boundless egotism of Peter's royal decree.

It was particularly interesting to this reviewer that a woman who has come of age conscious of being mixed-race would ruminate on the strangeness of a Boston Marriage. And yet, to many, an interracial marriage is no less strange. American law, as I've written elsewhere on this site, built both Loving v. Virginia and Obergefell v. Hodges on the Fourteenth Amendment. Perhaps Jill will consider this parallel at some point-and perhaps the only reason it isn't occurring to her immediately is because she is fortunate that both her father and mother, and Rita and Clara, model examples of finding a soul mate in unexpected places without obstruction.

Whenever I read RthStewart's wonderful stories, I always regret that C.S. Lewis isn't still with us to be challenged to comment. Would he, in the days after his marriage to Joy Gresham, have reconsidered some of the more problematic representations in his books? I like to think that as a growing, ruminative intellectual, first Surprised by Joy, and then forced to observe his own grief, he would have engaged with the Stone Gryphon and Apostolic Way as thoughtfully as the author's universe has wrestled with the moral challenges his work presented-prodding the profound to further growth; unfreezing the figures held captive by Time's magic wand.

Fine work, as always, from this author,
Clio1792

oh my WORD! I have just finished re-reading the Stone Gryphon series again (an old favorite of mine I return to once a year) and what a treat to see your update. I'm absolutely thrilled to say Welcome Back! and looking forward to any new writing :)

I don't even think I'd read the first chapter in this one. Lovely to see an update from you though! And a very good little story with some difficult undertones, and it's interesting to see Lucy, the bright one, dealing with "the bears", but I'm glad the others were able to help her.

I am so pleased to see you return to this fandom. You’re writing is fabulous and emotive. The Stone Gryphon is still my favorite and I won’t embarrass myself by admitting how many times I have read and reread your work.

Veri n1c3DSnst0riwR

Even with all the sadness in this chapter, I still really enjoyed this. It's been wonderful to see what everyone's been up to now that the war is over and with Richard's passing, how Mary is doing as well.

There doesn't seem to be many happy outcomes for many people here, especially given all the separations between families post-war in England, and for Lucy, learning that these situations happen everywhere else as well. It will definitely be beastly for her to return to school but at least she knows what she needs to do in order to help others more freely (and I hope there'll be less arrests for her too!).

So what is a spy to do when the war has ended, if not choosing to continue in the espionage world (when the cold war has yet to really start)? I'm glad Asim was able to figure that out on this trip.

And poor Peter. It's a shame so many of these adventures involves boats! At least he has been having a good time during those days when he doesn't get wet.