One evening Dr. Elwin Ransom is walking down the street when a woman asks for his help. Before he knows what is happening he is on a space ship with two men heading to a distant planet against his will. Believing he has been brought there so the inhabitants of the planet can kill him he escapes soon after arriving on Malacandra, or as we know it Mars.
Ransom finds himself in a strange new world and soon becomes friends with another race of people living on the planet. What was the real reason he was brought there and will he ever return home? Find out in Out of the Silent Planet book one of C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy.
When most people think of books by C.S. Lewis the books that most likely come to mind are one of the “Chronicles of Narnia”, Mere Christianity, or one of the many other classics he wrote. I cannot help but wonder how many of you reading this even knew he wrote a Space Trilogy.
I had heard of this series for years but never read it, and I really enjoyed it. I have heard it said that Lewis created the whole Science Fiction genre with this series (remember it was written in the 1940’s) and most Science Fiction since then borrows something from this series. While I am not sure how true that is I can definitely see similarities between this series and the Science Fiction movies and television shows today.
As for this book I enjoyed it. The story was interesting and at times intense. Because it was written before man began space travel I had to laugh at some of the descriptions of space (especially the first description of Earth from space) now that we know what it is really like.
One thing I found confusing were some of the terms used for things on Malacandra. I did not think it was clear exactly what they were or the Earth equivalent. One thing in particular I thought I knew exactly what it was but the next time it was mentioned it seemed to be something completely different and this confused me.
This book contains a lot of symbolism and metaphors, therefore the themes of this book are hard to see. I am aware that spiritual warfare is the overall theme of the series, though in this particular book it is not obvious until towards the end. Not judging others is another theme. Ransom is terrified of everything when he first arrives, but the more time he spends there he comes to realize that his first perceptions of the planet were wrong.
Overall this is a very interesting book which C.S. Lewis fans as well as Science Fiction lovers should read. I give it four and a half out of five stars.
If there is a book you would like me to review please write it in the Comments.
Soli Deo Gloria!
