The Space Trilogy by CS Lewis

Title: The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength)

Author: CS Lewis (British, 1898-1963)
Originally published: 1938; 1943; 1945
Page count: 150; 182; 370


Dates read: 3/20/19-3/27/19; 3/28/19-4/6/19 and 5/5/19-5/11/19; 7/8/19-7/18/19
2019 book goal progress:  16 out of 41
Back to the Classics category: 20th-century classic


Read my other book reviews for the challenge HERE.


Out of the Silent Planet (book 1)
Description on back of book:
Dr. Ransom is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and is taken via spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra. The men plan to use Ransom as a human sacrifice, but he escapes and must fight for his life, and the chance to return to Earth, while exploring a world that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and in its similarity.

First sentence:
"The last drops of the thundershower had hardly ceased falling when the Pedestrian stuffed his map into his pocket, settled his pack more comfortably on his tired shoulders, and stepped out from the shelter of a large chestnut-tree into the middle of the road."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 9 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 9
Atmosphere   - 10
Writing Style - 9
Plot                - 8
Intrigue          - 9
Logic             - 8
Enjoyment     - 10
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:
Malacandra is Mars and 'the silent planet' (or Thulcandra) is Earth. Malacandra has 3 intelligent beings: Hross (tall, black, furry, seal-like creatures - they are farmers, fishermen, and poets), Sorns (tall, thin, light-colored, feathered but without wings, humanoid-ish creatures - they are scientists, philosophers, and shepherds), and Pfifltriggi (frog-like, grasshopper-like, dwarf-like - they are minors, crafters, and mechanics). There are also 3 spirit-like beings: Oyarsa, Maleldil, and the Old One - which I believe represent the Christian trinity. There are also eldils, which are kind of like angels.

This is a great story both for those interested in science fiction alone, as well as for those also interested in philosophy. CS Lewis does such a great job discussing theology in the accessible form of fiction, which makes it easier to understand. The last chapter and postscript turn the whole book on its head. I cannot say much more about it - otherwise, this review will turn into a long essay and would contain many spoilers.

Favorite quotes:
"He wondered how he could ever have thought of planets as islands of life and reality floating in a deadly void. Now, he saw the planets as mere holes or gaps in the living heaven - excluded and rejected wastes of heavy matter and murky air, formed not by addition to, but by subtraction from, the surrounding brightness. And yet, he thought, beyond the solar system the universe ends. Is that the real void, the real death? Unless... he groped for the idea... unless the visible hole is also a hole or gap, a mere diminution of something else. Something that is to bright and unchanging heaven as heaven is to the dark, heavy planets..."

"Our only chance was to publish in the form of fiction what would certainly not be listened to as fact. This might have the incidental advantage of reaching a wider public. To my objection that if accepted as fiction it would for that very reason be regarded as false, he replied that there would be indications enough in the narrative for the few readers - the very few - who at present were prepared to go further into the matter."

Perelandra (book 2)
Description on back of book:
Dr. Ransom is fighting against the most destructive of human weaknesses, temptation, when he must battle evil on a new planet - Perelandra - after it is invaded by a dark force that strives to create a new world order on the peace-loving planet.

First sentence:
"As I left the railway station at Worchester and set out on the three-mile walk to Ransom's cottage, I reflected that no one on that platform could possibly guess the truth about the man I was going to visit."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 8.6 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 7
Atmosphere   - 9
Writing Style - 9
Plot                - 9
Intrigue          - 9
Logic             - 8
Enjoyment     - 9
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:
Perelandra is Venus and Earth goes by the Latin word Tellus. There is only 1 intelligent species on Perelandra - a green humanoid and there's only 2 of them. There's the Lady or Queen who is later named Tinidril, who represents Eve. There's also the Lord or King who is named Tor, who represents Adam (and we don't actually meet until the very end of the book). Besides Ransom, another man from Earth comes to Perelandra and becomes possessed by Satan, representing the snake. The Trinity discussed in the first book is confirmed with Maleldil talked about as Jesus who became man, died, and rose again.

This book is basically a retelling of the Garden of Eden, with a very different result. It is incredible to read the story in a whole new light with so many parallels, but also many differences. The theology in the first book is relatively subtle to the extremely blatant theology written out in this book. This book is more mythology-like than a space story like the first one. This is still a great novel, but I liked the first book better.

Favorite quotes:
"One goes into the forest to pick food and already the thought of one fruit rather than another has grown up in one's mind. Then, it may be, one finds a different fruit and the fruit one thought of. One joy was expected and another is given. The very moment of the finding, there is in the mind a kind of thrusting back or setting aside.  The picture of the fruit you have not found is still, for a moment, before you. And if you wished you could keep it there. You could send your soul after the good you had expected, instead of turning it to the good you had got. You could refuse the real good; you could make the real fruit taste insipid by thinking of the other."

"When He (Jesus) died in the Wounded World (Earth) He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less. Each thing, from the single grain of Dust to the strongest eldil (angel), is the end and final cause of all creation and the mirror in which the beam of His brightness comes to rest and so returns to Him."

That Hideous Strength (book 3)
Description on back of book:
Dark forces are poised to invade Earth, while a rumor that the ancient wizard Merlin is returning and offering tremendous power to those who can find him and control him. The heroic Dr. Ransom is trying to handle these threats, while battling a sinister technocratic organization, by applying age-old wisdom to a new universe dominated by science.

First sentence:
"'Matrimony was ordained, thirdly,' said Jane Studdock to herself, 'for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other.'"

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 7.7 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 7
Atmosphere   - 9
Writing Style - 9
Plot                - 7
Intrigue          - 8
Logic             - 6
Enjoyment     - 8
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:
I was nervous to start this book because it's longer than the first 2 books put together and all I remember from the first time reading it is that it was very confusing. The story drew me in, so the length wasn't a big deal. The beginning is confusing because you meet A LOT of characters quickly and it's important to know where each one is associated and what role they play. Also, the last 100 pages or so get very philosophical and some of it still went over my head. Overall, though, it's a great book.

Basically, a husband and wife get separated and the book goes back and forth between what Jane knows of the situation and what Mark knows. At first I really just wanted to read Jane's parts, but by the end, Mark's parts were more interesting to me. There is no space travel in this book. Instead, it's science fiction in a more classical sense - it's medical and psychological, similar to Frankenstein or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There also was something called a Pragmatometer described as an "analytical notice-board" and it made me think of an early, rudimentary type of internet.

Favorite quotes:
"It's not theology I'm talking about, but the Lord Jesus. Theology is talk - eyewash - a smoke screen - a game for rich men. It wasn't in lecture rooms I found the Lord Jesus. It was in the coal pits, and beside the coffin of my daughter. If they think that theology is a sort of cotton wool which will keep them safe in the great and terrible day, they'll find their mistake. For, mark my words, this is going to happen. The Kingdom is going to arrive: in this world: in this country. The powers of science are an instrument. An instrument of judgment as well as healing."

Fun Side Note: The idea for The Chronicles of Narnia was conceived in 1939, but Lewis didn't finish writing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe until 1949 and it was published in 1950. That Hideous Strength was published in 1945, halfway between Narnia's invention and the first published book of the series, and includes this brief glimpse into what was to come:

"That same afternoon Mother Dimbe and the three girls were upstairs in the big room which occupied nearly the whole top floor of one wing at the Manor, and which the Director called the Wardrobe. If you had glanced in, you would have thought for one moment that they were not in a room at all but in some kind of forest - a tropical forest glowing with bright colors."

Conclusion:

I really liked all three books and would highly recommend them to anyone,  though, I think the first will always be my favorite. The connection between the books is rather thin and I think I might've enjoyed them more as individual books rather than part of a trilogy. All three books are quite different and I think it would have been easier to get lost in them on their own rather than trying to make the stories and styles work together in a series.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let CS Lewis have the last words:

"A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered." -Out of the Silent Planet

"The account a man gives of the universe, or of any other building, depends very much on where he is standing." -Perelandra

"This is the courtesy of Deep Heaven: that when you mean well, He always takes you to have meant better than you knew." -That Hideous Strength