Space Trilogy (Lewis)

Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of Lewis' Ransom Trilogy (also known as the Cosmic or Space Trilogy), which is considered his chief contribution to science fiction. A planetary romance with elements of medieval mythology, the trilogy concerns Dr. Elwin Ransom, a professor of philology who, like Christ, is offered as a ransom for mankind. On a walking tour of the English countryside, Ransom falls in with some slightly shady characters from his old university and wakes up to find himself naked in a metal ball in the middle of the light-filled heavens. He learns that he is on his way to a world called Malacandra by its natives, who call our world Thulcandra, the silent planet. The Malacandrans see planets as having tutelary spirits; those of the other planets are good and accessible, but Earth's is fallen and twisted.

Perelandra is a planet of pleasure, an unearthly, misty world of strange desires, sweet smells, and delicious tastes, where beasts are friendly and naked beauty is unashamed, a new Garden of Eden, where the story of the oldest temptation is enacted in an intriguingly new way. Here, in the second part of C. S. Lewis' acclaimed Ransom Trilogy, Dr. Ransom's adventures continue against the backdrop of a religious allegory that, while it may seem quaint in its treatment of women today, nonetheless shows the capability of science to be an evil force tempting a ruler away from the path that has produced a paradisiacal kingdom. Will Perelandra succumb to this malevolent being, who strives to create a new world order, or will it throw off the yoke of corruption and achieve a spiritual perfection as yet unknown to man?

This is the final book of C. S. Lewis' acclaimed Ransom Trilogy, which includes Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. A classic work of fantasy as much for the wonder of its storytelling as for its insights into the human condition, the trilogy stages an epic battle between forces of light and darkness across a canvas of other worlds. In That Hideous Strength, the brave philologist Dr. Ransom (modeled after Lewis' friend J. R. R. Tolkien) finds himself in a world of superior alien beings and scientific experiments run amok. There is a rumor that the powerful wizard Merlin has returned to the world of the living, and a sinister technocratic organization plans to use his power in their plot to "recondition" society. Ransom's fight for moral wisdom in a brave new universe dominated by science is a quest filled with intrigue and suspense.