Will I love Out of the Silent Planet?

When I first discovered this book’s existence, I knew I had to read it.

C.S. Lewis ventured into the same territory I stumbled into, and I found few Christians that I could confide in back in the 1990s, about the ideas and concepts that swarmed in my brain.

Everyone has heard about The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screw Tape Letters, and The Great Divorce, all of which are theological classics. CS Lewis is a literary giant and a must-read for Christians.

But to learn that he wrote about outer space as the heavens, and his understanding that… show more.

This was a book I read decades ago as a younger man, and I thought I might revisit it,

The story relates what befell Elwin Ransom while on a walking tour, who finds himself drugged and pulled onto a makeshift spacecraft that takes off for a voyage to a nearby planet, where he meets the local native species and becomes part of a trek to meet the supposed ruler of this world.

The book’s title is something he learned from the aliens, who say that the world he came from, Earth, is known to them as “the silent planet.” After… show more.

This book infused me with that sense of wonder and broadened horizons that come with being transported into the unknown. I especially loved that the creatures featured and portrayed in this work of sci-fi were strange enough to challenge my preconceptions about sentience.

CS Lewis artfully balanced adventure with a comfortable pacing that allowed me to sink into the new world and alien cultures he created. In this book, values like honor, integrity, and community transcend the barriers of other worlds and alien beings. I also love that the plot of this one stands alone while still building a larger… show more.

On the surface, OOTSP is about a British linguist who’s kidnapped to Mars, then escapes to meet pensive furry seal-people who teach him Earth sucks.

Lewis borrows from H.G. Wells’ space travel and—this was written pre-space-age—his haunting, fantastical solar system doesn’t match what we’ve learned since, but his totally unique take on the physics of interdimensional beings rips the pants off anything anyone else ever wrote in metaphysical sci-fi.

These angels aren’t your church’s cherubs, they’re not Frank Peretti’s white-robed super-soldiers, and they’re not Aslan and friends: Lewis actually took the limited science he had at the time about space… show more.

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite people. He was of the British generation who endured Nazi air raids and was the first-ever to halt the advance of Hitler’s army. Narnia! Inklings! Noted by Tolkien as a critical supporter of Middle-Earth’s creation!

Out of the Silent Planet fascinated me as a work of history as much as sci-fi. Through Lewis’ eyes, we get a glimpse of humanity’s circa 1930s grasp of interplanetary physics, cosmic radiation, and aerospace medicine. At the risk of exposing my chronocentric arrogance, it was much more detailed and accurate than I expected. At times, it seems… show more.

Ideal for middle-grade readers or above, C.S. Lewis’ often overlooked science fiction series transports readers to otherworldly realms and invites us to imagine how the entire universe, with all its accompanying principalities and powers, might be crammed full of the glory of God.

Out of the Silent Planet, the first in the Space Trilogy, introduces us to Ransom, a linguist and accidental hero, whose adventures take him to Mars, Venus (Perelandra), and back to Earth (That Hideous Strength). We watch him adapt to extraterrestrial life, fend off the horrors of interplanetary greed and spiritual colonization, wrestle… show more.