The Space Trilogy

Read these some decades ago so a less than detailed analysis...
I persisted with books 2 and 3 despite being a bit underwhelmed with the Silent Planet and enjoyed Perelandra rather more. Both the second and third books were rather more engaging though for me Perelandra was the best of the trilogy. ( )

This final part of the trilogy is longer than the first two put together. It's a bit of a mixed bag though with more good than bad, certainly much better than the largely tedious Perelandra. The first three quarters are exciting, with a growing sense of foreboding about the amorality of the Institute's activities, with interesting things to say about science and religion and subjective v. objective philosophical viewpoints. But the last 100 pages were somewhat disappointing with the plot being obscured with opaque and rather arbitrary cultural references and seemingly random and inexplicable happenings, leading to a rather unsatisfactory conclusion. ( )

Perelandra started off quite dramatically, but soon transformed into a plotless spiritual tract. I have no problem with Lewis's philosophy as the underpinning to a story, as it was in Out of the Silent Planet, but not when it replaces the story as it did here. The scene, however, was set for a more exciting story in the concluding part of the trilogy, That Hideous Strength. ( )

Review based on Out of the Silent Planet only

Out of the Silent Planet

This is an intriguing story of one man's encounter with the intelligent alien life forms on the planet Malacandra, better known to us as Mars. Lewis is very good at creating an alien way of life and a totally different philosophical outlook from that of humans. The religious undertones are well handled and subtly done - those who do not wish to acknowledge that dimension can just treat this as a very good SF novel rather ahead of its time in terms of its treatment of otherness. ( )

Each of the books in the trilogy is very different. I'll try to address each one.

Out of the Silent Planet
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Professor Ransom is abducted by two materialistic villains, Weston and Devine and taken to Mars (Malacandra). After escaping his captors he experiences strange landscapes and meets various aliens. Eventually he comes in contact with the chief spirit of Mars, who is a being beyond normal human apprehension. The idea that these interplanetary beings (eldila) are the angels and demons of religious myth is the most interesting one of the book. The rest is rather pedestrian planetary romance, which is a pity because I normally like that kind of thing.

Perelandra
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Ransom is taken from Earth to Venus by the eldila There a kind of re-enactment of the Garden of Eve myth takes place. The Lady of Venus is tempted by the Devil, who has taken over the body of the scientist Weston. Ransom has to convince the Lady -- who seems extremely gullible and open to suggestion either way -- that Weston is lying and evil. Eventually a physical confrontation occurs between weedy philologist Ransom and the hideous Un-man in an underground region very reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien's Moria. Ultimately the Lady is reunited with her Man and all is right with the world. The Lady seems quite incapable of making up her own mind when there are any men around, though she did just fine before any of them showed up.

For me the most interesting part of this book was the narrator's journey to Ransom's house. Along the way his mind was beset by worries and fears caused by the bad eldila of Earth. The inhuman nature of these vast extraplanetary intelligences reminded me of the uncaring and sanity-blasting universe of the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft -- though I'm quite sure that was not Lewis' intention. This idea of manipulative aliens in the form of 'angels' is also explored, and in a better way I think, in Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos: Archives series.

That Hideous Strength
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This one appeared the most interesting of the three. It is set on Earth (in England of course) where a scheming and in fact satanic corporation called NICE threatens to bring the greater powers of nastiness into ascendancy. NICE has gathered together scientists and materialists and politicians and bullies to cause harm to the common good. Opposing them are Professor Ransom and his loyal, God-fearing crew. The scene of the action is the university town (fictional) of Edgestow. Junior professor Mark Studdock and his wife Jane get drawn to different sides of the conflict.

The characters of the NICE are well drawn, though all nasty. The 'good guys' are a little more boring, but I guess that is to be expected. The plot is more convoluted than the previous two installments but ultimately it is disappointing. The NICE folks are quite satisfying villains but get their comeuppance basically through divine intervention in the end. Similarly the 'goodies' don't do too much but sit around until they are saved by external forces. This is a universe where human action counts for very little. Some of the characters did have to choose the right path but the story unsatisfying in the end. ( )