Space Trilogy (Out Of The Silent
Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength)
When my husband ran cardboard
routes for the city, he tended to dumpster dive a little and brought me home
Out Of The Silent Planet one day. I
shelved it and didn't look at it for many years. This book has attributed
greatly to my spiritual reawakening.
I've read the first in this series so many times that I think I know it
by heart. I love this series because it
seems like my own private treasure. When you say C.S. Lewis, most people only
think of his Narnia series or his Apologetics.
I've got a series that's equally as engaging as they are. They can be read as a series, or they can stand
alone.
These books are not allegorical
and Lewis makes that very clear. They
simply take Christian principles and apply them to things that don't exist,
therefore, some liberties have to be taken with what God would command in such
a case. The books follow the spiritual
journey of Dr. Elwin Ransom. (Well, at least the first two do for sure.) In the first one he is kidnapped by an evil
professor and an old school fellow and taken to Mars where his eyes are opened
to the spiritual warfare that is taking place on our world. It is my favorite of the three and I don't
think, from the way it is written, that sequels were intended. It's masterfully creative and an engrossing
read.
The second book, Perelandra, is a
retelling of the story of Eden. It is
very obvious and forthright and you'd have to have been born in another country
not to recognize the story being told.
Satan has chosen the professor from the previous book to be the tempter
on this new innocent world and the guardian angel of Mars helps to send Ransom
to fight him off before he can spark the fall of these people. It is just as intense and enthralling as the
first book and we get to see the story of Eden told with a happy ending.
The third book is more solitary
than the first two. The Ransom character
is not central and in order to bring the spiritual battle back to Earth, Lewis
took a different approach. He was a
professor of Medieval Literature in life, and this book is steeped heavily in
Arthurian legend... so much so, that some of the finer points of the concept
are beyond me. But, the basic plot is
good against evil and the Devine character (the old school fellow) is wrapped
up as well. What struck me about this book was how psychologically accurate the
characters are as compared with their goals and interactions. It's also frighteningly relevant in terms of
politics and social class envy and the like.
Chilling. And inspirational as
well. A beautiful series of books.
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