Summer Reading Goals, year 3 - "Out of the Silent Planet"

There is only one day left in August, one day until the deadline for my summer reading goals. It's been a busy summer, and I have completed 3 out of 5 goals so far. I will continue on with the last 2  - I know what I'm going to read for those goals, I just haven't completed them yet - and will hopefully complete them within the next week or so.

The third goal completed from my list was to read the first in a new series. Technically it's an old series, and technically I have read this first book before, but it was many years ago and my memory of it was very, very vague, so I decided to start anew. The series I decided to tackle this summer was C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, and the first in that series is called Out of the Silent Planet. 

Out of the Silent Planet was published in 1938, one year after Lewis's good friend J.R.R. Tolkien published a little book called The Hobbit. Both of them were respected professors who shared a love of science-fiction and fantasy, and they would often bounce ideas off each other and share rough drafts. Lewis's Space Trilogy is less well-known than his remarkable fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia or Tolkien's incredible epic The Lord of the Rings, but this "harder" sci-fi trilogy was published and acclaimed during a period now known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1920s-1930s).

Out of the Silent Planet is a fairly straight-forward work of sci-fi. An academic named Dr. Ransom is kidnapped by two scientists and forced onto a spacecraft bound for Mars. He soon discovers that he is to be presented to the planet's natives as a sacrifice and manages to escape his captors upon landing on the red planet. Alone in the wilderness, he realizes there are several different species on this planet, some to be avoided and some to befriend, and is soon taken in by a native race that live near the water and vaguely resemble otters. Aided by these kind creatures, he begins to learn the language and customs of this strange new world, better preparing him to face his human enemies as they creep ever closer. 

This book is slim - only about 200 pages - and enjoyably paced. Lewis introduces us to some very compelling creatures and customs, and I wish there had been more time spent with them. There is action, suspense and incredible descriptions. The landscapes he describes are colorful and strangely beautiful:

- It was this which finally convinced him [Ransom] that the things, in spite of their improbable shape, were mountains; and with that discovery the mere oddity of the prospect was swallowed up in the fantastic sublime. ...Here in this riot of rock, leaping and surging skyward like solid jets from some rock-fountain, and hanging by their own lightness in the air, so shaped, so elongated, that all terrestrial mountains must ever after seem to him to be mountains lying on their sides. He felt a lift and lightening at the heart.  -

The story culminates rather quickly and (spoiler alert) with Ransom safely back on earth. I felt rather sad that Lewis had taken all the time to create these creatures and landscapes and languages when he was not planning to return to them...for as I proceeded to the second book in the series, I realized it was taking a very different turn indeed.

I will not spend time on Perelandra right now, but it was not what I expected and definitely not the sequel I was looking for at the time. If you read this trilogy, take to heart the opening note which says that each book in this series can be read independently. The protagonist - Ransom - is the same in Perelandra, but his adventure is very different, his enemies fiercer, his surroundings stranger and the allegorical themes much, much stronger. 

I have not yet read the final installment, That Hideous Strength, but I will make time for it this fall. C.S. Lewis has the uncanny ability to go from light adventure to heavy theology in mere pages, and while it can be startling, it is never without purpose. Lewis's deeply allegorical style can take some getting used to, and not everything he writes will hit you with the right message every time. I don't think it was the right time for me to read and fully understand Perelandra. I'm sure that at another time in my life it will have a more meaningful impact on me. I still struggle to understand the deeper meaning of his re-imagined myth Till We Have Faces, while his descriptive and fantastical journey through heaven and hell in The Great Divorce is one of the most beautiful works of theological fiction I have ever read.

To conclude, Out of the Silent Planet is a solid work of science-fiction written at a time when the stars and planets held infinite possibilities. Space was the ultimate adventure for writers and dreamers in the early 20th century, and traveling with Dr. Ransom was an enjoyable and imaginative ride.