Thursday, August 26, 2010

C.S. Lewis- The Space Trilogy

For this review I chose one of my favorites, C.S. Lewis's The Space Trilogy! Ever a big Sci-Fi fan,
you will not often find writers as gifted as this man was. While he is more famous for his other works, which I also really like, this one hasn't had a lot of publicity that I have seen. And being a Trilogy, I bought a copy of all three books bound in one cover!  Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hidious Strength are the actual names of each book.
In Out of the Silent Planet, Elwin Ransom is druged and pretty much shipped off to Mars, only it is called Malacandra. Mars, a planet everyone still talks about, but in C.S. Lewis's book, a planet that did have Adam, and had never been seperated from God! {What a wonderful perspective to write from, and one that some other incredible writers have used more recently.} However, while excaping from his fellow human captors, Ransom winds up on a wild tour of Malacandra and it inhabatants. Ransom indeed returns to Earth, but a changed man, and one who knows things aren't over yet. And while Ransom is quite like Lewis's real life, he was also patterned after non-other than J.R. Tolkien, who was a friend of C.S. Lewis's as well as a fellow proffessor and collage at Oxford. And I can't help but like the description of Satan as "The Bent One".
Once Ransom is back on Earth after this incredible trip and wonderful read, it is time for the next book.


Perelandra, once pulished as Voyage to Venus, finds Ransom being sent on a new mission by Oyarsa, who is the angel who rules Malacandra. {If you read the first book, you will know Oyarsa will by now.} This time, however, Ransom is sent to Perelandra. Here on this planet, it is like the Garden of Eden starting up all over agian, but with a green skined "Adam and Eve". Tinidril, who is the queen of this planet likes Ransom and tells him how they are not allowed to step on "fixed land" as they live in rafts in the air and there are many many other chunks of planet also in the air that they can walk on. It is absoulte paradise, and Ransom is there to learn and help, and never once was he attracted in any way he shouldn't have been to Tinidril. (We ladies find that refreshing in books from time to time!) And then Weston shows up!

Weston was one of the men who drugged Ransom and took him to Mars to start with. So here he is again, and as always, he has his own agenda that is simply evil. Weston winds up being demon possesd, and there is a huge chase scene that is quite good, of course. Its a huge fight, with several settings that I will not spoil, and has dire conciqunces for Weston, and once again Ransom gets sent back to Earth.

That Hidious Strength takes a huge change, this story is now on Earth! That alone took me by suprise, and yet it was the logical place to go next, home... where the battle is still raging and will not end till Jesus returns. But back to the book! Now we have a couple, in England. The husband is Mark Studdock, and his wife is Jane. Their marriage isn't doing well, and Jane, like most women, is rather upset about it. So here she sits reading the paper and then boom! There in the paper is the man she dreamed about the night before. That would unsettle most of us, and it sure didn't help Jane much. Jane isn't sure if she is crazy, or what. She soon learns that she is actually gifted, but thank you very much she would have rather not been gifted like that.

Meanwhile, Mark is getting sucked into N.I.C.E. And of course N.I.C.E isn't nice! It is actually the
National Institute of Coordinated Experiments, or a good cover for using human pride and greed to get what is wanted, and it isn't run by humans. I'll leave that part up to you to read who's running that show!

So Mark is all exctied that he can join N.I.C.E and Jane is coping with her new gift and finally meets Ransom. Ransom, of course is here to help her, and Mark hasn't a foggy clue what his wife is doing or who she does or doesn't know because he is totally involved in being in N.I.C.E.

It gets very involved and kind of convoluted, but several more things happen to Jane, and to Mark, and Jane winds up re-thinking things about God and where she stands and what she is suppose to be doing. At the same time she finds out she has to save Mark or he is going to be so totally used and sucked in she will not have a husband at all, not even an unhappy marriage because things are coming apart way too fast for that.

Mark figures out he is in trouble, and Jane is in trouble, and the world at large is in trouble, but before he can do anything much about it he, Jane and Ransom along with some other friends figure out they have to find Merlin. Yeah, you heard that right.. Merlin, the wizard Merlin.

The end gets really fast paced and crazy, but good. Oh, Ransom has an injury from his prior trip, so they are going to have to figure out how to fix that, and you will like how that was decided I think. I am not going to tell you end of this, in case you decide to read it. I can tell you that it is very good, and very C.S. Lewis to the end.

Carol :)

Clive Staples Award – Readers’ Choice.
Voting for a 2010 CSA winner will last until the end of August.You can see the book introductions, voting instructions, and Readers’ Choice survey at http://clivestaplesaward.wordpress.com/
A voter must have read a minimum of two of the nominations.

Clive Staples Award voting information - http://clivestaplesaward.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/2010-clive-staples-award-voting/
Clive Staples List of Nominations - http://clivestaplesaward.wordpress.com/2010-nominations-complete-list/

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