Terry 's Reviews > Out of the Silent Planet

3.5 stars

_Out of the Silent Planet_ is the start of C. S. Lewis’ ‘Space Trilogy’ a series that, for me at least, comprises his best works of fiction. I’ve never been much of a fan of the Narnia books and Till We Have Faces fell totally flat for me so aside from his purely academic texts this is generally the series I go to when I want to read Lewis. In a nutshell the Space Trilogy documents the adventures of academic and philologist Elwin Ransom as he finds himself embroiled in events of cosmic significance. There is definitely a heavy influence from some of Lewis’ fellow Inklings in these works (specifically Tolkien and Charles Williams). The former is not surprising given the story that these books came about from a discussion Tolkien and Lewis had about the need to write ‘the kind of stories they liked’ in which they would describe a world in which what we view as fanciful myth actually has objective reality; it was agreed that they would each take a different perspective from which to view this: the former would tackle time-travel and the latter space-travel. In the end Tolkien never produced his story (or not in full anyway, a fragment of the story can be found in The Lost Road and Other Writings), but Lewis produced first _Out of the Silent Planet_ and then the rest of the trilogy as a result. The character of Ransom himself (esp. as a philologist) also seems like it may have been based on Tolkien to some extent (certainly that appears to have been Tolkien’s suspicion). As to William’s influence, that is much more obvious in the later volumes so doesn’t bear much discussion here, but the fact that as these grew they became more and more like the ‘spiritual thrillers’ that Williams was famous for (and also ended up drawing heavily on the Arthurian mythos of which Williams was enamoured) makes the link obvious enough.

Given the publication date this could be considered ‘classic SF’, though I have to admit that there are ways in which this novel seems to contravene many of the assumptions of sci-fi as a genre, and often the series veers much more into territory most would consider more related to fantasy than SF (though I’d be the first to admit that any clear-cut distinctions between the two genres are always a topic of hot debate). When it comes to old-school sci-fi I often find myself completely thrown out of the book when I come across scientific or engineering ideas that even I (in my relative ignorance) know to be dated or silly, but I never had the same feeling with this book despite its significant departure from ‘real’ science. Instead I was further engaged since the very cosmology of the tale is based on a self-conscious conceit of the author’s that I find intriguing: what if the classical/medieval model of the universe were true instead of the one that modern science had posited? What if instead of the dead, dark vacuum of empty space we instead had ‘the Heavens’ populated by numerous non-physical entities which swam in a stellar light of incomparable beauty and perfection? What if some of these intelligences further had authority over the planets in the solar system and were themselves the seed for the ancient myths that humanity invented when they talked about gods and angels? (See Lewis’ excellent overview of ancient and medieval cosmology in The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature for a fuller picture of the kind of universe he is positing.) and we thus end up with something that is as much alternate history as it is sci-fi. Given certain thematic elements of the story some might even view it as something akin to anti-sci-fi, for while the journey through space and meeting with extra-terrestrial intelligences are no less thrilling or composed of sensawunda than might be expected of any other sci-fi tale, the message is pretty much the opposite to what we would normally expect: space travel and other worlds are not for us, due not only to physical, but moral restrictions.

This interest in not only positing an alternate cosmology for the universe, but in the ethical considerations of space travel and their relations to an underlying moral framework in creation points out another primary aspect of the story: while there are certainly moments of action and real (or perceived) danger in the tale, it is primarily a story of philosophical, rather than physical, adventure. It is about discovering a whole new (or wholly different) worldview from what one had assumed was the truth. Ransom’s adventures on Malacandra (the inhabitants' name for Mars) all lead him to the final ‘show-down’ which proves to be an audience with the angelic patron of the planet where Ransom’s linguistic abilities allow him to stand-in as translator for the other humans who see Malacandra as merely a stepping stone in man’s continued greatness and evolution into the stars. It sounds boring, but actually provides a fair bit of humour as we see Ransom struggling with the challenge of expressing some of the more outré elements of his companion’s philosophy in a way that will make sense to the Malacandrians. Overall I think that Lewis really shines in building an intriguing vision of Mars and the strange creatures that inhabit it and tying it to a fast moving and interesting story. His cosmic history of the solar system that draws on human beliefs (both pagan and Christian) meshes well with his medieval/classical cosmology and enough details are drawn into the story to flesh things out with colour, but are few enough to not bog things down in irrelevant or excessive details. You might not agree with all of the ideas that Lewis presents here as regards the underpinnings of the universe, but he definitely presents them in an intriguing and entertaining way. Not the best in the series, but a good introduction nonetheless.