Book Two in the Space Trilogy

Right out of the gates: compared to its predecessor in this series, Perelandra felt like quite a drag, and proved to be more thought-provoking but less entertaining than Book One, Out of the Silent Planet. I’m not sure what else I expected from such a thinker as C.S. Lewis, but this one was not so easily finished.

I enjoyed Lewis’ fictionally autobiographical first few chapters of this book, an account which sets us readers up for the retelling of Ransom’s tale on another far away planet. I felt great anticipation then of yet another world to explore and strange beings to meet. But once the man finally lands in Perelandra (Venus), the story takes a very serious dive, and I’m surprised that I held on til the end.

Summary

Now let me give some context to the series. Ransom is a Cambridge Fellow who was kidnapped in Book One to Malacandra (Mars), where he met a number of sentient beings (nau), and faced the constant possibility of meeting even more who might be hiding just around the corner. He traveled near and far, high and low, and he learned the common tongue and dialogued with many an alien being. The possibilities for what he might uncover next were endless, which kept us readers reading! It was fascinating stuff, and it prepared us well for diving into Book Two.

But then as we follow Ransom to Perelandra, we come across something unexpected: a virtually un-peopled world. When he lands, he discovers the most physically unique planet yet. He’s stuck in a wavy sea, and while floating islands of colorful shrubbery finally give him someplace stable to walk and rest, though these refuges follow the course of the waves and are thus a constantly changing mixture of hills and valleys. When he notices and meets a green woman, he soon discovers that she and her king (an absent character until the end of the book) are the only two nau on the entire planet! We readers (as least readers like me) are then left with another 200 pages, thinking: “What? Only two characters in the entire book!?” I honestly wanted to put it down.

Thankfully, a second spaceship lands in the water not long after, carrying Professor Weston from Book One, only this Weston isn’t the Weston that Ransom remembers. Through many conversations and philosophizing, we come to discover that Weston’s body has in fact been possessed by Lucifer himself, that this planet is a young creation by Maleldil (another name for the One True God), and that the Green Lady and her king are Venus’s version of Eve and Adam. Satan has come here to tempt the woman towards the sublimity of Death much as he did long ago on Earth, while Ransom has been called to convince her otherwise.

Discussion

At the outset of the book, Lewis wrote this: “All the human characters in this book are purely fictitious and none of them is allegorical.” That threw me at first, until I realized that he carefully wrote that qualifier “human.” Lewis is Lewis, Ransom is a made up character who plays no allegorical role in Lewis’ understanding of Genesis 1-3, and Weston (not human) is a great representation of Satan with all his wily schemes. The Green Woman isn’t human, so what a powerful allegory for Eve she is!

Yes, the story dragged, because for many chapters we faced the constant three-character debate over truth and lies; and yes, I put it down half-way through and wasn’t sure I’d make it all the way to the end. But on Christmas afternoon, I determined to push on through, and I was pleasantly surprised. Once Ransom realized why he had been called to this planet (not simply to be a hearer but a doer), the plot picked up steam and I zipped through the final 100 pages in a couple of hours. The violence, the imagination, the final meeting with the king of Venus—it was all worth the wait.

Because these first two books were so different, I honestly have no clue what to anticipate in Book Three, That Hideous Strength. I have five days to finish it, for this is part of the final selection of our Siblings’ Book Club for 2019. In the new year, we will select another ten, and I look forward to what 2020 will bring!

©2019 E.T.

See More by C.S. Lewis:

• Nonfiction:
  The Screwtape Letters (1942)
  Reflections on the Psalms (1958)
• Space Trilogy:
  Out of the Silent Planet (1938)
  Perelandra (1943)
  That Hideous Strength (1945)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: 
  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)
  Prince Caspian (1951)
  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
  The Silver Chair (1953)
  The Horse and His Boy (1954)
  The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
  The Last Battle (1956)
• Other:
  Till We Have Faces (1956)