“I strongly urge Christians to read carefully this prophetic piece of science fiction. What Lewis casts as a warning in the form of fantasy and science fiction is much closer today.” (Francis Schaeffer in Back to Freedom and Dignity)

As the final read in our 2019 Siblings’ Book Club, Book Three in The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis proved to be the most satisfying of the trilogy. It was the true Return of the Jedi to Book 1’s A New Hope. Only pretentious snobs would call Book 2’s version of The Empire Strikes Back “the best in the series”, citing depth and tragedy as their reasons, but I’m not a pretentious snob. I loved the fluffy Ewoks from 1983, and I love the 1940s British characters of Lewis’ final piece. It’s so different from his first two books in plot and setting that it almost feels like a different series entirely. How bold!

Summary

This story follows two main trails (with others interspersed): that of Mark, the university fellow who leaves his prestigious school to work for the mysterious company who’s buying that school’s property; and that of his wife, Jane, the lonesome and forgotten housewife who has the most fantastic of dreams. How different this is from the planet-hopping of Books 1 and 2!

Weirdness still exists, of course. There’s the tamed wild beasts of St. Anne’s cottage; there’s the body-less head of a political prisoner kept alive by what appears to be members of a cult; and then there’s the prospect of raising Merlin himself back to life. It all culminates in a very strange meeting of the planet-spirits, an earthquake/volcano in London, and a climactic Cialis-induced montage of wild-animal breeding (or is it wild animal-breeding?). For a Christian sci-fi series promoted by the great apologist and theologian, Francis Schaeffer, it was a fantastic and weird way to end the story.

But the “prophecies” that Schaeffer drew from the story make perfect sense: at some point in our future, the Evil that always surrounds us will finally bubble to the surface, many innocents will suffer as it does so, and only the Good in our societies can hope to combat it and gain the ultimate victory. That N.I.C.E. and the people of St. Anne’s never really faced off in this story, head-to-head, is a non-issue. Lewis knew that the Devil owns society and has been gaining ground, year-in and year-out, for generations. One day, he will tip those scales: he will slice the veneer of “Christian Britain” or “Christian America” clean open, and he will win: he will show the world who really is Prince.

Unless God’s people stop him. Unless God’s people stand up and declare that a Prince is nothing while the King is alive. And praise God that our King, the true King, is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Eternal, Invincible, and Victor over Sin and Death themselves. Planet-spirits and small gods aside, this book is a book that declares the pre-eminence of “Maleldil”, the one and only true God of the universe.

Quotations

Lewis also peppers his books with some pretty excellent quotes, some about marriage and some about life. I post them here for your enjoyment.

• About the unexpected negatives of marriage: “Marriage had proved to be the door out of a world of work and comradeship and laughter and innumerable things to do, into something like solitary confinement.” (7)
  
• About marriage relationships: “Husbands are made to be talked to. It helps them concentrate on what they’re reading.” (50)
  
• About education: “Odd thing it is–the word ‘experiment’ is unpopular, but not the world ‘experimental’. You mustn’t experiment on children: but offer the dear little kiddies free education in an experimental school…and it’s all correct!” (27)
  
• About God: “The Director never talked about Religion, nor did the Dimbles nor Camilla. They talked about God. They had no picture in their minds of some mist steaming upward: rather of strong, skillful hands thrust down to make and mend, perhaps even to destroy.” (Lewis, That Hideous Strength, 220)

©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)