That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, #3)

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That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy #3)

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 13,071 ratings · 644 reviews

Written during the dark hours immediately before and during the Second World War, C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, of which That Hideous Strength is the third volume, stands alongside such works as Albert Camus's The Plague and George Orwell's 1984 as a timely parable that has become timeless, beloved by succeeding generations as much for the sheer wonder of its storytelling a...more Written during the dark hours immediately before and during the Second World War, C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, of which That Hideous Strength is the third volume, stands alongside such works as Albert Camus's The Plague and George Orwell's 1984 as a timely parable that has become timeless, beloved by succeeding generations as much for the sheer wonder of its storytelling as for the significance of its moral concerns. For the trilogy's central figure, C. S. Lewis created perhaps the most memorable character of his career, the brilliant, clear-eyed, and fiercely brave philologist Dr. Elwin Ransom. Appropriately, Lewis modeled Dr. Ransom on his dear friend J. R. R. Tolkien, for in the scope of its imaginative achievement and the totality of its vision of not one but two imaginary worlds, the Space Trilogy is rivaled in this century only by Tolkien's trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Readers who fall in love with Lewis's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia as children unfailingly cherish his Space Trilogy as adults; it, too, brings to life strange and magical realms in which epic battles are fought between the forces of light and those of darkness. But in the many layers of its allegory, and the sophistication and piercing brilliance of its insights into the human condition, it occupies a place among the English language's most extraordinary works for any age, and for all time.

In That Hideous Strength, the final installment of the Space Trilogy, the dark forces that have been repulsed in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra are massed for an assault on the planet Earth itself. Word is on the wind that the mighty wizard Merlin has come back to the land of the living after many centuries, holding the key to ultimate power for the force that can find him and bend him to its will. A sinister technocratic organization that is gaining force throughout England, N.I.C.E. (the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments), secretly controlled by humanity's mortal enemies, plans to use Merlin in their plot to "recondition" society. Dr. Ransom forms a countervailing group, Logres, in opposition, and the two groups struggle to a climactic resolution that brings the Space Trilogy to a magnificent, crashing close.

Also published as "The Tortured Planet" (1958).

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Paperback, 534 pages

Published December 5th 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 1945)

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May 03, 2011 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, science-fantasy, 1930-1953

FIRST: A complaint from a member of my reading group who read the book ONLY because of the very cool bear on the cover:

In defense of Mr. Angry Bear, I must agree that while the giant, kick-ass bear on the cover may not be exactly false advertising, it is certainly in the category of misleading...similar to beer commercials telling you "drink this beer and hot people will be all over you” when the reality is closer to “drink enough of our beer and you will think the people all over you are real...more

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Aug 09, 2007 Emilia P rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everybody and their mom

Shelves: real-books, churrrch

That Hideous Strength is the final book in the C.S. Lewis's Ransom trilogy. The first two books find Ransom on Mars and then Venus, exploring their flora and fauna,meeting their inhabitants and speaking with their eldils, which are somewhere between the planets spiritual essence and its guardian angel..while we discover how (the Christian) God works on other planets.

This third book finds Ransom back on earth, preparing for an interplanetary response to the threat of apocalypse, which is about to...more

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May 21, 2007 Mandy Stigant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites, scifi-fantasy, fiction

I finished it while 30,000 feet in the air. It was a night-time flight, and after I finished the last page i set it down, turned to look out the window and while my mind wandered and mulled on what i had just experienced with the book, I saw that we were skirting to the side of a storm. The lightning was bouncing from cloud to cloud and it wasn't unlike my thoughts and the way my heart felt; I was elated, and I couldn't think of anywhere I'd rather be when I finished that book -- short of outsid...more

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Jul 25, 2007 Fr.Bill M rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-apologetica-polemical, fiction-for-fun

This is Lewis' best treatment of sex, and probably the best treatment of sex by anyone, cast in the form of a novel. It is sooooooooo retro on the modern scene that it will either shock or outrage most folks who read it for the first time in the modern context.

It is also some of the funniest stuff i've ever read in my life. Only a few paragraphs into a scene near the end of the book, which draws on the goings on at Babel, when the languages were confused -- well, it set off a laughing fit that l...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, libertarian, fantasy, spirituality, novels, fiction

I have a love/hate relationship with C.S. Lewis. There's a lot I admire in his writing but enough I deplore in his worldview that even though I keep being drawn to his works, I can't call him a favorite. I mostly loved The Screwtape Letters and Narnia, which I read as an adult, adored Till We Have Faces (my favorite Lewis work), was moved by his book A Grief Observed and found Mere Christianity and the first two books in the Space Trilogy interesting. There was only one book by him until this on...more

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Jun 15, 2009 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've read "That Hideous Strength" several times, and it always has been my favorite of C.S. Lewis' space trilogy. But this time through, it captivated me in a way that it never has before. Only C.S. Lewis, with his combination of brilliance, scholarly knowledge, writing ability, wit and Christian world view, could have written this book.
It is Lewis' most satirical book, even more so than "Screwtape Letters." It is probably his most sophisticated fiction work with the exception of "Till We Have F...more I've read "That Hideous Strength" several times, and it always has been my favorite of C.S. Lewis' space trilogy. But this time through, it captivated me in a way that it never has before. Only C.S. Lewis, with his combination of brilliance, scholarly knowledge, writing ability, wit and Christian world view, could have written this book.
It is Lewis' most satirical book, even more so than "Screwtape Letters." It is probably his most sophisticated fiction work with the exception of "Till We Have Faces" (which is too sophisticated for me).
As he tells us in a brief author's note, this is the fictional complement to Lewis' "The Abolition of Man," which is a critique of the British educational system. This sounds like a deadly subject for fiction, but it isn't in Lewis' skillful hands. And although this book was written in the 1940s in England, the themes remain on target in the United States today.
It is helpful, but not necessary, to have read the first two books of the trilogy before reading "That Hideous Strength." The central character of those books, Ransom, plays a major role here as well. But the central characters in "Hideous" are a young, not-very-happily married couple, Mark and Jane Studdock.
In the battle between good and evil that occupies this book, Mark is drawn in to the side of evil, Jane to the side of good. "Drawn in" is the phrase -- neither makes a conscious decision or realizes that good and evil are involved until late in the book. I think Mark represents the young C.S. Lewis. And I think "Bill the Blizzard" Hingest, a character who disappears early in the book, represents the mature C.S. Lewis in this dialogue with Mark:
"I suppose there are two views about everything," said Mark.
"Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."
The legend of King Arthur plays a significant role in "That Hideous Strength." It's a happy coincidence that I'm now reading "The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights," by John Steinbeck. When I know more about Merlin, I'll probably want to read "That Hideous Strength" yet again.
The subject matter of "That Hideous Strength" is grim, and even gruesome at times. Needed comic relief is provided by Mr. Bultitude. I won't say anything more about him, because if I did it would ruin it for you.(less)

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Mar 10, 2007 Alicia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wrote my college essay on this book as it had the most profound influeI wrote my college essay on this book as it had the most profound influence on me in my teenage years. But that's not to say that it's a book aimed at young people. C.S. Lewis is known as a Christian writer and it's true that there are elements of Christianity in this book, as well as some very conservative ideas about women, I might add! But that's not what the book is really about. The hideous strength that Lewis writes ab...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Years ago I read this book and was disappointed with it, as probably many readers are, because I expected the third part of the Space Trilogy to be more...well...spacey. However, having now reread it separately, without any connection to the previous two books, I have to say that I have a much higher opinion of it now than I did then. I read the book with 1984 on my mind, and it is the relationship between the two books that is compelling.

The most disorienting thing about the book is the lack of...more Years ago I read this book and was disappointed with it, as probably many readers are, because I expected the third part of the Space Trilogy to be more...well...spacey. However, having now reread it separately, without any connection to the previous two books, I have to say that I have a much higher opinion of it now than I did then. I read the book with 1984 on my mind, and it is the relationship between the two books that is compelling.

The most disorienting thing about the book is the lack of Elwin Ransom, the hero of the first two books. Instead, a young and dysfunctional couple--Mark and Jane Studdock--are the protagonists. The book is strongest, I think, when it follows Mark and his initiation into the distinctly Orwellian NICE (National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments). In fact, Orwell himself reviewed the book, and found the NICE interesting, "with its world-wide ramifications, its private army, its secret torture chambers, and its inner ring of adepts ruled over by a mysterious personage known as The Head." Sound familiar? And this was a few years before Orwell would write 1984.

That Hideous Strength is its best when discussing the political machinations and ideological goals of the NICE. Some of the conversations in which Mark participates (with the mad scientist Dr. Filostrato, the mad parson Straik, and the all-knowing initiates Frost and Wither (the latter of whom seems like a character from The Man Who Was Thursday)) are quite simply fascinating. Set against Orwell's own dystopia, however, it seems to fall flat. The rather ridiculous ending (as Orwell complained) is the obvious culprit (and I find myself agreeing with Orwell's criticisms); however, the greatest disparity has to do with hope--That Hideous Strength has it, but 1984 does not. Orwell wrote that Lewis's book lacked drama, because when God is set against the Devil, we know who will win in advance. Orwell complained of the "supernatural breaking in" and giving away the game, deciding the ending in advance, and taking away the suspense. He has a point with this, but it seems to me that 1984 has the exact opposite problem. With no supernatural intervention at all, well, we all know what happens at the end. That Hideous Strength and 1984 operate in similar worlds, but at the opposite ends of the religious spectrum; CS Lewis couldn't let his characters lose, but Orwell couldn't let them win.

That Hideous Strength also retains technical relevance that I think 1984 does not, especially in the ideology of Filostrato, who seems to be a precursor to those modern "technological singularity" types, and Lewis weaves the NICE's scientific viewpoints nicely into the overall history of science. What's next after subjugating nature, but in turn to remake man? Read in conjunction with The Abolition of Man, the book is deceptively poignant.

Despite the book's few (significant) flaws (most especially the character of Jane and the mind-boggling ending), it is a good read and a worthy conclusion to the space trilogy (even though it might be good to wait a few years after finishing Perelandra!)(less)

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Mar 21, 2008 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a review for the entire Space Trilogy:

I guess these books fall into the “Science Fiction” category, since they involve interplanetary travel. But it’s a misnomer to call it the Space Trilogy - the books are based on the idea that Space - what we think of as a cold vacuum - is a rich, vibrant, more-than-real world filled with life. And that’s just the start - there are so many other interesting concepts about the universe (spiritual and physical), explored in the series.

In the first two b...more This is a review for the entire Space Trilogy:

I guess these books fall into the “Science Fiction” category, since they involve interplanetary travel. But it’s a misnomer to call it the Space Trilogy - the books are based on the idea that Space - what we think of as a cold vacuum - is a rich, vibrant, more-than-real world filled with life. And that’s just the start - there are so many other interesting concepts about the universe (spiritual and physical), explored in the series.

In the first two books you get to learn about the life on two other planets in our solar system - fantastical, personal journeys and full of suspense and discovery. And then the third volume, which is as long than the other two put together, is spent behind enemy lines, on the Silent Planet, known to us as Earth. A dark, disturbing and gripping tale.

This is the 3rd time I’ve read the series, and each time I get more out of it. I absolutely love reading Lewis. I gain so much from his approachable but deep writings - I grow in spiritual intelligence as a result of reading them.

I think what I most enjoyed about the books this time around was the thought processes of the characters. After being kidnapped to Mars, Ransom has lots of interesting thoughts about what it means to be human, since he meets new species that are human but not man - they are intelligent, moral, emotional beings with souls and spirits. Also, he learns about the super-human eldila. He experiences an amazing shift in perspective - an extra-terrestrial perspective. On his voyage to Venus, Ransom has to face a deadly enemy and work through isssues around his own fears, God’s power to work through him, and his role as the “protector” of the newly-created un-fallen humans. In That Hideous Strength, Mark and Jane discover spiritual dimensions of life that they never anticipated - they had been living such a superficial, empty life and the process of growing beyond that was perilous to say the least.

Even though these experiences are quite bizarre and probably won’t ever happen to me, I gain insight into life here on this planet from reading about the very imaginary but very believable universe that Lewis opens up for the reader to explore. (less)

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Jul 18, 2009 Kelli rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

I am about 50 pages in on this book, and I'm not impressed so far. I love CS Lewis, and I loved the first two in the series, but this one has SO much intro. I'm about a 6th of the way through and I still don't know what the story will be about... I don't like books that keep me confused for so long.... I'm sure it will get better, though.

This book made me not like CS Lewis as much, which is sad for me because he was my favorite author... Halfway through the book I still had no idea what the plot...more

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Sep 25, 2007 Mark Becher rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't love the book, but I enjoyed it. (For some reason this seems to be my general response to C.S. Lewis' fiction; always good, but not quite great.) I thought the plot started off particularly slow but picked up some in the end, particularly after Merlin showed up. I never can get enough of Merlin. The work as a whole was mainly a fictionalization of the ideas presented in his Abolition of Man. (Science progressing to the point where it will be able to re-make human nature; which turns out...more

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Aug 29, 2007 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this review first appeared on [http://intraspace.blogspot.com]

this is the last book in lewis's space trilogy - although this one never goes into space. the interstellar supernatural spiritual battle between good and evil visits earth itself. dr ransom again features as the hero, although not so much the main character this time.

in this book, lewis focuses on jane and mark studdock - a somewhat unhappily married newlywed couple who find themselves on opposite sides of the great universal struggle...more

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Aug 16, 2007 Oliver rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The last book of C.S. Lewis' Space or Cosmic Trilogy, it is also markedly different in style and theme from the previous two, and the main character from the previous two books, Ransom, doesn't even show up until a few chapters into the book. Though interplanetary forces are involved, all the action takes place on Earth. As well, the story is written as "a modern fairytale for grownups."

Indeed, on the surface we get a simple, almost mundane, tale of a young couple and the choices each person ma...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, science-fiction

First edition I ever read of this wonderful book.

The finial book in the (C.S.Lewis Space) trilogy oddly applicable for today. (Those in the UK might find the "name" of the evil group interesting as the book was written many years before the National Health system was set up.)

This book is in some ways more "traditionally" a modern fantasy novel touching on figures from myth and folklore and bringing in national legend. It tells a good allegorical tale with a couple of good subplots and and satisf...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Randolph Carter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

I liked this book better than the other two in the Space Trilogy (there's no space in this one though), but still not enough to give it four stars. It takes place mostly on earth so the scifi elements don't seem as dated as in the other two books where outer space is involved.

The beginning was really dull, with all the small English university and foundation politics. Lewis used this to introduce and develop most of the main characters. Everything he wrote may be true of the small university in...more

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Aug 06, 2011 David Boyce added it · review of another edition

Ok, good versus evil in a final battle. No problem, I understood that but there were whole sections of this book that just didn’t make sense to me. Maybe Lewis was trying to be subtle and leave little interesting threads to leave us thinking but to be honest, I just didn’t get it. Maybe Lewis didn’t develop the ideas enough or maybe Lewis tried to place you the reader in the position of most of the good characters in the book, that of complete bewilderment. I don’t get the bit about the far side...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Jacob Aitken added it · review of another edition

This is easily human literature's finest hour. CS Lewis, in what is easily his masterpiece, gets in one's face about the reality of the New World Order and of the possibilities of real, effective Christian resistance to it.

But the true evil is not democracy. It is diabolical, to be sure, and monarchy is definitely to be preferred, but the true battle takes place on "the unseen world."

Lewis puts "spiritual warfare" in a rather direct, most uncomfortable light. Christians piously prat about spir...more

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Jan 01, 2009 Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, this book was drastically different than the first two. There are a lot more characters and the 3rd-person perspective expands as the story quickly develops. One thing I love to experience when reading is being able to develop a humanistic understanding, even a connection, with the main characters. Part of the appreciation and respect I have for the author, and the work, is a great deal dependent upon my perception of realistic characters and lifelike elements of relationships, choices and...more Wow, this book was drastically different than the first two. There are a lot more characters and the 3rd-person perspective expands as the story quickly develops. One thing I love to experience when reading is being able to develop a humanistic understanding, even a connection, with the main characters. Part of the appreciation and respect I have for the author, and the work, is a great deal dependent upon my perception of realistic characters and lifelike elements of relationships, choices and consequences. Of course this criteria is more applicable in some novels than others, in this novel it is very applicable given the circumstances of the characters and I really think Lewis excelled in his delivery of these attributes.

I read this book in nearly a whole day because I found it gripping, believable and thought provoking. Lewis spends a lot of time discussing the main characters' thoughts, feelings and motives. On the contrary, some of the way the story pans out it is devoid of the very specific and verbose setting descriptions as was prevalent in Perelandra . In some way I think this exposes Lewis' talent as a storyteller and perhaps explores his capable writing style (then again, I'm no English major and I write computer code all day for fun and money).

The main characters are new to this book while several others are mentioned or have a role in the others (to some degree or another). I was a bit bewildered that Dr. Ransom (the protagonist in the first two books) didn't appear until further in the novel than I expected.

If there's one word that I can use to describe the plot, and even the feeling I had while reading, it's the word "heavy". Lewis is rather clear in his introduction that much of the book revolves around his growing concern of elevated academic thinking in the university and scientific communities. I gathered this rather quickly as the story progressed but I wasn't familiar with the specific Eugenics movement that he was primarily targeting until after I finished. Even though the novel 1984 was written four years later there seemed to be a lot of shared dystopian themes. I didn't know this at the time I was reading so I found it peculiar. On a related note, turns out that Orwell even reviewed this book, and, really no shocker that he opposed the religious elements. I had an idea of how some aspects of evil would be incorporated in this book, but I was surprised at the detail and specificity. I don't wish to mislead, there are many other horrendous novels that describe atrocities in gross detail, which in comparison, cast a far darker and disgusting pallor than this book. Lewis skirts those boundaries until the very end when the antagonists get their due. I thought his justice was adequate and jarring. It was different than I expected, though I wasn't very disappointed, with the way Merlin was involved. I also found some humor in the misperception of the transient (any more detail than that would spoil some potential fun).

My one annoyance in this book is the marriage of Lewis strong religious themes and story-line (carried over from the first two books) with the medieval and historical involvement of Arthur and Merlin. Maybe my annoyance is because I'm ignorant to the significance of their history--because, in my opinion, Lewis clearly thought it important in his bridging of the two (I should note that due to the attention it received in the plot that I plan on reading more on the subject). Or perhaps he, being a professor of medieval literature, saw a way to incorporate aspects of his research and findings into the fictional plot.

Finally, I enjoyed the conclusion, fantastical as it was, and the high note of resolution on which it ended. It's a happy ending though a little open for the reader's mind to wander as to what the future holds for the protagonists. When I closed the book I felt happy to have finished it and pleased with the final outcome.

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Nov 23, 2008 Stephen Wainman added it

That Hideous Strength has important weaknesses as a integrated narrative. From the start Lewis doesnt establish comfortably the place or identity of the narrator: sometimes it seems to be the familiar invisible one, sometimes he allows himself to comment on his characters as Mr Lewis. There are less skillful moments where he actually speaks to the reader as though in a lecture room, telling you directly about a character instead of allowing the independent actions thoughts and feelings of the ch...more That Hideous Strength has important weaknesses as a integrated narrative. From the start Lewis doesnt establish comfortably the place or identity of the narrator: sometimes it seems to be the familiar invisible one, sometimes he allows himself to comment on his characters as Mr Lewis. There are less skillful moments where he actually speaks to the reader as though in a lecture room, telling you directly about a character instead of allowing the independent actions thoughts and feelings of the character build up all we need to know. Again, in several places there is a rather creaky 'join' between a description of the countryside, or a country station, and the narrative, slightly too obviously a direct description of the writer's experiences. For me it is these sort of things that weaken the impact of the book, as a novel. From about halfway into the book,however, all these impressions ceased to count, and I really felt that he found his feet. From then on to the end, it really worked strongly and well. It is memorable: it creates a world of images that will remain in the mind, and that I will go on thinking about.

I don't share Lewis's Christianity, but I should think to enjoy it, find it worthwhile, the reader would need at least an agnostic openness to his ideas and belief. Otherwise we are left with the efficient analysis of Orwell's review, which deconstructs it to what he sees as 'in essence...a crime story, and the miraculous happenings, though they grow more frequent towards the end, are not integral to it.' I respect Orwell very much, but in this instance this is so very much to miss the point.

I thought it might be of interest to quote a passage, to show how compelling much of the writing is. Mark is imprisoned by NICE, an organisation operating autonomously from the state, and believes that his life is in great danger:

What a fool - a blasted, babyish, gullible fool - he had been! He sat down on the floor, for his legs felt weak, as if he had walked twenty-five miles. Why had he come to Belbury in the first instance? Ought not his very first interview with the Deputy Director to have warned him, as clearly as if the truth were shouted through a megaphone or printed on a poster in letters six feet high, that here was a world of plot within plot, crossing and double-crossing, of lies and graft and stabbing in the back, of murder and a contemptuous guffaw for the fool who lost the game? Feverstone's guffaw, that day he had called him an 'incurable romantic', came back to his mind. Feverstone... that was how had come tp believe in Wither: on Feverstone's recommendation. Apparently his folly went further back. How on earth had he come to trust Feverstone - a man with a mouth like a shark,with his flash manners, a man who never looked at you in the face? Jane, or Dimble, would have seen through him at once. He had 'crook' written all over him. He was fit only to deceive puppets like Curry and Busby. But then, at the time he first met Feverstone, he had not thought Curry and Busby puppets. With extraordinary clarity, but with renewed astonishment, he remembered how he had felt about the Progressive Element at Bracton when he was first admitted to its confidence; he remembered, even more incredulously, how he had felt as a very junior Fellow when he was outside it - how he had looked almost with awe at the heads of Curry and Busby bent close together in Common room, hearing occasional fragments of their whispered conversation, pretending to himself the while to be absorbed in a periodical but longing - oh, so intensely longing - for one of them to cross the room and speak to him. And then, after months and months, it had happened. He had a picture of himself, the odious little outsider who wanted to be an insider, the infantile gull, drinking in the husky and unimportant confidences, as if being admitted to the government of the planet. Was there no beginning to his folly? Had he been an utter fool all through from the very day of his birth? Even as a schoolboy, when he had ruined his work and half broken his heart trying to get into the society called Grip, and lost his only real friend in doing so? Even as a child, fighting Myrtle because she would go and talk secrets with Pamela next door?

He himself did not understand why all this, which was now so clear, had never previously crossed his mind. He was unaware that such thoughts had often knocked for entrance, but had always been excluded for the very good reason that if they were once entertained it involved ripping up the whole web of his life, cancelling almost every decision his will had ever made, and really beginning over again as if he were an infant. The indistinct mass of problems which would have to be faced if he admitted such thoughts, the innumerable 'something' which would have to be done, had deterred him from ever raising these questions. What had now taken the blinkers off was that nothing could be done. They were going to hang him. His story was now at an end. There was no harm in ripping up the web now for he was not going to use it any more; there was no bill to be paid (in the shape of arduous decision and reconstruction) for truth. It was a result of the approach of death that the Deputy Director and Professor Frost had possibly not foreseen.

There were no moral considerations at this moment in Mark's mind. He looked back on his life not with shame, but with a kind of disgust at its dreariness. He saw himself as a small boy in short trousers, hidden in the shrubbery beside the paling, to overhear Myrtle's conversation with Pamela, and trying to ignore the fact that it was not at all interesting when overheard. He saw himself making believe that he enjoyed those Sunday afternoons with the athletic heroes of Grip while all the time (as he now saw) he was almost homesick for one of the old walks with Pearson - Pearson whom he had taken such pains to leave behind. . The hours that he had spent learning the very slang of each new circle that had attracted him, the perpetual assumption of interest in things he found dull and of knowledge he did not possess, the almost heroic sacrifice of nearly every person and thing he actually enjoyed, the miserable attempt to pretend that one could enjoy Grip, or the Progressive Element, or the NICE - all this came over him with kind of heart-break. When had he ever done what he wanted? Mixed with the people whom he liked? Or even eaten and drunk what took his fancy? The concentrated insipidity of it all filled him with self-pity.

In his normal condition, explanations that laid on impersonal forces outside of himself the reponsibility for all this life of dust and broken bottles would have occurred at once to his mind and been at once accepted. It would have been 'the system', or 'an inferiority complex' due to his parents, or the peculiarities of the age. None of these things occurred to him now. His 'scientific' ourtlook had never been a real philosophy believed with blood and heart. It had lived only in his brain, and was a part of the public self which was now falling off him. He was aware, wihout even having to think of it, that it was he himself - nothing else in the whole universe - that had chosen the dust and broken bottles, the heap of old tin cans, the dry and choking places.
............
NICE reminds me of the Company, in Sigourney Weaver's Alien films.One of the ineresting angles of this book is how remarkably old-fashioned in some ways it is, evoking a vanished 30s and 40s Britain; and how completely contemporary to 2008 other aspects, such as NICE, appear.

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Mar 17, 2013 Cliff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

And yes, five stars again. This is definitely part of the Space Trilogy but it's quite different in that instead of venturing out into space, space ventures into Earth, in a manner of speaking. As an invisible, alien force seeks to dominate humanity, its insidious plots gradually come to light and just as in all good science-fiction, the effect on the reader is chilling. Lewis deftly paints his portrait of the situation with concepts already present in modern humanity - and have been since one c...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published on my blog here in September 2001.

Of the three novels by Lewis featuring Ransome, That Hideous Strength is the least interesting. Lewis himself was clearly not entirely happy with it, as he abridged the novel quite considerably after the first publication.

The story of the novel is about an organisation named N.I.C.E., the kind of acronym which after The Man From U.N.C.L.E. became impossible to use seriously. Its public agenda is criminal rehabilitation, but it is in fact out...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Barry rated it 5 of 5 stars

There are so many reasons to love this book, especially in light of the cultural trends that have taken place since Lewis wrote it in 1945.
Mu favorite passage in “That Hideous Strength,” involves one of the principal characters, a young sociology professor named Mark Studdock who becomes caught up in a diabolical plot by a group of elitist social planners to take over the world.
During a faculty dinner at his college an older professor named Hingest tries to warn Studdock about becoming involved...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Christiana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-scifi

The final book in the series, this book takes a new twist. I really enjoyed the approach of a modern fairy tale, set in a commonplace, relatable setting. However, this book falls from the "mind-blowing new universe" status of the first two books and is significantly less creative in the settings and plot lines. Maybe that is coming from a 21st century perspective, I'm not sure.

The plot line is entertaining enough, but one of the main characters, Mark, has so little character and is not very lik...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Shawn rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of a handful of books I have read at least half a dozen times. It deserves to be placed in the canonical top ten list of science fiction classics. Yes, it has all the tropes of the Golden Age scifi novel: the white, college educated male protagonist, the political satire, the cartoonish evil villains, and the warning about the evils of scientism (i.e., science for the sake of science, unencumbered by moral judgment). And yet, it's better than most everything else you will read in the...more

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Aug 02, 2012 john rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lewis' final book of the space trilogy ends on the least interesting planet: Earth. The joy of reading the other books was the world building of other planets, and the evil that threatened their good philosophies. Here it is reversed: Earth has been suffering from its governing evil spirits, and the tale is about the small domestic house that seeks to return sanity to our planet. The curse of our planet is that we've set mind against body - the enemy is literally a disembodied head - but the vil...more Lewis' final book of the space trilogy ends on the least interesting planet: Earth. The joy of reading the other books was the world building of other planets, and the evil that threatened their good philosophies. Here it is reversed: Earth has been suffering from its governing evil spirits, and the tale is about the small domestic house that seeks to return sanity to our planet. The curse of our planet is that we've set mind against body - the enemy is literally a disembodied head - but the villainy is...dull.
Perhaps the proportions were off. Lewis' forte is making goodness attractive. Have you ever read a more captivating description of Heaven than the final chapter of the Last Battle? But here, badness reigns not only the planet but nearly all the pages of the book. Goodness is only a small force, filled with provocative content, but Lewis spends more time with long descriptions of a scientific bureaucracy.
That said, the passages from Ransom are worth the read. Ransom returns for the third round brighter and wiser from his earlier trips. And most of what he has to say revolves around domestic advice - who would have thought that an interplanetary conspiracy novel would play out through the newlywed troubles of the two protagonists and Ransom's marital advice? The roles of the other planets in the final pages were also worth the read. So my advice might just be to speed read the Mark chapters until the final bits.

SPOILER

I also loved the Venus solution at the end of the book. When a culture has pitted mind against body, of COURSE the solution is for Venus to arrive and reinstill erotic love. And in the hands of Lewis, erotic love actually means the coming together of people, not just physical gratification.

Also loved the notion of gender and obedience of women. St. Paul has described the obedience of women before, but I feel like Lewis gave me the explanation: women carry beauty, and when a woman "desires the desiring of her beauty" it is vanity, but when she "desires the enjoying of her beauty" it is the obedience of Eve. Said another way, the woman has a gift the man doesn't, and she must give it completely to the man. The man's role is to pursue and adore that gift. All chivalry seems based on this principle, and Lewis is good at showing how modern notions of the equality of the sexes is really an obfuscation of capital B Beauty, which prevents the natural giver/pursuer relationship to occur. Without it, love becomes impossible, and the two sexes are really just trying to gain admiration from the other. Ask me what I think of this again after I've been married a few more years. (less)

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Jul 25, 2012 Arukiyomi rated it 1 of 5 stars

Context: Moved into our fourth home in 2 years while I was reading this.

Review: The final book in Lewis’ so-called space trilogy was a disappointment to me. At least in the other two, Lewis had created worlds I could explore, here, with the setting being small town England, there was little to hold my attention.

Mark Studdock is a proud, arrogant and self-absorbed man who gets his fix from the praise of his elders. Thus, when the young university lecturer falls under the influence of scientis

...more

Context: Moved into our fourth home in 2 years while I was reading this.

Mark Studdock is a proud, arrogant and self-absorbed man who gets his fix from the praise of his elders. Thus, when the young university lecturer falls under the influence of scientists from the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.) he is easily drawn into their circle and into a nightmare for which he might well pay with his life. Jane, his wife, by contrast falls under the influence of those who realise that she is in fact a seer and has the ability to help them stay a step ahead of the N.I.C.E. as they become the medium for forces of evil set on destroying, if not the world, at least a sleepy university town a quick hop by train from London.

This book is longer than the first two put together and it very definitely felt like it. In the first two books you are in alien worlds on Mars and Venus respectively. Thus, when things happen which leave you baffled, you kind of accept it as part of the worlds Lewis has created. But far more baffling stuff happens in this, particularly towards the end, and it had me wondering if Lewis’ housekeeper had slipped something in his afternoon tea.

It’s a simple tale of good versus evil with the earth being the stage for the final showdown between the apparent forces of Satan and God. But placing such a colossal conflict in such a humdrum place and confining it there didn’t work for me. Surely someone else might notice that the world is being taken over. But no, despite what appears to be the Nazi party taking over the entire town, no one outside the place bats an eyelid despite the steady stream of refugees fleeing elsewhere.

But that’s a fairly minor point compared to the protracted and bland plot development that seems to be leading somewhere but actually just leads to more confusion. A massacre by a menagerie, drooling heads, a tramp who only understands an ancient Celtic dialect. I have no idea whatsoever what these were about or why they were necessary to the plot. If by them Lewis was implying some symbolism a la Narnia, it was lost on me. Completely lost.

So, I feel a bit insecure labelling a Lewis mediocre, but that’s what my rating chart considered my opinion to be. So be it. Lewis wrote much, much better fiction. If you’ve read everything else he’s written and you want to get a full house, read this. As for the entire trilogy, I’d say, read the first two and leave it there.

OPENING LINE

“Matrimony was ordained, thirdly,” said Jane Studdock to herself, “for the mutual society, help and comfort that the one ought to have of the other.”

99TH PAGE QUOTE

This far into the book, some of the plot might be revealed. If you want to see the quote, click to (view spoiler)

CLOSING LINE

This might give the game away. If you want to see the last line, click (view spoiler)

RATING

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Nov 03, 2012 Brittany Petruzzi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, philosophy, sociology, theology, re-read, literature

I think I'm in the minority among my friends in thinking this is not nearly as good as 'Perelandra,' mostly because of the weight of it and just how much Lewis packs in. It feels more like a philosophical/theological treatise than a novel, whereas 'Perelandra' gets the reader to primarily side emotionally with the theological and philosophical truths contained within and is, therefore, more successful as a work of fiction.

I still love this and have returned to it more than once.

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May 25, 2012 Bart Breen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lewis Shifts Gears!

I raved about the first 2 books of this trilogy. I can't about the last.

Lewis makes a very significant change in his voice and approach here in the final book of his "Space Trilogy." Knowing some of the history of its writing, this is in large part due to his closer association with and the influence of the fellow author and member of "The Inklings," George MacDonald.

MacDonald's influence upon Lewis is evidenced by this book being much darker and much less connected to the the...more

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May 15, 2012 Ross rated it 4 of 5 stars

A newlywed husband and wife with a struggling relationship unknowingly get caught up in opposing sides of a plot for the domination of all life on the planet.

Throw in a skeptical and reluctant dream-seer, a manipulative meandering contemplative, a brothel police unit under the direction of a shameless sadist, obscenely advanced medical technology, an irresistibly charismatic philologist, a resurrected Arthurian legend, possession by Roman mythological deities, and the return of a fateful ancient...more

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May 03, 2012 John E. Branch Jr. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, fiction-modern-british

First, a reminiscence. I continue to be surprised by my mother, though she died three years ago. She gave at least one volume of this trilogy to me when I was a young adolescent and finally gave the third to me some 40 years later, at Christmas 2000. I imagine she understood that, insofar as they're allegorical, Lewis's Narnia books derive from a formerly great literary tradition, but she knew as well that they were meant for children; she had no interest in them herself (that I can recall) and...more

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About C.S. Lewis

CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more th...more

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Books by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)

The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia #1-7)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3)

The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)

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Quotes from That Hideous Strength

“There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there is never more than one.” — 76 people liked it

“Don't you like a rather foggy a in a wood in autumn? You'll find we shall be perfectly warm sitting in the car."
Jane said she'd never heard of anyone liking fogs before but she didn't mind trying. All three got in.
"That's why Camilla and I got married, "said Denniston as they drove off. "We both like Weather. Not this or that kind of weather, but just Weather. It's a useful taste if one lives in England."
"How ever did you learn to do that, Mr. Denniston?" said Jane. "I don't think I should ever learn to like rain and snow."
"It's the other way round," said Denniston. "Everyone begins as a child by liking Weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children - and the dogs? They know what snow's made for."
"I'm sure I hated wet days as a child," said Jane.
"That's because the grown-ups kept you in," said Camilla. "Any child loves rain if it's allowed to go out and paddle about in it.” — 29 people liked it

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That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy #3)

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