Out of the Silent Planet

by: CS Lewis


The first book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which continues with Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, Out of the Silent Planet begins the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom. Here, that estimable man is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and taken via spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra. The two men are in need of a human sacrifice, and Dr. Ransom would seem to fit the bill. Once on the planet, however, Ransom eludes his captors, risking his life and his chances of returning to Earth, becoming a stranger in a land that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and instructive in its similarity. {cover copy}
Don't be fooled by the thinness of this book. It was not a quick read. I was an idiot who has read nearly all of Lewis's fantasy and non-fiction works, and somehow neglected to recall my past reading experiences when I picked this up to "read quickly" before the end of the month. HA! It is as dense and rich as a 500 page novel, and true to Lewis's style, engrossing and magical and smart and entertaining. Obviously, I enjoyed this one. Yes, it took me forever to read. But part of that was not having an opportunity to read more than maybe seven pages a day. If that. So I'm sure others will read it faster than my turtle-speed. I am very excited about the next book in this series, but I will definitely wait to read it until I have a little more free time to really envelop myself in the words Lewis writes and the fantastic and richly detailed world he creates.
PS... reading this aloud on our walk, as I do now to get reading time and lull my daughter into her morning nap, was quite a challenge!

The last drops of the thundershower had hardly ceased falling when the Pedestrian stuffed his map into his pocket, settled his pack more comfortably on his shoulders, and stepped out from the shelter of a large chestnut-tree into the middle of the road. {first line}
"I always thought space was dark and cold," he remarked vaguely. // "Forgotten the sun?" said Weston..."

"There were planets of unbelievable majesty, and constellations undreamed of: there were celestial sapphires, rubies, emeralds and pinpricks of burning gold; far out on the left of the picture hung a comet, tiny and remote: and between all and behind all, far more emphatic and palpable than it showed on Earth, the undimensional, enigmatic blackness."

"A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking ... as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing. ... What you call remembering is the last part of the pleasure ... When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then--that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it."

"And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back--if we did not know that every days in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?"

• well • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}