22 July 2008 @ 10:47C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy

An article over at Universe Today titled “Colonizing Venus With Floating Cities” sparked my interest while at the same time reminding me of the awesome Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis that I read as a teen. The article is referring to floating colonies in the atmosphere of Venus, however the book I am reminded of has floating islands of vegetation on the surface of Venus.

Book 2 of the trilogy titled “Perelandra” deals with Elwin Ransom’s travel to Venus (Perelandra) after his return from Mars in the first book, “Out of the Silent Planet”. Perelandra is covered primarily by an ocean on which there are floating rafts of vegetation. There is a single mountain on the planet referred to as the “Fixed Land” on which the human inhabitants are forbidden to sleep. When Ransom’s foe, Professor Weston, arrives on Perelandra with the intent of tempting the queen of the planet to spend a night on the forbidden “Fixed Land”, Ransom takes it upon himself to act as the counter-tempter. As with other works by C. S. Lewis, “Perelandra” contains many parallels with Christian theology, and deals with temptation and the Fall of Man.

C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy is an awesome set of science fiction books, each one uniquely different.

Buy the C. S. Lewis Space Trilogy books:
Out of the Silent Planet (Book 1) by C. S. Lewis
Perelandra (Book 2) by C. S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength (Book 3) by C. S. Lewis