Off the Bookshelf: OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, by C.S. Lewis

 

Narrated by Geoffrey Howard

Book 1 of the Space Trilogy

I can't remember the last time I read the Space Trilogy. Which is kind of sad. These books need to be revisited regularly. I was able to pick it up in audiobook, and listened to it all the way through in one sitting (except for gas and bathroom breaks) driving to the Realm Makers convention.

Wow. A new experience with an old favorite.

This book was written in the 30s, so all that was "known" about space travel and the conditions on Mars were the province of speculation. The thought put into details and science amazed me, experiencing them anew. Maybe because I now know all the work that goes into world building and creating plausible technology and otherworldly science.

The story? Ransom is a professor of linguistics on a long walking holiday, who ends up being kidnapped, tossed into a spaceship, and taken to the planet Malcandra (Mars) as a "gift" to the beings that rule the planet. Devine and Weston, his kidnappers, believe he will be sacrificed, and they're fine with that. One only cares about profit, the other only cares about scientific advancement. He's very noble about making sacrifices -- as long as he isn't the sacrifice.  They won't be allowed to return to Malcandra unless they bring another member of their race to meet Oyarsa, the benevolent, interdimensional ruler. 

Ransom of course isn't going to lie down and submit to being sacrificed, and he flees -- on an alien world. He meets two of the three races and learns the language and culture, until he is finally brought back to where he should have been before: standing before Oyarsa. Now, however, he is able to communicate, and give Oyarsa what he is most interested in: news of the state of affairs on Thulcandra, the silent planet, Earth. Why is Earth silent? The rebellion and downfall of Earth's Oyarsa, and the exile, cut off from the rest of the heavenly realms.

But as Oyarsa tells him, this is the time of great changes, and the silence may be ending.

Now I really need to pull out my copy of the Space Trilogy and read the other two books. It's been way too long since I read them. Lovely time, revisiting an old favorite.