The motivations and reactions of these characters are intended to show how an ordinary man and woman, ie. She is reluctantly courted by the good side, he is willingly brought in to the scientists’ scheme, but initially there is much hidden from both of them. That Hideous Strength has a completely different feel to it, beginning in an ordinary setting of provincial academia, where the sinister events unfold from the point of view of newly married couple Jane and Mark. Perelandra also had a tremendous atmosphere, but was harder going, due to much more dialogue, which at least did carry the tension of the story within it.
Out of the Silent Planet, I enjoyed for the plausible but magical descriptions of travel through space, discoveries of alien flora and fauna, and the interactions of the hero with the species of Mars, especially his grappling with language. The newly re-awoken Merlin turns up the liveliness after a drier, too-slow build up. But since these make for some of the more entertaining parts of the novel, I don’t mind the indulgence at all. What seems more self-indulgent, is the mixing in of Arthurian legend, and the embodiment of the planets in their mythological form of the god Mars, the goddess Venus etc. Lewis is leading us to a climax between good vs evil on Earth in book 3, and in that respect we are treated to an intriguing story with a satisfying semi-apocalyptic finale. Book2:Voyage to Venus (or Perelandra) has a Garden of Eden theme at its centre – the hero battles to keep a new Adam and Eve on the straight and narrow. In book 1:Out of the Silent Planet, we discover that planets have demi-Gods that are guardians of their worlds, and that ours has become evil (‘bent’). Lewis, now a celebrated Christian apologist, had already woven a theological aspect into the first two books of his space trilogy. These implausible elements make the work less a science fiction, but makes it richer as a work of science romance and imagination. The supernatural elements though, provoke reservations in the reviewer, who sees the story weakened by elements that more or less load the odds in favour of the side of God and good. the atom bomb), and enjoyable as a thrilling crime story.
In fact Orwell reviewed That Hideous Strength in 1945, commending the parts concerning the scientific conspiracy as being not improbable, relevant in the light of topical events (ie.
Lewis’s story of scientists intent on forming the world on ultimately dehumanising principles, languishes in obscurity, while George Orwell’s much more powerful and focussed 1984 was the one that stuck four years later. This curiosity of a book was written at the end of WWII, a time ripe for warnings against totalitarian dangers. Here goes – my first ever book review, which is going up on the Goodreads website.Ĭ.S.Lewis concludes his unique space trilogy, following Mars and Venus with a show-down on Earth.
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