C.S. Lewis’s science-fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet was first published in 1938. It is the opening volume of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, which follows the philologist Elwin Ransom through encounters beyond Earth.
The novel sends Ransom to Mars, called Malacandra by its inhabitants. There he encounters intelligent species and learns that Earth has been cut off from the wider cosmic order. The story combines planetary adventure with philosophical and theological ideas, especially questions about language, colonialism, scientific ambition, and humanity’s moral condition.
The book is sometimes dated incorrectly because the next two volumes appeared later: Perelandra was published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength followed in 1945. Out of the Silent Planet therefore belongs to the period before Lewis became best known for the Narnia books, which began in 1950.
Lewis wrote the trilogy partly in conversation with J.R.R. Tolkien, whose own fiction developed in a different genre. The novel’s mixture of space travel and Christian cosmology makes it a notable example of theological science fiction.