In C.S. Lewis’s novel Out of the Silent Planet, Malacandra is Mars.
Out of the Silent Planet, published in 1938, follows the philologist Elwin Ransom after he is taken from Earth to another world. The planet is called Malacandra by its inhabitants, while the scientific name Mars identifies it for readers. The book combines space travel with theology, linguistics, and moral speculation.
Lewis’s choice of a classical planetary association connects the novel with older traditions of astronomy and mythology. Malacandra is not presented as a realistic account of the Mars known to modern planetary science. Instead, Lewis uses an imagined inhabited planet to examine humanity’s violence, colonial assumptions, and relationship with other intelligent beings.
The novel begins the sequence often called the Ransom Trilogy. Its two successors are Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, although the settings and narrative emphasis change substantially across the three books.