What is the title of C.S. Lewis’s science-fiction trilogy beginning with Out of the Silent Planet?

C.S. Lewis’s science-fiction trilogy beginning with Out of the Silent Planet is called the Space Trilogy. The three novels combine space travel, planetary mythology, theology, and moral questions about scientific power.

The trilogy’s books are Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. Out of the Silent Planet was published in 1938, Perelandra followed in 1943, and That Hideous Strength appeared in 1945.

The protagonist is Elwin Ransom, a Cambridge philologist who travels beyond Earth and becomes involved in conflicts affecting several worlds. Ransom’s name led some readers and reference works to call the sequence the Ransom Trilogy, but Space Trilogy is the commonly recognized series title.

Lewis wrote the books partly in conversation with his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, who encouraged him to write imaginative fiction about space. The trilogy is distinct from Narnia: it is aimed at older readers and uses a more overtly philosophical and speculative framework.