The protagonist Elwin Ransom has the surname Ransom in C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy.
Ransom is the central character of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. He is a philologist and university academic whose journeys take him from Earth to other worlds and into conflicts involving humanity, morality, and cosmic powers.
The first novel, Out of the Silent Planet, was published in 1938. It sends Ransom to Malacandra, a planet later identified with Mars. The second book takes him to Perelandra, while the third returns to Earth and develops a more directly social and scientific setting.
Ransom is sometimes confused with characters from Lewis’s Narnia books, such as Peter Pevensie or Digory Kirke. Those figures belong to a separate fantasy series. The space trilogy is also known as the Ransom Trilogy because of its recurring protagonist.