Malacandra is the fictional planet visited in C.S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet.
Published in 1938, the novel follows philologist Elwin Ransom after he is kidnapped and taken into space. His destination is Malacandra, a world that readers on Earth would identify as Mars, although Lewis uses a different name and builds an original planetary society around it.
The book is the first volume of Lewis’s Space Trilogy. Its sequel, Perelandra, takes place on a different world, while Thulcandra is the name used for Earth in the series. Those similar names are a common source of mix-ups.
Lewis combines planetary adventure with questions about language, morality, colonialism, and humanity’s place in creation. Ransom’s expertise as a linguist is central to his ability to understand Malacandra’s inhabitants and challenge the assumptions of the people who abduct him.