What was the first book in C.S. Lewis’s science-fiction trilogy?

Out of the Silent Planet was the first book in C.S. Lewis’s science-fiction trilogy.

Published in 1938, Out of the Silent Planet introduces philologist Elwin Ransom, who is kidnapped and taken to Mars, called Malacandra in the story. The novel combines interplanetary adventure with philosophical and theological ideas about humanity, language, and moral corruption.

The book begins Lewis’s so-called Space Trilogy. Perelandra followed in 1943, and That Hideous Strength completed the sequence in 1945. Although the novels share characters and themes, each has a distinct setting and narrative focus.

Readers sometimes reverse the first two titles because Perelandra is also strongly associated with the trilogy. Another possible confusion is The Dark Tower, an unfinished and posthumously published fragment that is not one of the trilogy’s three completed novels.