Perelandra is the fictional planet where C.S. Lewis sets his second Space Trilogy novel.
Published in 1943, Perelandra sends Elwin Ransom to a world that is also called Venus in the novel’s wider planetary framework. Ransom finds floating islands, a sea-covered environment, and a newly created civilization facing a test of obedience. The title “Perelandra” is the name used for the planet in the story.
The first Space Trilogy novel, Out of the Silent Planet, takes place largely on Malacandra, Lewis’s name for Mars. Earth is called Thulcandra, or the “silent planet,” because it is cut off from the wider harmony of the heavens. These invented names are easy to interchange because they belong to the same fictional cosmology.
Perelandra combines planetary adventure with theological and philosophical themes. Its plot reworks elements associated with the biblical account of temptation while using a distinctly science-fiction setting. The third novel, That Hideous Strength, returns to Earth and shifts toward a modern institutional and technological conflict.