Malacandra is C.S. Lewis’s fictional planet corresponding to Mars in Out of the Silent Planet.
The novel’s protagonist, Elwin Ransom, is taken from Earth to Malacandra by the scientist Weston and his associate Devine. The inhabitants use their own names for the planet and its regions, while the narrative explains that Earth is called Thulcandra, the “silent planet.” Lewis therefore builds a complete vocabulary rather than simply placing a conventional Mars adventure in space.
Malacandra contains several intelligent species, including the hrossa, séroni, and pfifltriggi. Their societies challenge Ransom’s assumptions about civilization and human superiority. Perelandra, the setting of the second novel in the trilogy, is associated with Venus, while Thulcandra is Earth. These names are easy to mix up because they belong to the same fictional cosmology, but Malacandra is specifically Lewis’s Mars.