What was the name of C.S. Lewis’s science-fiction trilogy’s first novel?

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

Published in 1938, the novel introduces Elwin Ransom, a Cambridge philologist who is abducted and taken to Malacandra, a planet known to readers as Mars. The narrative combines interplanetary adventure with questions about language, morality, and humanity’s place in the cosmos.

The book was followed by Perelandra in 1943 and That Hideous Strength in 1945. Together, the three novels are commonly called the Space Trilogy or the Ransom Trilogy, after their recurring central character.

The trilogy is sometimes confused with Lewis’s other fiction because it mixes speculative science with theological and philosophical themes. Out of the Silent Planet, however, is specifically the opening volume, while Perelandra and That Hideous Strength continue the larger sequence.