Which 1938 novel by C.S. Lewis begins his Ransom Trilogy?

Out of the Silent Planet is the 1938 C.S. Lewis novel that begins his Ransom Trilogy.

The story follows Elwin Ransom, a philologist who is abducted and taken to Malacandra, a planet that readers recognize as Mars. The novel combines science fiction, Christian ideas, and a critique of colonial exploitation and materialist ambition.

The two later books are Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945. Together, the three novels are commonly called the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy, after their central character.

Readers sometimes reverse the trilogy’s first two titles because Perelandra is the most visibly otherworldly setting. Out of the Silent Planet is nevertheless the opening volume and introduces Ransom, the interplanetary setting, and the trilogy’s moral conflict.