Which book began C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy?

Out of the Silent Planet began C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy.

The novel was published in 1938 and introduced the philologist Elwin Ransom, who is abducted and taken to Mars, known in the book as Malacandra. Its imaginative setting combines planetary adventure with philosophical and theological ideas about humanity, language, and morality.

The two later novels in the trilogy are Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945. Because the series was not always marketed under one uniform title during its publication history, readers sometimes encounter references to it as the Ransom Trilogy.

Out of the Silent Planet was Lewis’s first science-fiction novel. It is distinct from his Narnia books, which use talking animals, invented kingdoms, and portal fantasy rather than interplanetary travel.