Perelandra is the C.S. Lewis science-fiction novel set mainly on the planet Perelandra.
Published in 1943, Perelandra is the second book of Lewis’s Space Trilogy. Its protagonist, Elwin Ransom, travels from Earth to Perelandra, which is identified with Venus. There he encounters a world at the beginning of its history and becomes involved in a struggle over whether its inhabitants will obey or reject a destructive temptation.
The novel draws on the biblical story of humanity’s temptation while placing that moral drama in an imagined planetary setting. Lewis combines speculative fiction with theological questions about freedom, innocence, obedience, and evil. The planet’s unusual geography, including floating islands and a distinctive ocean environment, gives the book a setting unlike conventional Earth-based fantasy.
Perelandra is often confused with Out of the Silent Planet, the trilogy’s first volume, which takes place on Malacandra, Lewis’s fictional Mars. The final volume, That Hideous Strength, shifts the action largely back to Earth and explores a sinister scientific institution.