Which C.S. Lewis book was first published in 1938 as a science-fiction novel about Mars?

Out of the Silent Planet was first published in 1938 as a science-fiction novel about Mars. Its hero, Elwin Ransom, is kidnapped and transported to the planet by two men who intend to use him in an exploitative scheme.

Lewis calls Mars Malacandra and populates it with intelligent species whose languages, cultures, and moral outlook challenge the assumptions of the human visitors. The novel’s concern with communication and the limits of human ambition is as important as its planetary setting.

The book was written partly in response to the kind of space fiction Lewis felt often treated other planets as arenas for conquest or simplistic adventure. It became the first volume of the Space Trilogy, followed by Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.

Although the novel is associated with Christian themes, it is also a work of speculative fiction, linguistic imagination, and literary debate. Lewis’s academic interest in medieval and Renaissance literature appears in its moral and cosmic framework.