Which C.S. Lewis novel begins his Ransom Trilogy, also called the Space Trilogy?

Out of the Silent Planet begins C.S. Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy, also called the Space Trilogy.

Published in 1938, the novel follows Elwin Ransom, a Cambridge philologist who is abducted and taken to Malacandra, a planet that humans call Mars. The story combines planetary adventure with philosophical and theological questions about language, civilization, scientific ambition and humanity’s moral condition.

The two later novels are Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945. Together they form a connected sequence, although each book has a distinct setting and style. The trilogy is also known as the Cosmic Trilogy because its ideas extend beyond conventional space adventure.

Readers sometimes identify Perelandra as the first book because it is especially prominent in discussions of Lewis’s theological fiction. It is actually the second volume. The protagonist’s surname, Ransom, also links the trilogy to Lewis’s recurring interest in sacrifice, redemption and the consequences of human choices.