Which C.S. Lewis novel begins his science-fiction trilogy with the planet Malacandra?

Out of the Silent Planet is the C.S. Lewis novel that begins his science-fiction trilogy and introduces the planet Malacandra.

Published in 1938, the novel follows Elwin Ransom, a Cambridge philologist who is abducted and taken to Malacandra, known to Earth as Mars. There he encounters several intelligent species and learns that human assumptions about civilization and morality are deeply limited.

The book was followed by Perelandra in 1943 and That Hideous Strength in 1945. Together, the novels are often called the Space Trilogy or the Ransom Trilogy. The later books move from interplanetary adventure toward broader philosophical and spiritual conflicts.

Lewis wrote the trilogy partly in conversation with modern science fiction and with ideas discussed among his literary friends. Malacandra is not simply a renamed version of Mars; it is a carefully imagined world with its own cultures, languages, and moral history.