Which C.S. Lewis novel follows the space traveler Elwin Ransom to Malacandra?
Answer
Out of the Silent Planet
Answer
Out of the Silent Planet
Out of the Silent Planet follows Elwin Ransom to Malacandra.
Published in 1938, Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel in C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy. Its protagonist, Elwin Ransom, is a Cambridge philologist who is kidnapped and taken aboard a spacecraft to the planet Mars. The inhabitants call Mars Malacandra.
Ransom escapes his captors and encounters several intelligent species on Malacandra. Through his linguistic and scholarly skills, he learns about the planet's cultures and discovers that Earth is known as Thulcandra, the silent planet. The novel combines planetary adventure with Lewis's interest in language, morality, and the consequences of human violence.
The next books in the trilogy are Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945. The series is sometimes called the Ransom Trilogy. Lewis's friend J.R.R. Tolkien influenced his enthusiasm for older forms of planetary romance, but Tolkien did not write the Space Trilogy.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026