Which C.S. Lewis novel is set on the fictional world of Malacandra?

Out of the Silent Planet is the C.S. Lewis novel set on the fictional world of Malacandra.

Published in 1938, the book follows philologist Elwin Ransom after he is abducted and taken into space. His captors intend to offer him to inhabitants of Malacandra, a world that readers can identify with Mars. Ransom escapes and encounters intelligent species whose societies challenge his assumptions about humanity.

The novel combines planetary romance, theological speculation, and criticism of colonial exploitation. Lewis uses the alien setting to examine language, morality, science, and the possibility that Earth’s history is unusually damaged.

Out of the Silent Planet begins Lewis’s Space Trilogy. Perelandra, published in 1943, moves the story to another planet, while That Hideous Strength, published in 1945, returns much of the action to Earth. Malacandra should therefore not be confused with the setting of either sequel.