Which C.S. Lewis novel is set partly on the fictional planet Malacandra?
Answer
Out of the Silent Planet
Out of the Silent Planet is the C.S. Lewis novel set partly on the fictional planet Malacandra.
Published in 1938, it is the first novel in Lewis’s Space Trilogy. The protagonist, Elwin Ransom, is kidnapped and taken aboard a spaceship to Malacandra, a world that readers can identify with Mars. There he encounters intelligent species and learns that Earth is known elsewhere as Thulcandra, the “silent planet.”
The novel combines planetary adventure with theological and philosophical ideas. Lewis challenged the assumption that science fiction had to portray extraterrestrial life as hostile or morally inferior. Instead, Malacandra’s inhabitants participate in a richer moral and spiritual order than the corrupted society Ransom has left behind.
The later novels are Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. A common mix-up is to name Perelandra because it is also part of the trilogy, but Perelandra is the second book and takes place chiefly on another planet. Malacandra belongs to Out of the Silent Planet.