Which C.S. Lewis novel is the first book of his Ransom Trilogy?

Out of the Silent Planet is the first book of C.S. Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy.

Published in 1938, Out of the Silent Planet introduces Elwin Ransom, a philologist who is abducted and taken to the planet Mars, called Malacandra in the novel. The story combines space travel with philosophical and theological questions about language, civilization, evil, and humanity’s place in the universe.

Perelandra followed in 1943, and That Hideous Strength completed the trilogy in 1945. The books are connected by Ransom and by their developing conflict, but each has a distinct setting and atmosphere.

The trilogy is sometimes called the Space Trilogy. “Ransom Trilogy” emphasizes its central character, while “Space Trilogy” emphasizes its speculative setting. Neither title refers to Lewis’s Narnia series, which is a separate body of fiction.