Which C.S. Lewis novel was published in 1938?

Out of the Silent Planet was the C.S. Lewis novel published in 1938. It is the first book of his science-fiction trilogy commonly called the Space Trilogy.

The novel follows philologist Elwin Ransom after he is abducted and taken to Malacandra, a planet later identified by readers with Mars. Lewis uses the story to explore language, morality, colonialism, and the possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth. The setting is not simply an adventure backdrop; its cultures and languages are central to the book’s ideas.

The two later Space Trilogy novels are Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945. Lewis’s friend J.R.R. Tolkien helped encourage his interest in writing imaginative literature, while Lewis’s science-fiction work also reflects his engagement with Christian theology.