Which C.S. Lewis science-fiction novel begins his Ransom Trilogy?

Out of the Silent Planet begins C.S. Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy. The science-fiction novel was published in 1938 and introduces the philologist Elwin Ransom.

Ransom is abducted from Earth and taken to Malacandra, a planet that humans commonly call Mars. The novel follows his encounters with the planet’s cultures and languages and his efforts to understand the motives of the men who captured him.

The later books in the trilogy are Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945. The books combine planetary adventure with philosophical, theological, and scientific themes.

Out of the Silent Planet is sometimes described simply as a Mars novel, but Malacandra is the name used within Lewis’s fictional planetary system. The title also reflects Lewis’s older term for Earth: the “silent planet.”