Perelandra is the C.S. Lewis science-fiction novel that follows Ransom to the planet Perelandra.
Published in 1943, Perelandra is the second novel in Lewis’s Space Trilogy. The first book, Out of the Silent Planet, introduces the philologist Elwin Ransom and his encounter with interplanetary conflict. In Perelandra, Ransom travels to a world also called Venus, where he becomes involved in a struggle over whether its newly created humanity will obey or reject divine prohibition.
The novel draws on Christian theological themes while using the conventions of planetary romance and speculative fiction. Its setting is not a realistic account of Venus as understood by modern astronomy; it is an imaginative world shaped by myth, theology, and Lewis’s literary interests.
The trilogy concludes with That Hideous Strength, which returns the action to Earth and expands the conflict into a modern institutional setting. Readers sometimes call the three books the Ransom Trilogy, after their recurring protagonist.