C.S. Lewis’s novel Out of the Silent Planet is set partly on Mars.
Published in 1938, the book follows Elwin Ransom, a Cambridge philologist who is abducted and taken into space. His destination is Malacandra, Lewis’s fictional name for Mars. The story introduces readers to an inhabited planetary world with several intelligent species and a distinctive moral and linguistic culture.
Out of the Silent Planet is the first volume of Lewis’s Space Trilogy. Its sequels are Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. The trilogy combines science fiction with theological and philosophical ideas, especially questions about human violence, language, and the possibility of life beyond Earth.
The planet is called Malacandra in the novel, so readers may encounter both answers in summaries. Mars is the astronomical identity of the setting, while Malacandra is Lewis’s fictional name for that world.