Out of the Silent Planet
by C. S. Lewis · first published 1938
44% recommend56% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, readable space-travel novel that treats the cosmos as a strange, symbolic setting. It serves as a first science fiction read and opens Lewis's space trilogy.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The first book in Lewis's Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet tells the story of Dr. Elwin Ransom, a philologist who likes to explore the English countryside on foot. Seeking out a place to stay the night, he ends up at the estate of a colleague who is away in London. However, the house is not empty. Ransom stumbles upon the plot of a megalomaniacal scientist and his collaborator, who just happens to be an old schoolmate of Ransom's. Drugged, kidnapped, and wisked away in the scientists rocket to the planet Malacandra where he is to serve as a human sacrifice, Dr. Ransom escapes into
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Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis. Wonderfully written, though not as completely fleshed-out as a modern sci-fi reader may be used to. Still stands on its own two feet, worth a try. My first sci-fi. The Golden Bough, Frazer.…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of all time, and why?” ↗Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - R.A. Heinlein The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
on “Ask HN: What were your "life-changing" books?” ↗> I would suggest reading Perelandra People should read Out of the Silent Planet first, and then Perelandra. The third book in the series is also good, but goes in a different direction and doesn't really touch on the relationship between the Christian God and extraterrestrial life.
on “How Possibilities of Life Elsewhere Might Alter Held Notions of Faith” ↗…different places (e.g. in Narnia) you may have wondered why Lewis never did a time travel novel. Turns out, he started one, and its rough draft eventually turned into this. My advice: read the short and sweet Out of the Silent Planet first for context, skip Perelandra (dangerously overdosed with overt Christian allegory), and then try this thing.
on “Stories from Radium Age sci-fi, which ruled the early 20th century” ↗I used to think of space as big and empty - and indeed, this map invokes that feeling a little. But since reading "Out of the Silent Planet" I have come to see it a different way. He had read of 'Space': at the back of his thinking for years had lurked the dismal fancy of the black, cold vacuity, the utter deadness, which was supposed to…
on “If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (2014)” ↗…Diamond Age Bear: The Forge of God, Eon Sagan: Contact van Vogt: The Voyage of the Space Beagle Lem: Solaris Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness Lewis: Out of the Silent Planet Some of these are the beginnings of series or have sequels, or exist in a larger continuum of stories. But each can be read and appreciated on their own. If you find one you really like, it's not hard…
on “Beginnings of Science Fiction” ↗I love the space trilogy. Out of the silent planet helped me think of what the “heavens” are. I’d definitely recommend them, though I love thinking of t he symbolic nature of things.
on “Electromagnetism is a property of spacetime itself, study finds” ↗Which CS Lewis fiction have you read? Till We Have Faces is the best IMO and few people seem to read it. I also like Out of The Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength, although not the middle book of that trilogy, Perelandra. The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce are pretty good too. I am not sure Tolkien's books are accurately described…
on “George Bernard Shaw by G. K. Chesterton (1909)” ↗I'm surprised that there was no mention of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, which featured three different sentient species.
on “A Short History of Martians” ↗…I liked Perelandra best, but only after reading it a second time when a friend pointed out that it was a reimagining of the garden of Eden (I was too young to pick up on that during the first read). Out of the Silent Planet is interesting since the reference is to Earth and how it remains "silent" to those outside of it who choose to avoid its rampant evil. Incidentally the trilogy came about when C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.…
on “The Scientists Take Over: George Orwell Reviews “That Hideous Strength” (1945)” ↗Reminds me of Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, written before anyone had much of a clear idea of what the surface of Mars is really like. There was air and life in the canyons, but everything else was a low-oxygen desert. Realistically,…
on “A SpaceX booster now trails only 4 space shuttles in flight experience” ↗> In a way, spacetime itself is therefore the aether. This somehow reminds me of C.S. Lewis’s “Out of the Silent Planet”, where the narrator says regarding the protagonist “He wondered how he could ever have thought of planets, even on Earth, as islands of life and reality floating in a deadly void. Now, with a certainty…
on “Electromagnetism is a property of spacetime itself, study finds” ↗…it was the womb of worlds, whose blazing and innumerable offspring looked down nightly even upon the earth with so many eyes-and here, with how many more! No: Space was the wrong name.” ― C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
on “NASA’s Webb takes star-filled portrait of Pillars of Creation” ↗…address the very objections he raised when he wrote 1984 not too very long afterward.) It's the end of a trilogy but you can operate it as a standalone book (and if you must start with the other books, Out of the Silent Planet is a cute little homage, but don't let the dense and somewhat-dull Christian allegory in Perelandra get you down and make you skip Hideous.)
on “Civ II game a decade old” ↗…famous authors who formed their own literary/review circle that met once or twice a week: J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings) C.S. Lewis (the Narnia series, the space trilogy beginning with Out of the Silent Planet, and numerous Christian writings), Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. Parts 2 and 3 can be found under "Top Posts" to the right of the page, or direct links can be copied from here: https://audioboom.com/posts/4425071-the-fellowship-the-liter...…
on “The Fellowship: Literary Lives of the Inklings (Tolkien,Lewis,Barfield,Williams)” ↗