Now we are getting somewhere. Lewis’ fifth published work is the first novel in his Space Trilogy. Released in 1938 readers would have to wait 6 and 8 years respectively for the final two installments.

In the book, Ransom is on a walking tour through the English landscape. He is abducted and taken to the planet Malacandra (Mars). Escaping from the clutches of his captors, Ransom is able to spend time with the life forms on this planet.

I hesitate to say too much about the content of the book because I encourage all of those who have not read it to pick it up. It is a slight book that can be read easily in an evening.

Suffice it to say that as Ransom spends time on Malacandra he learns much about not only this alien planet but his own as well. He learns that Earth is referred to as Thulcandra or “The Silent Planet.” Earth is silent to the other planets because the lord of Thulcandra had become “bent” or “evil.” The evil lord of Thulcandra then turned his sights on other planets. To protect the other planets the Maleldil had bound him to his own planet. In a hat-tip to the incarnation we are told that Maleldil “dared terrible things, wrestling with the Bent One in Thulcandra.”

One of the major themes of this work is the danger of making Science an idol. Lewis does not attack Science in and of itself. Instead, the danger is allowing the pursuit of Science become an end unto itself. The attempts to propagate the human race despite the cost that it wreaks upon others is an ultimate evil.

In the stunning exchange that brings the novel to its climax we see a chilling reminder of the dangers of expansionism and man’s blood-thirst for supremacy. Penned 70 years ago it would almost seem to be plucked out of some contemporary mouths. It even seems similar to what has been said recently by people in power:

To you I may seem a vulgar robber, but I bear on my shoulders the destiny of the human race. Your tribal life with its stone-age weapons and bee-hive huts, its primitive coracles and elementary social structure, has nothing to compare with our civilization–with our science, medicine and law, our armies, our architecture, our commerce, and our transport system which is rapidly annihilating space and time. Our right to supersede you is the right of the higher over the lower (emphasis added).

All in all, it is a penetrating and engrossing read that has contemporary applications for us. Genocide, war, and wanton destruction of others, regardless of their status, level or location is a hallmark of our “bent-ness.”

It’s interesting that when this book was first released many readers were confused and unsure of what the meaning was. The meaning, to me, is all too clear in this day and age.

Grade: A