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Out of the Silent Planet

Having recently read through the Chronicles of Narnia with my kids, and having a some Christmas money to spend, I decided that I would try out the Space Trilogy from C.S. Lewis.  The first book in this series is Out of the Silent Planetwhich starts out with a character, Ransom, being tricked into going on a long space voyage to, what I have deduced, is Mars.

What’s interesting about this trip is that, in the process, our character finds out that the planet is much different than he expects.  His captors believe that the natives want a human sacrifice, but what Ransom finds out is that it’s much more complicated than that.

Lewis works in Christian themes into this work, though nothing so blatant as that which is found in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The main theme that you find out later in the book is that the Earth has gone silent, from participating in the grand scheme of the Universe.

This is one of the most radical concepts in this book because it hits at the main assumption of most people today that the Earth is somehow perfect.  I mean, we know it’s not, but we still imagine that it’s in this glorified state, and yet this book works off the premise that the leader of this world—Satan—stopped interacting with the other planets in their worship of God.

Therefore, unlike the other planets and stars that continue to sing God’s praise, Earth is silent.

This book calls us to look at the rebellion of this planet, and how much it has been changed from what it was originally meant to be.

It’s also an immersive read, where I would wonder where the time went from the time I picked it up until I decided to call it a night.

What’s of particular interest is the Postscript—when you read it, you’ll know what I mean.