Book Review: Out of the Silent Planet

Oh, how I've missed C.S. Lewis. I read The Last Battle out loud with Lizzy over the summer when we, Josh, and Chad took a trip to Mammoth Caves, but reading a book out loud isn't quite the same. And there's a difference between reading Lewis for children (although I would never ever suggest that adult's shouldn't enjoy the Chronicles of Narnia) and Lewis for adults. So maybe my next project will be The Screwtape Letters. It's been sitting on my desk at home for a year or two now.

But that's enough jibber jabber. I haven't said anything at all of the book itself yet. It was an excellent read full of food for thought and imagination. Malacandra, the beautiful world he crafted, had such a charming culture and a stunning landscape that I can't wait to read the next book in the trilogy so I can visit again. It's a world that operates as it ought to. A foolish reader might read unintended political statements into Lewis' portrayal of Malacandra, but to get caught up in that would be to miss the point entirely. As one might suspect from Lewis, the intended point was a theological one.


Spoilers ahead. I've left out the bulk of the plot, but it you wanted to read it and find the message for yourself skip ahead.

[spoilers]
The direct message of the book is to communicate that Earth and its sentient creatures have been corrupted - bent, to use the Malacandran term - by its governing eldil (someone from a Christian background would read the eldil as some sort of angelic authorities, Earth's being Satan). Malacandra was wounded by Earth's corrupt eldil, but saved by its own governing eldil (Oyarsa) at a great price and has managed to continue operating in its ideal state. Because of his corruption, earth's governing eldil has been cast from the heavens to the earth thereby limiting his influence to the sentient creatures of Earth. But Maleldil (the God-figure) has a plan to redeem Earth. Sounding familiar at all?
[/spoilers]

Out of the Silent Planet sets the stage for further metaphorical exploration of the gospel. We'll see where the other books take us. Lewis doesn't tend to bluntly present his ideology to his readers (he cleverly cut out of the recorded story the implied full word-for-word telling of the gospel), so I'm interested to see what happens next. Maybe I'll get a chance to read the others over break.