I was recently introduced to C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. Previously, I had only been familiar with his work in the Chronicles of Narnia as well as some of his book that are more focused on theology. Having previously read several of his books, I decided that I was going to give the Space Trilogy a go.

The book opens with Dr. Ransom going on a walking tour through the countryside when he happens across a house where he is kidnapped. This is no ordinary kidnapping; instead, he is being taken in a spaceship to Malacandra, the red planet.

Throughout the book we see him having to learn to deal with his captors, and does fairly well until he finds out that the reason they captured him was to offer him as a sacrifice. This frightens Ransom, and he soon decides that he is going to try to make a run for it whenever he gets the opportunity to do so.

They land on Malacandra, and surprisingly they are still able to breathe in the atmosphere. Soon, Ransom finds himself being chased by Sorn which are tall humanlike creatures with exaggerated limbs. He flees and soon finds himself interacting with other strange creatures.

In the book, Lewis makes use of his own language that the natives of Malacandra speak. This takes some getting used to as it is a completely made up language, not formed from another language. Eventually, though the words are repeated enough that the language begins to make sense.

I found the book slow to get into, but eventually, I was able to read through it at a decent pace. It is not too difficult of a read, but it is more difficult to read than The Chronicles of Narnia. Though I did enjoy the book, I doubt that I will read the subsequent books in the sequel as it was difficult to maintain motivation to continue the book.

If you are a fan of C. S. Lewis, then I would recommend it to you, but note that it is very different than his other books. If you are not already a fan of Lewis, then another book would likely be a better option as a first book of his to read.