This Silence is Golden

A University professor on holiday (a walkabout, you might call it) is kidnapped by two men, and regains consciousness to find himself in a strange craft, with an otherworldly light all around him. Upon further investigation, he finds himself in a spaceship, headed for another world. Suspecting he is to be turned over to the natives for sacrifice, he plans his escape. Eventually he happens on to an odd creature, and develops a communication with it, learning its language. It helps, of course, that the professor is a student of languages, a philologist. What follows changes him forever.

So begins the story of "Out of the Silent Planet," a science fiction work by C.S. Lewis, written in the "Golden Age" of science fiction. Readers will be more familiar with "The Chronicles of Narnia," a children's fantasy work by the same author. This book tackles similar themes of God, myths, and allegory, but is written for an adult audience. The writing style and language is very British, very 1940's: it can be difficult for the modern reader to process, if they are unfamiliar with the style.

The protagonist of the book is Dr. Edwin Ransom, a professor of philology at Cambridge University. He is, in a way, Lewis' entry into the book. The antagonist is Dr. Weston, a physicist who has invented a way to propel a ship through space. Lewis does not attempt to explain how this is done, merely uses it to advance the plot. The connection between the two is a man named Devine, a schoolmate of Ransom's now working with Weston, who suggests taking Ransom instead of the simple farm lad originally planned as the "ransom" to another world.

The true fascination of the book is its description of another world. There are three distinct species inhabiting Malacandra, coexisting in peace and harmony, each filling its own niche. Lewis writes much of this material as a picture of how Earth could have been, if only humans had listened to God. Weston is a picture of the other extreme, life lived without God as a center and an influence.

The book moves slowly at times, because Lewis spends time developing the picture of a totally different world. The plot moves at times slowly, but quickly at the setup and at the climax, when it needs to do so. Lewis creates a believable world with a different system than our own.

This book is the first in a trilogy, but the story stands alone. If you like this one, you can then move on to try the others. It is fairly short, only 160 pages in the paperback version I have. It makes for a pleasant 3-4 hours of reading.