Title: Out of the Silent Planet
Author: CS Lewis
Publication date: 1938
Book's setting: The 1930's
Random facts: First book in a trilogy.
Plot summary: A professor, Dr. Ransom, is wandering around the English Midlands. He runs into some mad scientists who drug him and fly him to a strange and unidentified planet. Ransom manages to escape from his captors and wanders the planet. He finds the alien culture who lives there and manages to make himself welcome.
Favorite aspects: It was an interesting story, really it was. It was very well written, but it is CS Lewis, so I could hardly have expected otherwise. Lewis does a really magnificent job shaping his aliens civilizations, languages, and species. More than a story with a structured plot it is a study of the history and linguistics of the alien creatures Ransom meets. Lewis' descriptions of outer space were lovely and grand. The scene where Ransom is in the spaceship, slowly drifting away from from Earth (the silent planet) is truly lovely. Out of the Silent Planet has moments of great beauty and chilling magnificence, no doubt.
Least favorite aspects: Because it read a bit more like an academic journal than a story it got dull in places and really confusing in others. So don't pick up this book thinking that it is just Lewis' take on sci-fi the way the Narnia series was his take on fantasy. It's a lot more than that.
Other works it reminded me of: The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron; The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton
Sadie's merciless break-down: Truth time. I thought it was boring. I was really disappointed. I wasn't disappointed because it was a bad book, it just wasn't the book I thought it was going to be. Lewis got carried away explaining the nuances of the alien's grammar to me, and forgot to develop characters or write a comprehensive climax. It sported moments of chilling beauty, but they were lost or swallowed up by effort it took for me to remember the difference between a honodraskrud and a hnakrapunt. One means "monster slayer" and one means "that drug that looks like grass." It was just exhausting.
Also I kept comparing it to other stuff. It was the unfunny or less creepy version of something I'd read before. I think that sort of sucked the joy out of it for me. Of course if you're not really well-read in the sci-fi genre than this book might have all sorts of brand-new imagery and ideas. I still can't decide if it was more like the vintage version of Avatar, the religious version of Farscape, or the speculative version of Robinson Crusoe. I probably never will decide.
Then again, maybe I was just too stupid to get it.
Recommendation rate: If you like books that sit on the fence between fiction and theology then you will probably like it. If you enjoy sci-fi... I guess giving it a try can't hurt. If you disprove of alien civilizations don't bother, even if you adore CS Lewis.
Have you read Perelandra? Because that's how I felt about Out of the Silent Planet, and then Peralandra blew me out of the water with it's beauty and magnificence. It's strong in all those places where OotSP was week. In fact, I don't think there is ANY discussion of grammar.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I think he was trying to write it like it was academic, and thus letting himself get sidetracked by grammars and the minutiae of cultures, so it was actually doing what he wanted it to do.
No yeah, I get that CS wanted it to be really academic, it just sort of hurt my brain. If you tell me that Peralandra is better than I'll totally give it a try.
ReplyDeleteit's much, MUCH better. At least, I think it is. XD
ReplyDelete