I’m sorry to report that nobody entered the contest I posted on last week’s blog. So nobody won the prize: a free copy of Weapons of Remorse.
Regardless, here are the answers to the quiz:
What is the name of the main character in C. S. Lewis’s “Space Trilogy”?
The answer: Ransom.
On what planet does the second novel take place?
The answer: Venus.
When Lewis began the trilogy in 1938, science fiction existed primarily in pulp magazines outside the mainstream of literature. In fact, the genre’s name derived from the term “scientifiction” coined by Hugo Gernsback, a founding father whose name now graces the prestigious Hugo Awards.
Each of the three novels is distinctive in its own way. Out of the Silent Planet resulted from a conversation between Lewis and his friend, J. R. R. Tolkien, author of the Middle Earth novels. In it, an evil scientist and his accomplice abduct Dr. Ransom to the planet Malacandra (Mars), where they find that Earth has been exiled from the rest of the solar system.
In Perelandra, Ransom travels to Venus to battle a more sinister incarnation of the scientist in a new Garden of Eden. This time the story of Eve and the serpent takes a different turn.
That Hideous Strength bring us back to Earth, where evil festers at a British college set on grounds that may be the burial site of Merlin the magician. Ransom figures in this story also, but the principal protagonists are a young college fellow and his wife.
All three stories are highly imaginative and allegorical. Readers who like science fiction and fantasy tales will find that they remain refreshingly original and compelling.
