cs lewis – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com The best place on earth for nerds. Sat, 05 Dec 2020 21:57:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cropped-nerds_head_thumb2-100x100.png cs lewis – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com 32 32 All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, under one umbrella. We create short run podcasts for nerds, covering D&D, Marvel, Starfinder, and more! You vote for your favorite shows and they just might get a second season. cs lewis – Nerds on Earth false episodic cs lewis – Nerds on Earth jason.sansbury@nerdsonearth.com podcast All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, the best place on Earth for nerds. cs lewis – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/noe-podcast-logo.png https://nerdsonearth.com/blog/ The Best Sci-Fi Series You’ve Probably Never Read: Perelandra https://nerdsonearth.com/2016/04/best-sci-fi-series-perelandra/ Mon, 18 Apr 2016 15:35:28 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=6620

CS Lewis whisks us back to Mars in the second book of his Space Trilogy: Perelandra.

The post The Best Sci-Fi Series You’ve Probably Never Read: Perelandra appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

­­ In part one of The Best Sci-Fi Series You’ve Probably Never Read, we covered Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in the criminally overlooked Space Trilogy from C.S. Lewis. In it, we are introduced to Dr. Elwin Ransom, a philologist on a walking tour of the countryside who finds himself kidnapped by the physicist Dr. Weston and transported to the planet Malacandra, which turns out to be Mars. He escapes Weston and comes to learn that his own planet, Earth, is called Thulcandra – The Silent Planet – by the Malacandrians.

Ultimately, Weston is foiled by the ruling spirit (Oyarsa) of Mars, and he and Ransom are sent back to Earth. The genius bit of Out of the Silent Planet is at the end, when Lewis reveals to the reader that he has changed the names of the people involved in this story but that the knowing reader will still be able to recognize who the story is about. In short, he puts the events of Out of the Silent Planet squarely in the here and now.

­­ Perelandra: Plot Summary ­­Perelandra2

Perelandra picks up the story some time after the events of Out of the Silent Planet with Lewis en route to Ransom’s home on ‘business.’ He arrives to find that Ransom is preparing to leave, at the Oyarsa’srequest, for Perelandra (Venus). He is whisked away shortly and arrives to find himself floating in Perelandra’s apparently planet­-spanning ocean, which is peppered with floating mats of vegetation that resemble islands.

After pulling himself up onto one of the islands, Ransom meets the Queen of Perelandra. Her name is later revealed to be Tinidril, so I’ll use that from now on. She tells him that she and the King (named Tor) have only been given one rule from Maleldil (the Creator) – don’t sleep overnight on the Fixed Lands, the only non­floating land that Ransom has seen on Perelandra.

Ransom and Tinidril visit the Fixed Lands to look for the King, and it is there that the true story begins. While there, Ransom sees a familiar round object fall from the sky and land in the ocean near the Fixed Lands. He investigates, only to find exactly what he had feared: Weston has arrived in his spaceship. Ransom confronts Weston, and Tinidril heads back to the floating islands to avoid breaking Maleldil’s stricture about sleeping on the Fixed Lands. During the night Weston undergoes a terrifying transformation that Ransom eventually understands is Weston being possessed by the Devil himself.

What follows is a longish period of rhetorical battle between Ransom and the Un­Man, as Ransom comes to call him. The Un­Man is trying to convince Tinidril to break Maleldil’s rule against sleeping on the Fixed Lands, and Ransom is trying to urge her to obey. It’s a slow back­and­forth, and Ransom slowly realizes that he will ultimately lose this contest.

Fan art of Tendril by liseychan
Fan art of Tenidril by liseychan

Then, in a night of something in between anguish and epiphany, Ransom realizes the horrible truth; if he was sent to Perelandra to fight the Devil with the soul of that world’s Eve in the balance, why shouldn’t that fight be a physical one? He gets a good night’s sleep and begins the next morning. The fight is a vicious one. Ransom and Weston’s body beat each other half senseless before the Un­Man flees with Ransom giving chase. They end up in a subterranean cavern where Ransom gets the best of the Un­Man, beating and strangling Weston’s body.

Ransom then tries to make his way out of the cavern, only to find that the Un­Man is still following him.He finds a cavern with a massive fissure leading down into the fiery interior of the planet and has his final showdown with Weston’s possessed body. After smashing the Un­Man’s face in with a rock, he pushes the body into the fissure, destroying it for good.

All that is left for Ransom to do on Perelandra is to meet that world’s Oyarsa, or ruling spirit. Perelandra’s Oyarsa explains to Ransom that because the first humans on earth fell, Maleldil had to do something even greater there. But on Perelandra, the King and Queen passed the test, and would become what humankind was originally meant to be ­masters of their world in every sense of the word. King Tor and Queen Tinidril arrive and are essentially “given the keys” to the whole planet. After some conversation, Ransom is transported back to earth to tell his story to Lewis, who has been waiting for word from the Oyarsa of Mars that Ransom would be returning.

­­ Why It’s Awesome ­­

I’ll be honest with you: unless you’re a Christian and have a lively interest in theology, you might think Perelandra is the weak link in C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. The story isn’t as expansive and sweeping as Out of the Silent Planet, or (as we’ll see in part three of this series) as intricate and nuanced as That Hideous Strength.

But if you’re like me (a Christian and a huge nerd), there’s a lot to chew on in this book. Lewis employs copious amounts of symbolism, myths retold, and allegory throughout Perelandra. Like, so much so that people have written post­graduate dissertations about it. I have several friends who attended Bible colleges and had at least one class where the professor chose Perelandra as a textbook.51ZE6SQQZNL

Plus, as a bonus bit of nerd knowledge – the names of the King and Queen, Tor and Tinidril, were intentionally adapted by Lewis from the names Tuor and Idril, who are characters in The Silmarillion, written by Lewis’ great friend J.R.R. Tolkien.

But maybe the best part of Perelandra, in my opinion, is the continuation of the Ransom vs. Weston storyline, how it is expanded in this story, and how that sets up some important set pieces for the third installation of C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, That Hideous Strength.  In true epic sci-­fi series fashion, there are some threads that Lewis has been weaving throughout the first two books in the series that come to light and are tied up in the end.

The post The Best Sci-Fi Series You’ve Probably Never Read: Perelandra appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>
The Best Sci-Fi Series You’ve Probably Never Read: Out of the Silent Planet https://nerdsonearth.com/2016/03/best-sci-fi-series-youve-probably-never-read-silent-planet/ Mon, 28 Mar 2016 16:11:43 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=6239

Don't miss out on CS Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet - The first in the fantastic Space Trilogy.

The post The Best Sci-Fi Series You’ve Probably Never Read: Out of the Silent Planet appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

In the pantheon of great sci-fi worlds/universes, we tend to think of names like George Lucas, Orson Scott Card, Frank Herbert, Joss Whedon (yeah, I’m throwing some Firefly love out there), and Isaac Asimov. I’m going to make a provocative statement, and then hopefully convince you that I’m right. Okay, here goes…

We should include C.S. Lewis in that list.

[tw-divider]Out of the Silent Planet: The Story Behind the Story[/tw-divider]c.s.lewis-ap1-bw

And no, I’m not talking about Narnia, although Narnia is one of my favorite fictional worlds. A couple of months ago, we Nerds were thinking about some great sci-fi that many readers might have missed, and Ross mentioned Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy.  As the story goes, once upon a time at a meeting of the Inklings, Lewis and fellow literary legend J.R.R. Tolkien made an agreement: Tolkien would write a book about time travel and Lewis would write a book about space travel. As far as we know, Tolkien never finished his end of the bargain (though to be fair, his son Christopher has seemingly spent his entire adult life sifting through his father’s notes and still hasn’t finished). But Lewis produced a book called Out of the Silent Planet, which would become the first in a trilogy that takes readers throughout our solar system and then back to earth for its greatest test.

[tw-divider]Out of the Silent Planet: Plot Summary[/tw-divider]

Out of the Silent Planet introduces readers to Elwin Ransom, a philologist by trade (and a nod to his friend Tolkien). While out on a walking tour of the English countryside, Ransom happens upon an old school friend, Dick Devine, and the great physicist Weston. After some awkward pleasantries, they drug him. Gift of hospitality, amirite?

Ransom awakes to find himself traveling through space. Weston and Devine will tell him only that they are going to a place called Malacandra. Through some overheard conversations, and putting two and two together, Ransom figures out that he is meant to be given to the Sorns, what-/whoever they are, when they arrive. Armed with this knowledge, he determines to get away as soon as he can after they reach Malacandra.

Ransom makes good on his escape plans, but finds himself alone and without provisions on a strange planet. He has a slightly terrifying encounter with another type of creature, which turns into professional curiosity when he realizes that the creature is trying to speak to him. This is the true start of Ransom’s adventure.

Through the main part of the book, he gets to know the Hrossa, as the creatures names themselves. out-of-the-silent-planet-by-c-s-lewis-80sHe learns their language, then begins to learn about Malacandra and the natural order of things there. He learns that there is no dominant species, as on earth, but rather three fully-developed societies of species that interact with and depend on one another in various ways. Most importantly, he learns that Malacandra is Mars, and that his own planet earth is referred to by the Malacandrians as “Thulcandra” – the Silent Planet.

Ransom is also introduced to the spiritual world in a way he never has been on earth. The Malacandrians are fascinated by Ransom because he is the first communication of any sort to come out of earth since the earth’s Oyarsa (Oyarsas are the ruling “beings” or “spirits” over each heavenly body) became “bent” or evil. Ransom encounters Eldil, which are probably most similar to angels in Ransom’s understanding of the spiritual world. The Eldila help Ransom understand that he has been called to Malacandra because there has been a great siege on Thulcandra in order to prevent the Bent Oyarsa’s evil from spreading throughout the heavens (the Field of Arbol, as they call it), but it is almost time for the siege to end and for the Bent Oyarsa to be overthrown.

In the end Ransom, Devine, and Weston are brought before the Oyarsa of Malacandra and Ransom is called on to give a defense of his species. After much talk, he convinces Oyarsa that there is hope for humanity, that not all men are “bent” as Devine and Weston are. In the end, the three of them are sent home in the same ship they arrived in, with instructions to leave it immediately upon their return to earth and never return to Malacandra.

Then Lewis pulls an amazing trick – he ups the ante and makes the entire story more immediate and forceful by placing it squarely in our own world, in our own timeline. He reveals that “Ransom,” “Devine,” and “Weston” are pseudonyms he has given to real people in order to conceal their identities, due to the import of their stories. Readers are left feeling like they are smack in the middle of an incredibly important struggle between good and evil that is playing out in the very heavens above us right now.

[tw-divider]The First of a Strong Trilogy[/tw-divider]

If you love a great sci-fi adventure, you need to read Out of the Silent Planet. I promise I haven’t spoiled the book. I’ve given you the bones of the story, but left out the guts and the heart. And each book in the Space Trilogy only gets better.

The post The Best Sci-Fi Series You’ve Probably Never Read: Out of the Silent Planet appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>