When Ransom returns from a brief absence, he assures “Lewis” that this magnificent being is benign, a faithful servant of Maleldil. Despite his precautions, “Lewis” does encounter a majestic, awe-inspiring column of light that speaks to him, a being that seems more like a “thinking mineral” than a creature of flesh and blood. Like Ransom on his way to Mars, “Lewis” is terrified about the prospect of meeting some creature not of this world. Lewis begins the second book of the trilogy with himself as a character, trekking out to a remote cottage to meet his friend Ransom.“Lewis” had been told all about Ransom’s adventures on Mars and suspected that his otherworldly friend was currently entertaining strange visitors here on earth. Unsuspecting reader that I was, I picked up Perelandra in hopes of a good adventure story, not expecting light fiction to have much to say about my faith. In the first book, Out of the Silent Planet (which I read second), Lewis told the story of Elwin Ransom, a Cambridge professor who is abducted and carried off to Mars, where he learns the true story of what is actually going on in our corner of the cosmos. Perelandra is the second book of the “Space trilogy” (more accurately called the Ransom trilogy). Instead of finding something to wile away a few idle hours, I had stumbled across a book that turned my world upside down (or, more accurately, turned it back right side up). What I wasn’t expecting was a novel that would challenge me to re-imagine my faith, that would tackle head-on some of the very questions that I had been grappling with since my early teens.

When I first picked up Perelandra, I knew the story had to do with interplanetary travel, so I was expecting a bit of “high brow” science fiction along the lines of H.

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