In the second book, Perelandra, our protagonist, Ransom, is summoned by the celestial creatures to the planet of Venus. These are topics I would not approach with a reader who has not had some kind of Theology of the Body understanding. As he tries to understand their culture, their relationships, their government, and their religious nature, comments about sexual intercourse, prostitution, and murder are all explored. The main character journeys through the planet and befriends several man-like creatures. The main character is kidnapped and brought to Mars as a human offering to inhabitants of Malacandra (Mars).

In the first book, Out of the Silent Planet, the story arc deals with man’s human nature – whole, broken, and bent. Lovers of Narnia mistake Lewis’s intention and think that this is wholesome fare for young readers. (Note: Tolkien lost the bet and never produced a serious time travel novel.) I mention this because we will treat the three books separately from each other since their styles vary widely.Īll three space trilogy books are for mature readers. According to legend, the friends flipped a coin and Lewis was assigned the theme of space and Tolkien was relegated to time travel. Wells and other atheists who were turning the heavens into strange anti-moral other worlds. Inkling historians claim that Lewis wrote Out of the Silent Planet on a bet with Tolkien. He simply isn’t Tolkien and didn’t spend 30 years designing an alternative reality for us to wander around in without getting lost. Like classic Lewis, these all fit together without really fitting together.

Our purpose with this review is to highlight some specific content issues in each of the three books so that parents can discern when to share this story with their children. To our shock and dismay we often see this series recommended to young readers – the 10 to 12-year-old boy niche in particular – and we could not more emphatically disagree. As good as that review is, and it is pretty good, it fails to address one key aspect of the books that we care about: family friendliness or age appropriateness.

The ransom trilogy