This is the seconf of three books in a series, the first called "Out of the Silent Planet" (Mars). The story line is miniscule and hidden behind armies of expository and imaginative paintings. Little action; blithely frlat characterization, and just not that good. ( )

In the second volume of C. S. Lewis' allegorical science-fiction trilogy, Elwin Ransom is sent by the ruler of Mars to Venus, or, as it's called Perelandra. Ransom discovers that Venus has a society at the beginning: it's Garden of Eden state, with free floating islands drifting on a sweetwater ocean populated with mythical and strange creatures.

He meets that's world Eve, called Tinidril, and discovers his adversary, Weston, who is actively working to corrupt the Venusian society by encouraging Tinidril to do the one thing forbidden by Maleldil (the God character): sleep on the Fixed Land.

Ransom and Weston battle for the future of this world and its inhabitants, which is made more complex when Weston becomes the subject of demon possession.

While the story may sound a bit fantastic (and it is quite allegorical, acting as a sort of commentary on Dante and Milton), Lewis considered this volume the best of all his works, which would probably make it a must read for a true fan of Lewis.

For everybody else: It's worth reading if you enjoyed Out of a Silent Planet, and worth looking into if you liked Narnia, Screwtape, or any of Lewis' other fiction. ( )

About a profesor who travels into space, and lands on venus by the means of an extra-terrestrial representaion of God. I thought it was a good book, well written and descriptive. The book only seems to lack a transition between scenes and chapters. Overall, however, I enjoyed it very much for its creativity and penatrating line of thought. It would be confusing to read this book without reading Out of the Silent Planet first. ( )

Perelandra I liked least of the three stories. The narrator is an unnamed friend of Ransom and the story is presented in the same fashion as The Time Machine by H. G. Wells--a sort of before and after snapshot of the hero on his mysterious journey as witnessed by the narrator, with the journey then being told from beginning to end (note: he acknowledges the influence of H. G. Wells in an introductory note to the first book). This time the religious themes were central and overpowering and, by the end, obnoxious. The most hysterical part of the book was the preface, which stated that all characters in the book are fictitious and not at all allegorical, no sir. I can only assume this protest was directed to critic and friend J. R. R. Tolkein. This time Ransom is transported magically by the supernatural powers he encountered in the first book to Venus (or Perelandra). Perelandra is a newer world, just as Mars was far older than Earth, its history almost at its end, a perfect floating garden world of new and innocent life with the first Man (missing until the end) and first Woman. Ransom meets the first Woman and is soon joined by Weston who travels by spaceship. It is the story of Eden anew, with Weston possessed by the Devil, come to tempt the Woman to break the only rule, and Ransom representing the forces of good to keep her on the true path. This book was all about superlatives--the fruits were the tastiest ever, the scents the most intoxicating ever, the birdsong the most haunting ever--you get the idea. The only things I really liked about this book in the end were the descriptions of the floating islands on a water world and a single line about the nature of love.

**SPOILER ALERT**
The Devil speaks to the Queen incessantly, laying siege to her reason and her emotions with so many arguments and stories to convince her to break that one rule to prove her independence and free will, just as the Creator really wants, and somehow Ransom cannot find the flaws in the arguments or otherwise counter the Devil. What gets me is that the Devil is going around killing and maiming all the plants and animals within reach every time her back is turned, so she never sees his evil actions firsthand, but still the evidence must be lying around to be tripped over. The animals must be learning fear, another source of indirect evidence. And yet the Queen never figures it out and Ransom never appears to point it out. Instead, he decides the only way to vanquish evil is to kill it. So they have a titanic struggle one day when the Queen is sleeping, here there, and everywhere. He ultimately wins, but then must struggle his way back to the surface from the pit of darkness where he ended up (not subtle, is it?). And when he gets out he finds the King and Queen and the supernatural powers of Mars and Venus waiting to congratulate him on saving Venus for the proper dawning of a new age. And then there's a pages long sermon, after which Ransom gets back into his capsule and is shipped back to Earth. I take issue with the basic premise that killing is the solution to a fundamental problem, that dialogue or guided personal experience accomplish nothing. And the pages and pages of religious exposition about the divine plan and how every species and everyone is both central and not central presented as some sort of communal soliloquy--yuck. That is not something that carries forward the plot of a novel and the quotation marks don't make it dialogue. ( )

Perelendra is a bit of a rollercoaster ride. It gets off to a rocky start with an unnecessary and heavy-handed first-person parable about maintaining faith despite doubts and fears, but once the story moves on to Ransom's adventures it gets more interesting. The basic arc of the story becomes fairly obvious from early on, but suspense isn't really the point here. The theological debates between Ransom, the Queen of Perelandra, and "Weston" alternate between deadly boring and wonderfully insightful, with a slight lean toward the latter.

Both the world of Perelandra and the story that go with it are much less intricately crafted than in the previous book, and the theological skeleton shows through more clearly. As a result I often felt like I was being beaten over the head with the point, which isn't something you want your reader to feel. To the novel's credit, whenever I started to get bored or annoyed enough that I was considering skimming the rest of it or putting it down, something awesome would happen or a really good point would be made, and things would get interesting again.

In the end, it didn't live up to Out of the Silent Planet but it was still worth reading, and good enough to make me want to continue on to That Hideous Strength. ( )