On Science Fiction On Science Fiction

I intend in this brief article to recommend C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet. It is the first of three "fairy tales" (to use Lewis' words) that he penned just prior to and during World War II. Together they are known as his "space trilogy" or "science fiction triology."

Even though Out of the Silent Planet is, in my opinion, perfectly executed imaginative genius (I do not wish to provide a single plot element or spoiler), its dual genius lies in its conception. At the height of science fiction's popularity as a genre, Lewis got in on the fun and wrote some science fiction of his own. However, what Lewis produced was, in effect, a science fiction story that, philisophically (that may be the wrong word), knocked the wind out of other science fiction stories. He sets a critique of many of the "fantasies" he had read in the midst of a story that outstrips most of them in every way. When one learns the trick Lewis has pulled, one gets the irony that at first goes unnoticed in the note that opens the book:

"Note: Certain slighting references to earlier stories of this type which will be found in the following pages have been put there for purely dramatic purposes. The author would be sorry if any reader supposed he was too stupid to have enjoyed Mr. H.G. Wells's fantasies or too ungrateful to acknowledge his debt to them. -- C.S.L."

"For purely dramatic purposes!" Isn't he great?!

Enjoy.