Anyone interested in reading and talking about this? This series is my favorite in all of Sci-Fi, and I re-read it regularly. Amazing insights into human nature and good vs evil. (and the second book is downright chilling, especially on audiobook.)
I received this for a gift and read it about 10 years ago. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of the mythological journeys of Achilles and Hercules except instead of travelling across oceans to strange lands, Ransom travels through space to our neighboring planets.
I loved the concept of travelling to the heavens and meeting actual angels (Eldila).
I read the first two as a young pup in 6th grade, but couldn’t make it through the last one. Finally got the whole set last year for Christmas and dug in greedily. It’s certainly less sci-fi and more a mythological tale set in an imaginary outer space, but what an outer space!
Chronicles, can I gather from your name that you’re a Lewis fan?
I had a very mixed experience with this trilogy. The first book, I loved. The second, I found a bit weird but still fascinating. The third, I absolutely hated–I mean, threw the book at the wall hated. It didn’t even feel like it was a part of the same series. Anyway, I pretty much choose to believe That Hideous Strength doesn’t exist and that Dr. Ransom is still cool and not a lame, glowy Moses-wannabe.
Chronicles–love the avatar! Now I want to go watch Sense and Sensibility again…
The third book is definitely a bit out of step, but it is an excellent book unto itself. It was the first book I read of the series, actually, so I may be biased. I really enjoy a lot of the new characters we meet, even if I don’t like them. I didn’t mind Ransom becoming the bastion of twinkling enlightenment, because the book wasn’t about him. I really felt the book was about Jane and Mark Studdock.
I am definitely going to have a read through. Maybe this Saturday I’ll start out of the Silent Planet.
I am a big C.S. Lewis fan. I think he is an excellent writer and is an excellent observer of human nature. I tend to learn things about myself when I read his works. (And boy was I peeved when they turned Chronicles into a movie series. Grrr…)
I’m also a big Alan Rickman fan, and enjoy observing his nature. 
I know what you mean. Have you read Till We Have Faces? It’s one of my all-time favorite books. I’m a bit of a mythology buff, so that helps, but mostly, I was just floored by how perfectly a middle-aged male writer captured the inner-workings of the mind of an insecure but smart and strong young woman.
As for Alan Rickman, me too :o. What is it about that man?
I haven’t read that, but you can be sure I will be at the Half-Price Books tomorrow scouring for it. I read That Hideous Strength when I was relatively newly married (read it out loud with my husband, in fact), and I identified with Jane very strongly.
It’s the voice, accent, eyes, and lips for me. (Can you tell I have thought about it long and hard?)
Best. Book. Evah.
I read that one in high school, where I fortunately had a good Lit teacher to help explain some of the mythology and symbolism behind it. I finished it about a month ahead of schedule because I couldn’t stand to read just one or two chapters a week. I devoured it.
I recall distinctly that several of the girls in the class were shocked at how close to their own thought processes C.S. came in depicting Orual. I even read an Amazon customer review in which the writer assumed C.S. Lewis was a woman. I imagine he wrote TWHF after a few years of marriage to Joy Gresham.
But yeah, I can read that book over and over again any time.
What mythical stories would you recommend reading before reading the book? I read up a bit in Wikipedia, and it seems I would do better to read the original before reading the retelling.
It’s based on the Cupid and Psyche myth, so that’s definitely the one to read. Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is a good place to start, but it’s a fairly well-known myth, so it’s included in a lot of Greek mythology collections.
In the copy of the book that I have, it includes a brief, basic recap of the myth of Cupid and Psyche at the back of the book, written by C.S. Lewis. He also explains the chief difference between the original story and his version–that of Cupid’s palace being invisible to the “evil stepsisters.”
I haven’t found a copy of Till We Have Faces at my regular haunts. I’ve reserved one via my local library, but I am fourth in line for the only copy they have. Meh.
That’s kind of strange. What with the resurgence of the fantasy genre in the past few years (thanks to LOTR, HP, and the Narnia movies) the Barnes and Noble I used to work at always had a few copies of TWHF–especially when I wrote it up as my Staff Recommends selection. Hope you get one soon.