started by duchess of malfi:
03 Jan 2003 15:47 Post subject: Re: Out of the Silent Planet:C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's finally my day off from work, so I've been concentrating on laundry and reading today. Mhoram, I can see why you had trouble getting into the third book. I am having some of the same trouble. 1. I spent the week bouncing back and forth between afternoon and midnight shifts and I am very tired. 2. No Ranson yet, and I am somewhere between a third and halfway done. 3. I don't particualrly care for either Mark or Jane yet.
If I can stay awake, I hope to finish it up this evening. And that's not saying anything bad about Lewis, whom I like as a writer. It's just saying that I'm physically exhausted.
I feel like this today: but in a bad way, not a good one.
I think it's time to go make a pot of nice, hot, strong tea! Winter is Coming Blood and Fire Unbowed,Unbent,Unbroken mhoram6910 Master Pilot
Joined: 31 Aug 2002 Posts: 1006
Posted: 03 Jan 2003 15:51 Post subject: Re: Out of the Silent Planet:C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you manage to finish THS, please tell us about it! Hello, and good-bye, as always.
Further up, and further in Duchess of Malfi Lady Scryer
Joined: 17 Nov 2002 Posts: 5974 Location: Michigan, USA Posted: 03 Jan 2003 23:13 Post subject: Re: Out of the Silent Planet:C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, I just finished. I came downstairs to let my doggy outside for his pre-bedtime business, so thought I'd give you a quick post. I didn't like this one as much as the other two books, though that might be simply a function of being so physically tired. I found it hard to warm up to Mark and Jane, the two main characters. I just didn't find them to be very likable people, though I did like Jane more than Mark. Ransom WAS in the book, but he appears late, and he's been so changed by his experiences in book 2 that he's definately not the same person. I'll have to think on it awhile when I'm feeling more the thing, but I'm not even certain if he's fully human anymore. He seems to be...more. The plot was interesting. Lewis pulled all sorts of Arthurian stuff into it! I DID like Mr. Bultitude. Winter is Coming Blood and Fire Unbowed,Unbent,Unbroken mhoram6910 Master Pilot
Joined: 31 Aug 2002 Posts: 1006
Posted: 04 Jan 2003 14:09 Post subject: Re: Out of the Silent Planet:C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Youre a faster reader then I am! Im glad you liked it, at least I think you liked it Ransom is very cool! Hello, and good-bye, as always.
Further up, and further in Duchess of Malfi Lady Scryer
Joined: 17 Nov 2002 Posts: 5974 Location: Michigan, USA Posted: 04 Jan 2003 14:19 Post subject: Re: Out of the Silent Planet:C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, I don't think that I'm a faster reader than you. Mr. I'm-on-book-7-of-amber! That third book is just harder to get into than the other two. Still pretty good, though -- it IS Lewis. I like how he played his little tribute to Tolkein throughout book 3 -- besides the character Ransom being based on Tolkein. And of course I liked it you goofball! And I prolly never would have read the trilogy if not for you, so THANKS! Ankh-Morpork people considered that spelling was a sort of optional extra. They believed in it the same way they believed in punctuation; it didn't matter where you put it, so long as it was there.~Terry PratchettEdited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 1/4/03 2:39:58 pm mhoram6910 Master Pilot
Joined: 31 Aug 2002 Posts: 1006
Posted: 05 Jan 2003 11:24 Post subject: Re: Out of the Silent Planet:C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Youre welcome! Hello, and good-bye, as always.
Further up, and further in moormahn Pilot
Joined: 07 Jan 2003 Posts: 1
Posted: 07 Jan 2003 23:15 Post subject: Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These are three of my favorite books. The third was a little slow but picked up. Perelandra was the best of the three. Actually one of the best of all his books that I have read, which is still only a handful. If you want one which is a more openly religious, but with a interesting twist, try THE GREAT DIVORCE. nindiri Pilot
Joined: 16 Oct 2002 Posts: 19
Posted: 08 Jan 2003 19:42 Post subject: Re: Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I liked The Great Divorce. The only problem with reading Lewis, at least for me, is that you need a dictionary and an encyclopedia nearby to keep up with him.
I also thought Perelandra was the best of the three books. That seems to be the majority opinion here. mhoram6910 Master Pilot
Joined: 31 Aug 2002 Posts: 1006
Posted: 09 Jan 2003 15:19 Post subject: Re: Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Probably has the best writing, and the most thought and Christian speculation...sorry I didnt word that right. Hello, and good-bye, as always.
Further up, and further in Duchess of Malfi Lady Scryer
Joined: 17 Nov 2002 Posts: 5974 Location: Michigan, USA Posted: 24 Jan 2003 13:59 Post subject: Re: Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was at Barnes and Noble today, trying to track down the last volumes of Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn books, which Borders didn't have when I stopped in there last week. And I found a novella/short story collection by Lewis that contains a novel fragment about Ransom called The Dark Tower! It is apparently part of a direct sequel to Silent Planet! It was saved from the flames of a bonfire after Lewis's death when his brother had his papers burned... Will get back with you guys as soon as I read it. I am in the middle of a novel by Zindell, which I wish to finish first, then I think I'll read The Dark Tower. It's less than a hundred pages, and the other short stories are even smaller. Ankh-Morpork people considered that spelling was a sort of optional extra. They believed in it the same way they believed in punctuation; it didn't matter where you put it, so long as it was there.~Terry Pratchett Duchess of Malfi Lady Scryer
Joined: 17 Nov 2002 Posts: 5974 Location: Michigan, USA Posted: 23 Feb 2003 18:22 Post subject: Re: Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't care for the Dark Tower. The first few pages are pure Lewis, then there is an abrupt break in the story, and when it resumes, the tone completely changes. I think it's going to be one of the few books I put aside without finishing... Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell Duchess of Malfi Lady Scryer
Joined: 17 Nov 2002 Posts: 5974 Location: Michigan, USA Posted: 18 Mar 2003 13:00 Post subject: Re: Space Trilogy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, I did make myself sit down and finish it today. I still don't care for the dark Tower story itself, but there was another novel fragment called After Ten Years, which I think would have been a wonderful book if Lewis had been granted the time to finish it...it was about Helen of Troy and her Greek husband Meneleus, and the aftermath of the Trojan War, the bits of it available were a pretty good read... Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell rivenrock Pilot
Joined: 26 Jan 2004 Posts: 3
Posted: 29 Jan 2004 16:27 Post subject: Lewis' imagination, and mine
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote:But so far I like Out of the Silent Planet more. Loved the species and imagination in that book. Only Lewis... I love that book. Sometimes I feel like I don't have the imagination I used to, because I remember reading books like that and better utterly absorbed in the characters, the creation of a people I'd never before imagined - the hnau definitely fall into that catagory, but after I read Donaldson's Chronicles as an adult I realised that that power of imagination is still there; it's just that there are only a few authors that can create like that.
I love Lewis as a person and an author, even though there were books of his I found boring (half of Perelandra at least), because sometimes he just gets it SO RIGHT. Out of the Silent Planet is one of favourite books of all time, only because of species he created. And not just wrote a new version of either, like Pratchett's excellently funny new take on elves, but created from scratch. I also love the way their 'human'ity has nothing to do with looking human.
and a bunch of other things too
_________________ Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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