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That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book 3) Paperback – May 13, 2003

by C.S. Lewis (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,349 ratings
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The final book in C.S. Lewis’s acclaimed science fiction Space Trilogy, which follows Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, concludes the adventures of the matchless Dr. Ransom.

Now, the dark forces that have been repulsed in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra are massed for an assault on planet Earth. Word is that the mighty wizard Merlin has come back to the land of the living after many centuries, holding the key to ultimate power for the force that can find him and bend him to its will. A sinister technocratic organization is gaining power throughout Europe, with a plan to “recondition” society, and it is up to Ransom and his friends to stop this threat by applying age-old wisdom to a new universe dominated by science. The two groups struggle to a climactic resolution that brings the Space Trilogy to a magnificent, crashing conclusion.

Written during the dark hours immediately before and during World War II, C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy stands alongside such works as Albert Camus’s The Plague and George Orwell’s 1984 as a timeless classic, beloved by succeeding generations as much for the sheer wonder of its storytelling as for the significance of its moral concerns.
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Previous page
  1. Book 3 of 3
    The Space Trilogy
  2. Print length
    384 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Scribner
  5. Publication date
    May 13, 2003
  6. Dimensions
    5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0743234928
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0743234924
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

The New Yorker In his usual polished prose, the author creates an elaborate satiric picture of a war between morality and devilry.

The New Yorker If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels.

Los Angeles Times Lewis, perhaps more than any other twentieth-century writer, forced those who listened to him and read his works to come to terms with their own philosophical presuppositions.

About the Author

C.S. Lewis was a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature at Oxford and Cambridge universities who wrote more than thirty books in his lifetime, including The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Visionary Christian, and The Space Trilogy (comprised of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength). He died in 1963.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; Reprint edition (May 13, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743234928
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743234924
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,349 ratings

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C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis

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CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a fellow and tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954 when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics, the Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.

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Top reviews from the United States

SmileCo
5.0 out of 5 stars A Rewarding Read and a Necessary Conclusion to the Space Trilogy
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2017
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I recently picked up and re-read C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy. Perelanda, the second book in the series, is one of my favorite Lewis works - and so I picked up Out of the Silent Planet (the first book in the series) and That Hideous Strength to refresh my experience of the whole story.

That Hideous Strength is the longest of the three and is, I think, the most difficult to connect with on a personal level. It doesn't have the simplicity and wonder that Perelandra has - nor does it have the wonder of the fantastic that carries Out of the Silent Planet. The story is darker, the imagery harder to engage, and the plot a bit less adventuresome. The field of characters is much broader as the plot is more complex. It feels a little more like a psychological drama than a fantasy.

Now, having said that, I still enjoy it. It is a powerful conclusion to the themes introduced in the first two novels and brings the character of Ransom full circle. The mystical creatures of the first two books are still present, but they are invisible influencers - much more like what we would call demonic forces (which is the point). The novel is very much an exploration of the clash of humanistic materialism with a Christian philosophy or moral absolutes. In fact, Lewis compares the novel to his non-fiction work, The Abolition of Man - and will reward the non-casual reader who will do some critical reading along with the source material.

The series is excellent and should be read by any fan of Lewis - if for no other reason, than it will put Perelandra in its proper focus... and it is a true gem of what makes Lewis so loved - complex emotional and spiritual tensions explored in wonderfully enticing fantasy worlds.
15 people found this helpful
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Shawn Dudley
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible and prescient
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2015
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CS Lewis, so well know for his Christian apologetics, his Narnia fantasy novels, and his literary criticism, also wrote fantastic science fiction novels. Borrowing strongly from early SciFi greats such as HG Wells and Jules Verne, Lewis combines his vast knowledge of classical mythology and very direct Christian polemic into an unheralded masterpiece.

The first two novels in Lewis' Space Trilogy deal with space travel and alien paradises, but the third novel That Hideous Strength takes place entirely on Earth. The story centers on a conflict between extraterrestrial forces seeking either to enslave or liberate Earth.

While I wont spoil the story for readers, there's an aspect to Lewis' vision that makes this novel even more relevant today and that's Lewis' warning on the evils of what some call "Scientism" or the making of science into a sort of post-modern religion. Lewis uses the ironically-named NICE as a vehicle for Scientism, but at the same time showing quite dramatically that instead of a Godless machine of logic something much more evil is at work through the NICE, something that humans even at their best cannot prevail over without help from above.

Lewis' important points about the dangers of Scientism were based directly on his own observations of the academic set at Oxford and the efforts of many to replace Christianity in England with something they ultimately thought better. But Best Intentions and all that, the results of this in the real world we all know by now and while not yet at the level of the NICE, they are plenty bad enough.

Lewis was, perhaps unwittingly, a prophet warning us of the dangers to humanity that were to come and that makes this third book of the Space Trilogy all the more important to us today.
18 people found this helpful
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intp
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this unusual, fascinating book
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024
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The book totally drew me in . . . for days. a fairy tale for adults, with sci-fi elements and deep lessons.

I was curious about the book's unusual title, so I did some research: it's drawn from a Renaissance poem by the Scottish knight David Lyndsay. The reference is in a poem about the Tower of Babel:

Those foolish people did intend
That to heaven it should ascend.
. . .
At noon when it does shine most bright,— The shadow of that hideous strength
Six mile and more it is of length.

You can buy the Lyndsay book here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dialog-Betuix-Experience-Courteour-Monarche-ebook/dp/B08SJDXW82/
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Erin Reicker
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book to read
Reviewed in Canada on November 2, 2021
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This is such a great book by C. S Lewis, I love his books and he never fails to make you realize and think about things. I loved this book, it's one of those I need to reread, to have those Ahha! moments. Fast shipping, great quality of book. Thank you.
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Euan Lorimer
5.0 out of 5 stars This novel has a lot of philosophical depth
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2024
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I can only imagine that the only reason this is not studied more in-depth is the prejudice teachers have against Christians. An important book to read to understand the Christian worldview.
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Gabriel Cervantes
4.0 out of 5 stars El tercero de la serie...
Reviewed in Mexico on May 10, 2018
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Si bien aquí creo que se abordan temas más "humanos"—políticos y/o diplomáticos, sociológicos y psicológicos—, no deja de tener sus características puntualizaciones desde las perspectiva del cristianismo.

Al menos para mí fue una lectura un tanto compleja (aunque no al grado de "The Pilgrim's Regress"), y es por esta razón que no podría dar más detalles del libro, ya que considero debo leerlo una segunda, tercera o cuarta vez.

Las particularidades de la historia las pueden leer en otros sitios (goodreads, por ejemplo), así que no viene al caso comentar mucho al respecto. Para los detractores del autor, es un asunto poco fácil hacer una crítica de esta obra dada su naturaleza moral y ética, la cual si somos realistas en un amplio sentido, es bastante subjetiva de cultura a cultura; no obstante son excelsas las aportaciones ideológicas que el autor dispone para nosotros en las páginas de esta novela.

Les animo a su lectura.
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David Hawley
5.0 out of 5 stars An eerie description of today
Reviewed in Japan on December 25, 2021
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I came back to this book after many years because of Andrew Klavan's comment that it described the world of today. And I have to agree, particularly the pernicious progressive engineering of humanity in the West.

The Kindle edition has a lot of mis-scans.
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Sisyphus
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful moral fable
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2019
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CS Lewis' space trilogy is a fable which weaves the worldview of Christianity into a story based on modern knowledge of the nature of the solar system. He tells it beautifully, giving a compelling account of the war between good and evil played out among the planets. It's a real page turner, the more so because of his clear and intelligent mid-C20 prose and the post-war Britain in which this volume is set.

The real message behind the story is a moral one, and you don't have to be a Christian to appreciate it. In this volume Lewis gives a pitilessly clear account of how easily we can fall into evil: power-lust, greed, xenophobia, even just the ordinary human need to fit in with the views and actions of those around us can lead us to go along with terrible evil. Britain had barely survived the Nazi onslaught when Lewis wrote this, and these themes were painfully fresh in European memory.

Lewis points us to the lesson that Nazism was only the latest manifestation of the evil that lurks in our souls; the danger of its re-emerging is ever-present. We must fight it, both within ourselves and in the society we are part of, lest darkness sweep over the world once more. This message is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it.
12 people found this helpful
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