C. S. Lewis: The Space Trilogy

Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, plus a brand new full-cast BBC adaptation of That Hideous Strength

De: C.S. Lewis

Narrado por: Alex Jennings, full cast, Anneika Rose, Joel MacCormack, Oliver Hembrough

C.S. Lewis’s allegorical sci-fi trilogy about a philology professor’s adventures on Mars, Venus and Earth

Featuring a reluctant hero’s extraordinary journey through the cosmos, C. S. Lewis’s classic trilogy contains all the magic, invention, humour and big ideas of his Narnia novels. Thrilling, mystical and evocative, it mixes theology and mythology to tell the epic story of an interplanetary struggle between good and evil. This collection includes Alex Jennings’ unabridged readings of Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, and a stunning full-cast adaptation of That Hideous Strength, starring Anneika Rose and Joel MacCormack.

Out of the Silent Planet – While out on a walk, Cambridge academic Dr Ransom calls at a mysterious house to take shelter, only to find himself captive on a spaceship headed for Malacandra – the red planet he knows as Mars. His intended fate is to be a human sacrifice, but he escapes, meets the various alien inhabitants – and learns how Earth, the ‘silent planet’, was corrupted and cut off from the rest of the Solar System...

Perelandra – Returned from Mars, Ransom is sent on a mission to the beautiful paradise planet of Perelandra, or Venus. There, he encounters floating islands, bubble trees and The Green Lady, an Eve figure tempted by Satan in the form of Ransom’s old enemy, Dr Weston. Forced into a desperate confrontation, can Ransom preserve the purity of this Eden-like world?

That Hideous Strength – Set in an exhausted Britain in the late 1940s, this ‘modern fairy tale for grown-ups’ warns of a world where technocrats are kings. The newly established National Institute for Coordinated Experiments seems to promise a bright future. But Jane is tormented by terrible nightmares about a severed head that speaks. She tries to talk to her husband Mark, but he is preoccupied with his work at the University. Then Mark's college sell Bragdon Wood to NICE, and he is offered a job at the organisation. An ancient myth claims that Merlin is buried under the wood – could that be why NICE is so keen to own it?

Credits
Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis © 1938 CS Lewis Pte Ltd., Perelandra by CS Lewis ©1944 CS Lewis Pte Ltd., That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis © 1945 CS Lewis Pte Ltd.

Out of the Silent Planet
Read by Alex Jennings
First broadcast BBC 7, 2-18 February 2004

Perelandra
Read by Alex Jennings
First broadcast BBC 7, 14 February-9 March 2005

That Hideous Strength
Jane – Anneika Rose
Mark – Joel MacCormack
Curry/Ransom – Oliver Hembrough
Feverstone/Briers – Simon Armstrong
Hardcastle – Jane Slavin
Mrs Dimble – Siobhan Redmond
Grace – Jane Gurnett
Wither – Matthew Bulgo
Frost/Hingest – David Menkin
Alcasan/Taxi Driver – Kiren Kebaili-Dwyer
Merlin – Ifan Huw Dafydd
Dramatised by Melissa Murray
Production co-ordinators: Lindsay Rees and Eleri Sydney McAuliffe
Sound design by Catherine Robinson and Nigel Lewis
Directed by John Norton and Emma Harding
A BBC Audio Wales production
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 26 January – 2 February 2025

© 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

they butchered the last book

don't buy this audiobook. is been edited to be politically correct to the detriment of the trilogy

This edition of That Hideous Strength brought to you by the N.I.C.E.

The first two books are fine.

That Hideous Strength is an abomination. This is not Lewis’s story. The characters are gutted and twisted, Lewis’s insight is stripped, key plot points are removed, the cosmological imaginary is ignored, and the magic of the book is disintegrated.

That Hideous Version

The first two books are narrated wonderfully. I was so looking forward to a casted version of That Hideous Strength which is one of my all time favorite books. What a disappointment! The cast has been paired down to the point that it destroys one of the themes of the book - marriage! The community of Saint Anne's is now all female except for an emasculated Ransom who is very far from the Fisher King image in the book. The music is totally inappropriate. Ms. Hardcastle has lost much of her total evil persona. Frost, who is one of the most evil people in the book feared even by his colleagues, is now cast as an American transhumanist whom his colleagues describe as an arrogant American who has insecurity issues. So, here we need to discuss the elephant in the room. As a woman (writing under my husband's account), I want to speak directly to women who enjoy "reimagining" stories for contemporary cultural and political purposes. We do NOT need to destroy the work of men or make male characters "disappear" to be strong, intelligent women. In fact, doing so just makes us seem silly. Just stop doing this. This could have been a fantastic and very relevant production. Instead, I couldn't bear to even finish it. Very poorly done, BBC!

Re-Written by the N.I.C.E.

The Alex Jennings performance of Books 1 and 2 are good, maybe even better than the Ralph Cosham recordings of the same.

But the dramatizers of That Hideous Strength have seen fit to reivision and empower Jane in the typical reactionary way (CSL is deemed misogynistic these days). I saw that coming, and could forgive it if the writer had lifted a finger to preserve the beauty of the novel. Instead she leaned into the Sci Fi creepiness of the tale, which is suffocating without the beauty of the original book shining in the darkness. The production and acting are superb, which only makes the whole thing more nauseating. I hate to be so hard on someone's hard work, and I respect (while disagreeing with) the wish to empower Jane. But I wish these activist writers would just write their own stories.

Not a trilogy

Just like others are saying, the first two books are great, but the third is just a two hour re-enactment. Audible even has the 3rd book you can buy separately, so I'm not sure why they're not including it here.

the massacred that hideous strength

it was not a wise decision for them to try and squish That Hideous Strength into a 2-hour radio drama when it is 14 hours as an audiobook. it led them to cut out all major thematic statements as well as just about any and all character development. and made it so they could not include the vast majority of the characters in The Plot anyway.

Disappointing

The readings of the first two volumes (Out Of The Silent Planet and Perelandra) were excellent and enjoyable to listen to. But the third, That Hideous Strength, was very disappointing. I agree with the other reviews - it was a disastrous retelling of a fantastic story.

A white washed incoherent piece of garbage

Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra (Audio books)

The majority of the audio are readings of the first two books in the series. I believe I heard some minor edits of the text, but the biggest complaint I have is the unenthusiastic and grating performance of Alex Jennings.

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That Hideous Strength (Dramatized Performance):

A white washed incoherent piece of garbage.

Loses most of its characters.

Rewrites the rest.

It white washes with the modern sensibility of political correctness and rewrites the story to completely alter its plot, morals and ethics. Neither the good guys nor the bad are believable in any way, and the plot races from one incoherent 5 second conversation to the next.

A money grab from someone (BBC Wales) who used a writer who obviously hated the source material. These co-conspirators in the regurgitation of art then collectively stamped the original author’s name on it (necessary for the money grab), but couldn’t yet call it a day. Before their work was perfected, they first slathered it with lackluster performances, sound engineering, and editing for the entire production.

The three “fuzzes” when it arbitrarily changes scenes are both incredibly obnoxious and absolutely necessary for knowing anything has changed at all.

Truthfully, it should never have been made.

Not C.S. Lewis’s work

They managed to take all the Jesus out of THS, and I think Lewis would be appalled to have his name on something like this. What’s left is a bizarre horror sci-fi that would have made as little sense to Lewis as it does to anyone else.

That Hideous Strength is hideous

Why did you gut THS?? Amazon and BBC ruined it as they ruin everything good