Perelandra

Perelandra

First edition cover
Author	C. S. Lewis
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Space Trilogy
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	The Bodley Head
Publication date	1943
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Preceded by	Out of the Silent Planet
Followed by	That Hideous Strength

Perelandra (also titled Voyage to Venus in a later edition published by Pan Books) is the second book in the Space Trilogy of C. S. Lewis, set in the Field of Arbol. It was first published in 1943.

The story starts with the philologist Elwin Ransom, some years after his return from Mars at the end of Out of the Silent Planet, receiving a new mission from Oyarsa, the angelic ruler of Mars. Ransom summons narrator-Lewis to his country home. Ransom explains to Lewis that he (Ransom) is to travel to Perelandra (Venus), where he is to counter some kind of attack launched by Earth's Black Archon (Satan).

Ransom is transported in a casket-like vessel seemingly made of ice, which contains only himself. He gets Lewis to blindfold him so the sunlight will not blind him once he travels beyond the earth's atmosphere. He does not wear any clothes on the journey as Oyarsa tells him clothes are unnecessary on Venus. He returns to Earth over a year later and is met by Lewis and another friend: the remainder of the story is told from Ransom's point of view, with Lewis acting as interlocutor and occasional commentator.

Ransom arrives in Venus after a journey in which he is surrounded by bright colours; the box dissolves leaving Ransom on what appears to be an oceanic paradise. One day is about 23 Earth hours, in contrast to the (roughly) 24 and 25-hour days of Earth and Mars. The sky is golden but opaque. Hence the sun cannot be seen, daylight is somewhat dimmer than on Earth, and the night is pitch black with no stars visible.

The planet is covered, so far as Ransom can at first see, by a sweet-water ocean, which is dotted with floating rafts of vegetation. These rafts resemble islands, to the extent of having plant and animal life upon them, including a kind of dragon-like creature encountered by Ransom early in his visit. However, as the rafts have no geologic foundations, they are in a constant state of motion. The planet's sole observable geological feature is a mountain called the Fixed Land.