Perelandra

I think this is the most difficult review I've written to date. There were times when I wanted to give this book two stars, and other times when I thought it deserved a full five. I settled on four because I thought the good outweighed the bad.

In many ways, this book is not as good as [b:Out of the Silent Planet|25350|Out of the Silent Planet (The Space Trilogy, #1)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1310984018l/25350.SY75.jpg|879622], but in others, it's infinitely better.

What made it not as good were the long-winded descriptions of things. There are many pages where the hero is wandering through the wilderness, and nothing happens except for copious detail about his surroundings, fauna, flora, etc. Other times, we have long, drawn-out oratories which say much, but tell us little. I think that those things might have been prized at the time the book was written, even factors that contributed to a book being considered to be of great literary merit. But I don't think it works for modern readers; we don't have the patience anymore to wade through all that fluff, and our attention spans are too short these days. We want quick, punchy, zinger-filled dialogue and lots of action, that gets to the point, moves the plot along and makes the characters grow.

In fact, I was thinking that if the Bible were to be written today, its focus might be quite different. I'm not talking about new translations using modern English -- we've tried that, and to be honest, I'm not a fan of most of them. No, I'm thinking that if those eye-witnesses were to tell their stories today, some things would be left out entirely, and other things would be emphasised. Even certain details which don't appear AT ALL in the original text because they were deemed irrelevant, would suddenly become pivotal because of what we appreciate in a good story these days.

At this point, the reason why I'm thinking of the Bible should be obvious... but then it occurs to me that if you've never read or even heard of this book, you'll think it quite strange. So let me take a step back, because that brings me to the parts of Perelandra which I think are BETTER than the first of the series.

In my review of the first book, I said that it was difficult not to spot the Christian undertones. Well, in this one, there aren't any undertones. There's no innuendo either. It just straight-up punches you in the face.

And there ARE those rapid-fire dialogues, and there ARE those punchy action sequences. And they tell us so much. Lewis introduces a million concepts in this story, from asking what would happen if Eve hadn't eaten the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (I've often jokingly said we'd all be walking around naked today, for one thing), to the theory that ours isn't the first Creation... or the last.

That last one is a theory that I've been exposed to before, but not like this. In this story, the author posits that there were Creations before ours, which still exist, and Creations after ours, which currently exist in a much younger state, and even hypothesises that there will be yet other Creations once our human story is finally finished. Having said that, though, he is quick to remind us that none of these Creations are repetitions of each other. In fact, they're all very different indeed, because our God never repeats Himself.

I don't think this is necessarily a book for non-Christians. I think if you're going to read it as purely fantasy, with no basis in or relation to reality whatsoever, you'll probably be fine. You'll think it's a great story, and you'll get on with your life.

I think if you're going to read it as a Christian looking for some food for thought, with a view to perhaps obtaining a deeper understanding of the nature of God and the Universe, you'll get a lot out of this book.

But if you're a non-Christian, and you're reading it because you want an understanding of Christianity and what we believe, rather not. I think you'll be bombarded with so many questions, and have so many revelations, that it'll all seem too much for you and you'll close the box and walk away, possibly never to return. Hell, I'm a Christian, and that's almost what happened to me!

Now, I realise that some people might say I'm missing the point. That what Lewis was trying to get at was exactly the opposite: certain things are simply not meant to be understood. After all, these people might say, the reason behind the Great Prohibition in this story didn't become apparent until the timing was right... after which it made perfect logical sense to me.

I disagree with those people. I think one of the things God has given us is our intellect and our ability to rationalise things and reason them out. I think that the better I'm able to understand things intellectually, the richer and fuller my life will be. And, although the aforementioned reason was kept hidden until the end, I spent most of the book trying to figure out what it was.

Don't go misunderstanding me, though. I think that a greater intellectual understanding will lead to a fuller, richer Christian experience, but it can never be the BASIS of one. I blogged about that a couple of years ago: musingsbygraham.blogspot.com/2013/08/christian-logic.html - just putting it out there.

Your experience with this book will almost certainly be very different from mine. There are things I haven't even touched on (like the idea that teaching someone is "making them older", for example -- there's a lot to unpack there. Or the explanation of sex vs gender, and why gender is critically important). which you will consider groundbreaking. And I guess that's what makes this such a good book. There are so many layers, and there's so much depth, that each person is going to get something different out of it, or even one person will get different things out of it depending on the phase of their life they're in at the time of reading.

Maybe that's why my two stars became a four, instead of a three. Even so, I think this review is probably woefully inadequate. If you're a Christian, I think you should read this book.

Click here to find out where you can get the ebook: books2read.com/u/4NaYwx