There is an old chiffarobe that has been in our family for several decades. It was my uncle's and mine and now my oldest child uses it. And yes, I definitely checked inside the wardrobe door more than once as a child to see if I could get to Narnia. Anyone who wouldn't is a commie.
At one time I mentioned to my son that he could pass it on to another family member one day. His response was "No way, when I die it is going to be my coffin." It was a response that was meant to be funny and it prompted in me a question as to the ramifications of using an obvious means for travel to Narnia in such a way. What if the passage to Narnia finally opened up and bodies rained from the sky? No. Don't ever use a wardrobe to build your coffin. The risks far outweigh any potential benefits.
I use this dark humor as an odd segue to discuss my favorite books I have read this year. It was really a bad opening but when I tell that story I can hear my children's laughter in my head and that makes me smile, so I'm leaving it.
It has been a good reading year for me. I started off strong and will probably finish a good 20 books by the end of the year. I normally make time to read four or five books and spend the rest of my time wishing I were reading more while re-watching The Office for the fiftieth time. So while my goal is to raise my average reading to even greater heights, the fact that I have poured through 16 so far in 2019 is a pretty big deal.
Also there is a saying "Show me a writer and I will show you a reader" and my writing is taking off since reading more! I am working on a fantasy novel right now, the progress of which I will update here as time goes by. All I will say is that right now I am about 40% of the way through the first draft. Of course writing takes time and editing takes time and publishing is a painstaking process of hurry-up-and-wait but once it is done I will publish it and we can celebrate!
More on that book later. The books I want to talk about are C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. These are often referred to as the Cosmic Trilogy or the Space Trilogy. The short version of the review is simply this: these books are amazing go read them right now!
Lewis crafts a science fiction story that builds less upon fantasy of interstellar travel for personal glory and more on the fear of the unknown, grappling with spiritual struggles in a physical way, and Christian philosophy in the face of unfathomable evil.
I don’t want to spoil anything. But the basic premise of the first book is that Professor Ransom finds himself kidnapped away to Mars to be used as human sacrifice to the unsettling creatures there. Ransom’s adventure on Mars causes him to question his assumptions and biases as well as confirming the proper realization of what it means to have a Christian faith in the face of any circumstance.
Briefly, book two takes us with Ransom to Venus as he assists in the infancy of a planet’s spiritual life, attempting to help avoid the mistakes of Earth.
That Hideous Strength sees Ransom as a major force, but one mostly behind the scenes. The ideas of submission to pure evil in pursuit of power versus standing for reason and truth are prevalent. There is also the story of a married couple who only spend moments together during the book but come to the same conclusion separately that marriage means something and that they not only owe something to one another but need something they can only get from that relationship as well. I’ve heard some criticize this as presenting the woman as weak and helpless but I wholeheartedly disagree. She is a great character who acts bravely outside of the norms of her society. If either of them is weak it is the husband, but in the end both must find humility and submit to their love for one another.
The mythology built in these books is a fictionalization of Christianity but one that emphasizes Christian truth. As a Christian I found arguments made by Lewis' characters to strengthen my own larger philosophical understanding of the faith, even though this is not the primary purpose of the book. For the unbeliever, there is something appealing in the narrative alone, but those matters of a biblical worldview may help a to understand where Christians are coming from. In this age of simply throwing out anything we don't immediately agree with, I think this could be very beneficial. And at the core of it all is simply an amazing story, well told.
Since reading these books, I find myself accidentally referring to things with the language of these books. Recently I have been reading about new age and spiritual warfare and I struggle to refrain from calling demons “Eldil”. Another example of this is that the other night my kids were watching a TV program about the planets and when they got to Mars I instantly thought "Oh look! Malacandra!"
One important note--while these are not graphic in any great detail, these are NOT Narnia. Recommended for teens or older. For a younger child these books will either go over the head, cause great confusion, or give a nightmare or two!
If you want three excellent reads go pick up the Cosmic Trilogy. None of them are huge time investments either. Lewis can be dense even in a few short paragraphs when he gets to philosophical matters, so that can at times cause me to slow down and think about what I am reading, but for the most part I would say that none of these took me more than a week to read. And I want to say that the first two books were only day or two each.
I will hopefully have more to say about more books in the future. But these are my favorites this year. Nothing has topped them yet.
Happy reading! I hope it is fall where you are, the leaves aren't changing much in the Black Hills, but today the air is crisp and clean!
