That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Too Many Words, Clive, Too Many Words
Review: After reading or rereading the first two excellent books in C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy-- Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra -- it is almost impossible to keep from reading this book, its conclusion. Unfortunately, while the first two grow better with each rereading, this one grows more tedious. Mind you if you have never read it, do so. I am just suggesting that it is the weakest link. Lewis needs no praise and will not be diminished by any adverse criticism from me. He is intelligent, insightful, psychologically acute, imaginative, clever, urban, witty and literate, and everyone knows it. It is just that in this book he does it all a bit too much. This is the story of an impeding battle between the forces of good and evil. But what a cast of characters: archangelic beings, macrobes, a contraceptive subterranean lunar race, the Fisher King who is also Pendragon, a seeress of the House of Tudor, Merlin, magic out of Numinor the true West, a fortune inherited from an Indian Christian mystic, a Scottish skeptic, a menagerie of animals, earthly avatars of heavenly spirits, an institute the figurative and literal Head of which is a decapitated or rather decorporated mad scientist through which unearthly powers speak, and Withers the dithering deputy director who is so vague and obscurantist that one wonders how people in the evil institute (with the ironic acronymic name of NICE) even manage to put on their pants in the morning never mind engineer the extinction of the whole human race and the conquest of the entire universe. Add to all these of course the merely human elements of brutal police, ambitious and pretentious academics, narrow minded politicians and scientists. Lewis seems to want to pull it all together in one volume; he has everything here except moderation. And when the denouement comes, less than a handful of the evil are really in on it all, and almost none of the good forces are really needed. It is all very anticlimactic. There is a clever description of the politics of a small college, and a good recognition scene where Pendragon discovers himself to Merlin, and an initialllly enjoying citation of the maundering style of Withers (which CS seems to have so delighted in that he persisted in presenting it all through the text until it eventually becomes vastly annoying). Lots of insights too on every one of his favorite topics and pointed criticism on all his pet peeves, but do they all really need to be gathered here together? As in Perelandra this is an explicitly and essentially Christian book, possibly making the work of less appeal to readers who do not share that faith. And his attitude to the feminine, perhaps acceptable in his own day, is just too patronizing today. As I say, do read it, but it is by far the weakest of the three books.

Rating:
Summary: Pugnacious ending to a fine trilogy
Review: C. S. Lewis wraps up his "Space Trilogy" right back on planet Earth where it is up to a cadre of ordinary folks, mythical beings, and brute beasts to thwart the forces of supreme wickedness. With the assistance of the Director--a man familiar to readers of the previous two books in the trilogy--this strange collection of characters is pitted against a vaguely-familiar, propaganda-driven totalitarian regime ironically called by the acronym NICE.

This book is Lewis at his satirical best--an uppercut landed to the jaw of secular, anti-family, "post-christian" society.

What is particularly striking about this book is who Lewis fingers as the advance-guard for the evil that sadly dominates on Earth, ever trying to extend its power: a bunch of place-seeking, ethics-free, jive-talking academics who have long left any pretense to reason and science behind. Instead, they are driven by a misguided altruism that manifests itself, ultimately, as complete misanthropy.

In this regard, Lewis must be regarded as prescient. Anyone who has spent any time in American academia will immediately sympathize with the plight of the characters in the book who *dare* to stand up to the censorial, elitist, marxist/leninist, anti-religion, pro-death agenda so prevalent among the "progressive" leadership of the university. Lewis had these people's number fifty years ago.

In short, this book is a fun read and though couched in humorous terms, is deadly serious at its core.

Rating:
Summary: Uneven characterizations, but a fairly good read.
Review: I only recently discovered the Trilogy, never having been much of a Lewis fan, and read them in order. Each book has its charms, but I especially enjoyed the way That Hideous Strength built on the "circles" of the Bad Guys, both at Bracton college and later at Belbury. Mark Studdock, a person possessing neither distinction, character, nor a talent for evil, has lived his life - and ruined it thereby - in a search for admission to 'the inner circle,' and any circle will do. He learns that each concentric circle, in addition to being more exclusive as he supposed, is also more evil and more banal.

The characterization of Stoddock is superb. Likewise the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Dimble and a few other minor characters. The book is almost worth reading just to gain the acquaintance of Mr. Bultitude.

Others are far less engaging. MacPhee - one of the most unidimensional characters I have ever read - is a continual annoyance. The whole build-up with Merlin, only to have him turn out completely powerless until "possessed" by the eldils, makes no sense to me at all. And then he - what? Explodes? Couldn't anyone have done that? And why do God and the angels need an Arthurian wizard, anyway?

But the biggest disappointment was Ransom himself. He went from being a lifelike, engaging fellow, in the first two books, to an idealized shadow. We never really learn how he goes from being a Cambridge don to a wealthy landowner and "the Pendragon." Who are these people who bequeath St. Anne's to him on the condition that he take the name "Fisher-King?" How did he become the Pendragon? No explanation.

This was hard to accept from such a brilliant writer. But that's not to say the book is unworthy of attention. I expect to read it again, probably soon, and will probably get more insights from it the second time through.

I believe much of the problem the Trilogy has with readers of my generation is that it is always classed as Science Fiction, which it certainly is not. People read it expecting familiar formulas, and don't know how to react when it turns out to be religious allegory. They should read more carefully. As with most of what he wrote, Lewis intended to illuminate more than to entertain.

Rating:
Summary: The Space trilogy concludes
Review: The final book in Lewis's Space Trilogy finds Dr. Ransom confronting a huge international organization bent on the submission of the human race and given to all kinds of strange scientific experiments and with one supreme goal--to eliminate all free thinking and emotion. This organization, the N.I.C.E., uses the press, government reform programs, and all kinds of propaganda to make them seem like the new heroes in England, while slowly they subdue the government and begin a takeover of the world. It's Ransom's job to stop them, though this time he has some followers and aid from a recently awakened power that has long slept.

True to his style, Lewis makes this a very entertaining novel with a great underlying message. It is very well-written and teeming with symbolism that ultimately denounces the love of science over the love of God.

This book is a great read--highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Gets better with each read
Review: When I first read That Hideous Strength, I was too young to understand many of the themes presented, and in trying to enjoy it as simply a story, I finished it feeling confused. When I returned to it a couple years later, I found it incredibly in-depth and rich with wonderful themes, tying in earlier references from Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra as it built up to one grand conclusion.
This is NOT a light read, but if you have the patience to read slowly and savor each nuance, it is well worth it. It requires the same reading style that true fans of Tolkien's LOTR trilogy develop in order to absorb the masterful work properly.
I would not recommend this book to anyone younger than late teenage years or older, as many youth are not prepared to deal with the themes (that Lewis presents) in a matter-of-fact way, and are more likely to react strongly to dated attitudes towards women (sadly, many readers do remain that way even as they chronologically age). More mature readers are able to look past those as typical of the times in which Lewis lived, and learn from his full story, which is an excellent lesson for us all.