That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book 3) by C.S. Lewis Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book 3)
Book Review: Futurity Meets Creativity--The End of a Trilogy
Summary: 5 Stars
That Hideous Strength is the culmination of Lewis's stylized creativity and his realizable mythology. This final book (in his acclaimed "space trilogy") introduces readers to a brilliant mundaness--a setting where both nothing and everything could happen simultaneously. It is a sleepy, stubborn, stubbornly sleepy novel that awakes to the furious dawn of Lewis's imagery and delicious plot. Lewis has once again shown himself to be an excellent writer but more shocking than that...a eerily accurate kind of prognosticator. Futurity meets creativity in this work! Book Review: strength
Summary: 3 Stars
to long a time lapsed from ordering the book to when i actully recd it, on january 8th 2008. checked online, and this product was sent to phoenix arizona, where it sat for at least a week. poor quality control as far as tracking the shipping.Book Review: A Past Look at the Present
Summary: 5 Stars
I read the entire trilogy decades ago and picked this book up for reading on a trip. What a difference a few decades of experience makes! Though Lewis no doubt has international Communism in mind when describing the depredations and manipulations of the fictitious N.I.C.E., the techniques of character assasination, media manipulation, and shameless deception are very much in vogue today. An absolute must-read for any Christian who wants to avoid being maninipulated by those with a non-Biblical worldview. The book stands alone, and does not require the other companion volumes to be fully enjoyed (though you won't be disappointed if you purchase the set).Book Review: The worst of C.S. Lewis
Summary: 1 Stars
The good: a dark, non-children's book, quite down-to-Tellus (if you'll forgive the pun), the philosophical/theological point was intellectually stimulating, and there were a few descriptions of ethereal experience and being that might not hold a candle flame to the light in Dante's Paradiso, but which was still beautiful (see "Descent of the Gods"). The bad and the ugly: Lewis' writing style is haphazard at best--names changed sporadically without reason, numerous misspellings, random pieces of linguistic bravado which would be quite unintelligible to most readers, there was even a chapter, told in the first person, which so lost me that I still have no clue of the speaker's identity. There is nothing likable or interesting about most characters. Following the plot for the first half of the book is like slamming your head into a wall over and over and over and over... Instead of characters or a compelling storyline driving the narrative, this contains lengthy chapters of bone-numbing dialog, hopeless exposition, deus ex machina, and spontaneous, overly-complex descriptions. The conclusion was drawn out, confused, and hardly satisfying except for the fact that the good guys won (which we knew would happen anyway). The worst part is that one could catch glimpses of so many fabulous and compelling stories and characters just under the surface that would have made this an incredible novel had they been told and focused on instead. It was sheer force of will alone that I finished this book.Book Review: The Psychology of Insecurity
Summary: 4 Stars
Mark and Jane are a newly married couple in mid-20th century England. They're young, and figuring things out for themselves - figuring themselves out. The crisis that moves them through this process is the disintegration of their little university hamlet by dark powers of technology.
C.S. Lewis was a bachelor at the time he wrote this, and a man's man and academic to boot, yet he portrays a sympathetic and believable Jane, the young new wife. His portrayal of Mark, her academic don husband, is less sympathetic and more caricature like. But however realistic they are, the story is a page turner. Lewis pens fantastic dialogue, while slowly racheting up the suspense, and unraveling the complicated tale.
The story brings together several threads of Lewis' work: the space travels of Harry Ransom, the protagonist of Perelandra and Out of the Silent Planet; his piercing focus on the workings of human conscience and rationlization; and British legend and mythology.
Well worth the read.