Ever since I reunited with C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia at the end of the year last year, right before LWW came out on the silver screen, I’ve heard that I should read his space trilogy. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I thought. It can’t be better than the Narnia books.

Then I read the Screwtape Letters, twice, this year.

“Lewis does a pretty good job with his writing,” thinks I. “Maybe I should crack open one of those space trilogy books. They’re under 200 pages. Can’t hurt.”

(If you’re rolling on the floor at my inner mind’s egotism, arrogance, and sheer bad behavior, keep reading. It gets worse. Better. Whatever.)

I did pick it up. Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis. LOVED it. Not only is it a refreshing break from my recent menu of nonfiction, nonfiction, nonfiction (professed fiction junkie), but it’s also an exploration of Christianity and religion. It’s not framed that way in the book, but it’s there. I’m not quoting passages here, because I couldn’t figure out how to get enough of the context without retyping most of an entire chapter (read as: Sarah’s too lazy to spend that much time on this review).

If not for the Autumn Reading Challenge, and the pile of library books that, despite my best intentions of NOT piling on my table (or even getting out in the first place), are there, all the same. (Doing research is too fun to not do, even for an ARC, tee hee hee.)

However, I can’t help but think that there’s something equally delightful in reading the first of a series (or the sixth, or the twelfth, depending on the series…) and then having to wait a bit. It makes the next one taste better. Well, not always, that’s true. But often, I find myself savoring the book more when I know I have to wait to read the next one.

Got a few extra hours? Give this one a try. Maybe we’ll read the second one together…