That Hideous Strength

Well this will be my first "negative" book review of the blog. I am shocked to report that I do not like or would not encourage someone to read one of C.S. Lewis' books. Every book that I have ever read by Lewis has challenged me, encouraged me, or made me think. This book however, has not grasped my imagination, held my interest, or made me sit on the edge of my seat. Instead I have found myself re-reading many different pages. It has taken me an extremely long time to finish this book (which never happens). And I have not really held to the story that easily.

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That Hideous Strength is the 3rd part of the Space Trilogy. Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra are books 1 and 2, and I loved those books! They were great stories of this man traveling to distant planets meeting a new type of creature. They connected well, and Lewis capture my imagination once again. However, this 3rd book did not begin where the 2nd had ended. In fact, the major connector that connected this book to the trilogy did not occur until halfway through the novel (which is not a good idea in my opinion). But afterwards, the story did not seem to really connect well to its predecessors.

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Furthermore, I found it to be a very hard read. I struggled through much of the terminology and explanations of various ideas and processes. I got lost in translation. There would be an explanation thrown into the middle of the plot, and the story would deviate from the plot. By the time the story picked up again, I had forgotten what had already happened. To me, this book did not flow well at all. Although it did connect back, and there were the same characters (eventually), I did not find this to be a good read. And I am sorry to break that to all of you Lewis fans out there (of which I am one).

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I look forward to reading any of his books that I have not yet cracked open. This disappointing read will not discourage me from reading his other novels and nonfiction works, but I do not promote or encourage this book. It was too over the top for me, and I got lost way too easily. If you want to read it, I would say that you can see for yourself. But personally, I would just say skip it.

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Matt