<em>That Hideous Strength</em> by C. S. Lewis

This book is the third book of C. S. Lewis’s Space Triology (which has, as I’ve noted in my reviews of the previous books in the Trilogy, less to do with Space, and more to do with Christian Theology); but while the first book took us to Malacandra (Mars), and the second book took us to Perelandra (Venus), this book essentially splits the difference and remains right here on Planet Earth, where an apocalyptic struggle is going on between Good and Evil.

For several (rather slow) beginning chapters in this present book, we are introduced to the lives of Mark Studdock, a young university don at Bracton College at the University of Edgestowe (who has just, to his joy, entered the “inner circle”), and his young wife Jane Studdock (nee Tudor). They have been married a scant six months, but already are dissatisfied with their relationship with each other (they have also determined to not have children yet, because she wished to concentrate on her post-graduate work, and to basically be her own person separate from her husband). Bracton College administers Bragdon Wood, a very old wood with a very old well in the center, known far and wide as “Merlin’s Well”. The National Institute of Coordinated Experiments (the “N.I.C.E”, headquarterd in nearby Belbury), manages to purchase the wood with the connivance of the “inner circle” of Bracton College, and a Lord Feverstone (who is highly connected both with the College and the N.I.C.E.) convinces Marck Studdock to join the N.I.C.E. Meanwhile, Jane Studdock has been having very disturbing dreams, and is advised by some old friends to see a Miss Ironwood at the nearby estate of St. Anne’s.

It does not take long to see that Mark Studdock is becoming involved with the powers of Evil, and that Jane Studdock is becoming involved with the powers of Good; in the course of the book we are re-introduced to Elwin Ransom (from the first two books) and to Dick Devine (from the second book). At issue is not just which side will gain the invaluable assistance of Merlin (who is not dead, but only sleeping beneath his well), but the final disposition of this Planet. And once the players and the basic situation has been set, the book moves quite well to its apocalypic conclusion.

This book is quite a fitting ending to the Trilogy; it is not that the planets or their place in the heavens determine our future (as astrology would have it), but that the edila, the spiritual beings that are the nominal rulers of the planets, can, to a certain degree, impact doings on this earth, but only via the cooperation of those of us on earth who choose to work with them.