These rafts resemble islands, to the extent of having plant and animal life upon them, including a kind of dragon-like creature encountered by Ransom early in his visit. The planet is covered, so far as Ransom can at first see, by a freshwater ocean, which is dotted with floating islands of vegetation. Hence the sun cannot be seen, daylight is somewhat dimmer than on Earth, and the night is pitch black with no stars visible. One day is about 23 Earth hours, in contrast to the (roughly) 24 and 25-hour days of Earth and Mars. Ransom arrives in Venus after a journey in which he is surrounded by bright colours the box dissolves leaving Ransom on what appears to be an oceanic paradise. The remainder of the story is told from Ransom's point of view, with Lewis acting as interlocutor and occasional commentator. He returns to Earth over a year later and is met by Lewis and another friend. He does not wear any clothes on the journey as the Oyarsa tells him clothes are unnecessary on Venus due to the great heat and thick atmosphere. He gets Lewis to blindfold him so the sunlight will not blind him once he travels beyond the earth's atmosphere. Ransom is transported in a coffin-like vessel seemingly made of ice, which can contain only himself. Ransom explains to Lewis that he (Ransom) is to travel to Perelandra (Venus), where he is to counter some kind of attack launched by Earth's Black Archon (Satan). Ransom summons narrator-Lewis to his country home.

The story starts with the philologist Elwin Ransom, some years after his return from Mars at the end of Out of the Silent Planet, receiving a new mission from the Oyarsa (the angelic ruler) of Mars.

Perelandra review