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That Hideous Strength

Ransom Trilogy, Book 3

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That Hideous Strength

Written by: C. S. Lewis
Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
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This is the final book in C. S. Lewis’s acclaimed Ransom Trilogy, which includes Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. A classic work of fantasy as much for the wonder of its storytelling as for its insights into the human condition, the trilogy stages an epic battle between forces of light and darkness across a canvas of other worlds.

In That Hideous Strength, the brave philologist Dr. Ransom (modeled after Lewis’s friend J. R. R. Tolkien) finds himself in a world of superior alien beings and scientific experiments run amok. There is a rumor that the powerful wizard Merlin has returned to the world of the living, and a sinister technocratic organization plans to use his power in their plot to “recondition” society. Ransom’s fight for moral wisdom in a brave new universe dominated by science is a quest filled with intrigue and suspense.

©1945 , 1946 by Clive Staples Lewis. © renewed 1973, 1974 by Arthur Owen Barfield and Alfred Cecil Harwood (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Adventure Genre Fiction Science Fiction Classics Fiction
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What the critics say

“Biting wit, superlatively nonsensical excitement, challenging implications.”

(New York Times)

“Well-written, fast-paced satirical fantasy.”

(Time)

“In his usual polished prose, the author creates an elaborate satiric picture of a war between morality and devilry.”

(New Yorker)

“An extravagant mingling of dream and realism…Excellent and thrilling reading.”

(Daily Telegraph (London))

“No one in the least susceptible to Mr. Lewis’ conjurations…can drop the book at all.”

(Saturday Review)
All stars
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I loved it from start to end. CS Lewis knows how to properly display God 🙏

Unforgettable

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great story, would have been difficult to finish by reading but the audiobook made it doable. the plot is diabolically sinister and captivating. worth a listen

eerily similar to modern life, could have happened

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That Hideous Strength gives a beautiful array of what a complementarity in marriage looks like, what the technophilic world could become (think 1984 or Brave New World), what courage looks like in the midst of challenge, and more.

Jake Meador said it best when he said, "The book has everything—we get to see Lewis’s remarkable skill as a satirist, which is only really apparent in Screwtape among his other books. More importantly, the book combines a pervasive and profoundly Christian critique of modernity with a quite robust hopefulness. I don’t think anyone would regret the time they spent with That Hideous Strength."

Lewis' Brilliance On Full Display

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Mr Howard, the narrator, has done better than the voices in my head of the many characters in the story.
Mr. Lewis is at his literary best in weaving this climactic final tale in his sci-fi trilogy. I was fully drawn in.

Riveting read or should I say listening

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The narrator is very convincing thrusting me into the era as Lewis almost as if touched by the Devine foretells modern progressivism and scientism juxtaposed against the love and duties of husbands and wives owe to one another which grates against the abrasions of today’s modernity.

A Foretelling of today’s towers of Babbel

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