(National Institute of Coordinated Experiments) which embraces all of the evils (as Lewis sees it) of Logical Positivism. The story takes place in England and involves the struggle of our hero, Elwin Ransom (hero of the first two books), and his company of followers against the mysterious and powerful organization known as N.I.C.E. This last theme is so pervasive in the the narrative, that I found it interesting to discover that this book is really a fictional version of the same arguments Lewis proposed in his non-fiction The Abolition of Man (which I hope to read as well in the near future). The second, and the central premise of the book as a whole, is a harsh criticism of the philosophy of Logical Positivism (i.e., the rejection of theology and mysticism in favor of knowledge based on facts that can be objectively determined without resort to the individual views of the observer)*. The first is a heavy dose of “Arthurian fantasy” which I though was somewhat unique in its delivery.

In addition to expanding on the unique Christian-based mythology that Lewis introduced in the first two books in the series, he adds two new central themes. The plot of this story is somewhat complex and would be hard to explain in detail without spoilers so I will just provide some very broad strokes. This is the final installment of the Space Trilogy which I have enjoyed significantly more than the Chronicles of Narnia (though I have only read the first 3 of the latter and so will reserve final judgment until I complete them).

Angry Bear, I must agree that while the giant, kick-ass bear on the cover may not be exactly false advertising, it is certainly in the category of misleading.similar to beer commercials telling you 'drink this beer and hot people will be all over you” when the reality is closer to “drink enough of our beer and you will think the people all over you are really hot.Īnyway, pissed off grizzlies and dishonest beer merchants aside, I will turn to the book itself. FIRST: A complaint from a member of my reading group who read the book ONLY because of the very cool bear on the cover:

Cosmic trilogy cs lewis