That Hideous Strength aka I Just Can’t Right Now

I tried.

I really tried, guys. But I just can’t.

That Hideous Strength, the third book in C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy starts off, and is for many pages, more of the same type of writing and exposition that I lamented in Voyage to Venus. Written in the classic old-British-man voice, it describes everything, moving forward at a painfully glacial pace.

So I put it down.

And decided I won’t be picking it up for a very long time.

Thing is, I looked up what happens on the good ‘ol Wikipedia, and it actually seems like it gets pretty exciting later on! I’m mad that Mr. Lewis made me read Voyage to Venus before That Hideous Strength, because I think that had I not been exhausted by the over exposition of VTV, I would have been able to make it through THS.

*grumbles*

The next story on my list is Reason, a short story by Isaac Asimov that later made it into his novel I, Robot. I’ve actually never read any Asimov before, but I’m pretty sure he has a totally different voice and style. At least, I really hope he does!

Maybe one day, a year or two from now, I’ll have cleansed my palate of the old-British-man voice enough that I can give THS another go.

But for now, I shall continue with the rest of my list.

Amen.