Dark Tower and Other Stories [Hardcover]

So Hooper saved this collection and some of the other writings that were published posthumously by the late great C. S. Lewis. These six stories are of a science fiction or fantasy nature. The first story The Dark Tower is of particular interest because it is a partial fourth story in Lewis's Science Fiction Trilogy Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. This one being set between the first and second book. This story makes up more than half of this collection. Yet one could ask what is a partial story with middle sections and the end missing be worth? Or be worth reading? And to be honest it would be a very good question.

I would have to state an emphatic yes it would! I would declare so for many different reasons. The first is that this is the only time we see Ransom in his office's hanging out with a group of professors discussing life the universe and everything. Does that not indeed sound like Lewis, and Tolkien and the rest of the Inklings who did just that. There has been much debate by many scholars as to the questions of if Lewis inserted himself into his fiction, as 'the professor' in the Narnia books, and many believe as Professor Ransom in this series. This gathering of friends is almost a scene out of Lewis's own weekly routine. The second reason is that we meet MacPhee here in this story, which chronologically takes place between book's 1 and 2 in the series. MacPhee does not show up in the trilogy till the 3rd book. This book gives us a tantalizing taste of a story that would give the published trilogy a fuller more rounded flavor and be amusing to read and debate the end of the story and the progression of Lewis's Thought.

Even if you only pick up this book for the first story it will be worth it. But the other 5 short pieces are worth a perusal as well.

If you're looking for more stories by Lewis, be them in any form, this is a very interesting volume to have in your library, but it may leave you feeling a bit empty if you're longing for more soul-penetrating stories that teach you about yourself.

"The Dark Tower" is incomplete, but a vivid and highly interesting tale of the use of an imaginary device - a Chronoscope - that lets you view an other time the way you would view a star with a telescope. Lewis himself is in the story as one of a group of friends/scholars who meet to watch the happenings of the Dark Tower in the "Othertime."

The story is intense and riveting and I couldn't put it down, but there are pages missing in the middle of the manuscript supposedly discovered after Lewis's death as a newly discovered, previously unpublished work. The end of the short story is also absent... and there is no indication of how close to the end the reader is to the ending when the story is cut off literally in mid sentence. The positive thing is that the story is so well written, it will keep your mind reeling as to the outcome and fate of the characters involved. I've heard that the claims that this is an actual true work of C.S. Lewis is now being disputed, but if it is not of his hand, it sure reads like his style.

"The Man Born Blind" is an interesting account of a man born blind who gets his sight as an older adult and struggles with visual concepts such as "what is light." It's a very short story and if any of the stories in this volume are to be disputed, this one would be my pick... it doesn't read like Lewis and I think Lewis was far more observant of human nature and of his environment in general to have made some of the assumptions he did in this very short story.

"The Shoddy Lands" is pure Lewis... almost like "The Great Divorce," but in miniature. Very interesting explaination at the end that wasn't exactly what I was reading into it at first... a very good story.

"Ministering Angels" is not at all what you think it's about... but nonetheless an interesting futuristic tale of life on a human-colonized Mars. Also a very short story, but it's amazing how Lewis can depict a character so richly and vividly in just a few lines.

The legends surrounding the "discovery" of this "unknown manuscript" and its near consignment to the flames of a bonfire after Lewis' death have been proven demonstrably false -- and are continuing to be perpetrated mostly by persons who have a financial gain in the Lewis literary estate.

Hobbits (like myself) who love and revere Mr. Lewis almost as much as our own Master, will want to know the true facts of the matter, and will bypass this volume and purchase instead Mrs. Lindskoog's excellent "literary detection" books on the subject.

This volume should be recognized and rejected for what it is: a blatant attempt for profit at the expense of the good name of one of the finest writers of the 20th century.

For shame to the perpetrators of this hoax.