Sigh.

I probably enjoyed this more than Out of the Silent planet, hence the extra star, but I still wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed this book.

I felt there was slightly more point to the story (a retelling of the Adam and Eve story, but set on Venus) and in places I even found it engrossing. However, the pacing was very stop and start. I felt I had to slog through reams of endless paragraphs of oddly stilted description to get to the sections I enjoyed. And there were a lot of times I felt like my eyes had glazed over and the words just wouldn't sink in. At times it feels more like an essay in theological thinking than a story and obviously that's part of the aim of the novel; to get people to think about theological subjects. However, I feel that the point could have been made equally well with a purer story, where the reader can make the connections to theology on their own without being lectured.

I have a feeling C S Lewis might just not be for me. I even found the Chronicles of Narnia very dry reading and would certainly not read this again. However, it's not a terrible book, just terribly uneven.