C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength

It is the third book after Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Published in 1945, it brings Elwin Ransom's conflict back to Earth and can be read alone, although the earlier novels explain his history.

The National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments presents itself as a scientific and social-planning organization. Mark Studdock is drawn into it before understanding that its leadership combines political manipulation, dehumanizing technology, and supernatural evil.

Mark seeks status through the N.I.C.E., while Jane's disturbing dreams bring her into contact with Ransom's community at St Anne's. Their separate choices let Lewis contrast coercive hierarchy with personal freedom and moral responsibility.

Not in the usual sense of changing a known historical event; it is a dystopian science-fantasy set in a fictionalized contemporary Britain. Its plot mixes Arthurian legend, academic politics, social engineering, and the cosmic mythology established in Lewis's first two Space Trilogy novels.