"First published in Great Britain by John Spencer & Co. Ltd."

Later published as: The frozen planet.

Interplanetary travel was an established fact. Bases had been set up on the moon, Mars and even on faraway Pluto. But that was as far as man could go. Beyond the frozen planet lay an immeasurable gulf of light-years which it would take a lifetime to cross. Not until the interstellar drive was discovered was it possible for a ship to be sent to Alpha Centauri in the search for new planets suitable for colonization by the human race. This is an imaginative novel of the illy assorted crew of this first starship to land on a new planet in a new system. Leaving their parent ship in a closed orbit, they went down onto the planet, where their only pinnace cracked up on landing. Then a party of non-humans showed up, claiming to be the inhabitants of the planet. But it seemed apparent they were something more than that....