On a far-future Earth, wealthy Arthur Frane's hunting excursion with his friend Jim Gregg turns into a collision with the impossible when they discover Venta, a terrified young woman with uncanny strength and beauty, fleeing a captor named Curtmann. Her desperate story soon exposes a larger secret: a hidden race of tiny winged Midges, a forest city on Venus, and a ruthless Earthman who has turned conquest into a private empire. Before Arthur and Jim can grasp the truth, Curtmann's agents strike, and the two men are dragged aboard a spacecraft bound for Venus. There, Curtmann reveals himself as a messianic tyrant bent on remaking a world through domination and forced breeding. Yet escape, rebellion, and uneasy alliances follow. With help from the Midge Rhan, Arthur, Jim, and Venta break free and plunge into Venus's perilous skies, only to find the lush Forest City under threat from invasion, betrayal, and ancient fears. As Curtmann's armies advance, the captives race to a ruined city where a secret cache of old Venusian weapons may be humanity's last hope—only to discover the arsenal has already been emptied. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
