John Wyndham, Lucas Parkes (pseud.)

The story of man's leap into the seas of space.

CENTURIES have passed since man first set out across the uncharted seas of his own world. 

But the same urgent spirit that drove men on journeys from which they knew they might never return is still tugging and pushing.

And now the restless questing of mankind has sent him out across the unknown seas of space. 

Nobody knows for certain what will be found out there.

That is why they go. To some men the unknown calls like a magnet, the siren call of adventure and exploration, needling the ever present drive to discover things that no man has ever seen before.

 The Troon family have bred explorers as far back as they can trace.

Somewhere in every generation, some one male feels that urge to get away from all things known, to uncover new ground.

This is a story of four generations in the Troon family, of four men of high courage, and of the wonders and mysteries they discovered beyond the horizon of the sky.