Those Who Survive

Plot

The first part begins sixteen years after the starship Pole crashed in icy mountains of an unknown uninhabited planet. The survivors abandoned the ship immediately due to radiation fears and moved to lower ground. Several attempts to revisit Pole fail; eventually the children of the crew reach the ship with difficulty, bringing supplies to the settlement. They find working communications equipment but cannot operate it.

The second part occurs about three Earth years (one local year) later. The first generation keeps the Earth calendar, while the youth adopt local time. A young man proposes building an air balloon to reach Pole again; rising above the clouds, they spot an object resembling an exploratory probe. Another starship, Magellan, has landed an expedition on the planet.

Its crew finds Pole's remnants and initially believes all perished. Regulations forbid leaving traces of visitation, so they plan to destroy Pole, but a second inspection reveals some crew survived. After further adventures, a happy ending ensues.

Publication history

The novel was initially released in two parts. The first, titled The Pass, appeared in serial form in the popular science magazine Znanie-Sila in 1980. The second part, Beyond the Pass, was first published in an abridged Czech translation as Země je příliš daleko, serialized in the children's weekly Sedmička pionýrů during 1986 and 1987. The complete novel was released as a book in 1988.

An English translation by John H. Costello followed in 2000. In German, the first part came out as Der Gebirgspass in 1986, with the full book published as Überlebende in 1995. That German edition earned a third-place nomination for the 1996 Kurd Laßwitz Award in the category of Best foreign SF novel of 1995.