Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus is the third novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1954. Since 1972, reprints have included a foreword by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on Venus have rendered the novel's descriptions of that world inaccurate. In his 1979 autobiography In Memory Yet Green, Asimov notes that his original version of the novel was rejected by Doubleday and had to be extensively revised before it was accepted: Setting Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus was written in the mid-1950s, when little was known about Venus apart from its mass, volume, orbital characteristics, and the fact of its unbroken cloud cover. Asimov assumed that Venus has a temperate climate, with a period of rotation of 36 hours, a planet-wide ocean covering the surface, and an atmosphere that is 90% nitrogen and 10% carbon dioxide; that the planetary ocean is covered with blue-green native vegetation; and that native animals inhabit the ocean. These animals, many of them phosphorescent, include an aggressive carnivore called an orange patch that shoots a jet of water at its prey, and the V-frogs, small amphibians that the human colonists keep as pets. Asimov's Venus has a human population of six million living in some fifty domed cities on the ocean floor. The largest Venusian city is Aphrodite, with a population of a quarter million. The chief exports are fertilizer made from the native vegetation, and animal feed derived from cultivated yeast. Plot summary Shortly after returning from the Asteroid Belt, David "Lucky" Starr learns that his Science Academy roommate Lou Evans had been sent to investigate trouble on Venus, but the Council of Science office on Venus has requested that he be recalled and investigated for corruption. As Starr and John "Bigman" Jones are shuttled to Venus, their pilots suffer an episode of paralysis, and Starr is required to keep their craft from smashing itself against the surface of the Venusian ocean. Afterwards, the pilots have no memory of the event. Upon reaching the Venusian city of Aphrodite, Starr and Bigman meet Dr. Mel Morriss, head of the Council of Science on Venus, who explains that Venusian scientists are perfecting strains of yeast that can be processed into luxury foods for export; whereas