Return to the Lost Planet

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Return to the Lost Planet is a 1954 juvenile science fiction novel by Angus MacVicar, the second book in the Lost Planet series. The series has six novels: The Lost Planet (1953), Return to the Lost Planet (1954), Secret of the Lost Planet (1955), Red Fire on the Lost Planet (1959), Peril on the Lost Planet (1960), and Space Agent from the Lost Planet. It was the first science fiction series translated into Hebrew and helped shape Israeli science fiction.

The story continues right after The Lost Planet. An earlier expedition to Hesikos—the wandering “lost planet” now within a few days’ flight of Earth—crash-lands. Dr Lachlan McKinnon (the organizer), Professor Hermanoff, and American engineer Spike Stranahan are stranded. McKinnon’s colleagues must build a spaceship from their Scottish base to reach Hesikos, but they need Dr Andrieff, a scientist and engineer who could be exiled from his Eastern European country to help.

The crew includes McKinnon’s nephew Jeremy Grant, Professor Lars Bergman, science student Janet Campbell, and a Cockney housekeeper named Madge. They rescue the three explorers, who have survived a harsh winter, and begin to explore Hesikos in a Jeep. They find signs that the planet was once inhabited and that atomic bombs were detonated long ago on the surface.

A flood damages their Jeep, and they take shelter in a cave that leads to underground caverns. There they meet the Hesikans, who are intelligent, human‑like, and communicate by telepathy through a device called the Electronome. The Hesikans explain that their planet’s orbit was destroyed long ago by atomic experiments, so they now live quietly underground, coming to the surface only in mild summers to gather fruit and plants. Their leader is Solveg, with his daughter Asa, and power comes from hydroelectric generators.

When a rockfall blocks the underground river, the Hesikan power fails. The settlers accept this fate, but McKinnon cannot. Grant and Stranahan use the explosives they saved from the flood to clear the blockage, saving Hesikos. The visitors repair the Jeep with Hesikan help, then return to Earth. Asa accompanies them, hoping to share her peaceful outlook with others.