# Venus — Last and First Men character guide

> Venus in Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Venus

**First appearance:** 0058-xiii-humanity-on-venus

## Snapshot

The radioactive, ocean-covered world humanity colonizes after Earth's doom, already home to an older and stranger intelligence.

## Who they are

Venus is humanity's last refuge, a planet rich in radioactive matter but already possessed by the deep-sea Venerians, who cannot leave the ocean without bursting yet fight ferociously to destroy the invaders. As electrolysis pours oxygen into the atmosphere and poisons the native fauna, the Fifth Men face the moral weight of repeating the Martian crime against a race they judge inferior. Venus is where human survival and human conscience collide, and where the migration's cost becomes unavoidable.

## In the story

### [III: Voyaging in Space](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/iii-voyaging-in-space)

The target planet for colonization, described as hostile with a dense, oxygen-poor atmosphere and a nearly global ocean.

### [III: A Minor Astronomical Event](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/iii-a-minor-astronomical-event)

The home planet of the Eighth Men, which becomes uninhabitable due to the solar collision.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/characters/venus
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/characters