The Vanishing Venusians

Twelve ships and thirty-eight hundred exiles from Earth have wandered the seas of Venus for a generation, driven from every shore by fever, swamp and the hostile Cloud People. When a granite cliff rises out of the mist, Matt Harker, bitter and haunted by memories of snow and sunlight, volunteers to climb it, mostly to get off the boat.

Young Rory McLaren, whose wife is about to give birth, goes with him, and so does Sim, a big, gentle man who sings as he climbs. The way up runs through dark caverns full of laughing, flower-like creatures with human faces, and the plateau at the top may be the promised land at last, if its strange little people will share it.