Note: Originally published in Paris in 1960 according to http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jimthing/aworldat.htm, but published by Del Duca in 1958 according with Tuck. No further information about the French edition available in the Library of Congress. OCLC 458864215

Synopsis: An adventure that goes beyond the limited sphere of our small planet and embraces, one might say, the universe, while remaining in a cruel, almost ruthless reality. Parade before the reader the best-known political figures in the contemporary world, the U.S. secret bases, Russian, Chinese, which dart artificial satellites with ever more ambitious goals, the intrigues, rivalries, reprisals of our world divided into two parts ; the dismal landscape of the Gobi Desert, the bleak legacy of the evil civilization on Mars. All this serves as an indispensable backdrop to a story of intense action but also of deep humanity, especially the point at which recounts the terrible agony of the first three men who launched to Mars aboard a satellite Sino-Russian, are pushed for a vital purpose for humanity, murder and suicide by other men who have the same dreams, the same ambitions, the same feelings, the same science, but who are in the enemy camp. Because, as the Gospel says, and as the author repeats, "Every kingdom divided against itself will perish." And only a common danger unites two enemies that can be shipwrecked together.