I read there nearly 15 years and I have not forgotten this story or what I felt at the time (I was 16 and I read it in one night) It is for me the best first book Barjavel. He is the master of the French SF and a wonderful representative of modern French literrature. It should be read in school because it is ideal to give taste to read our pre-teens ... It's also a certain philosophical vision of good and evil and the real meaning of the word progress (Rousseau fictionalized and accessible in short) Finally, it is the most beautiful love story of all time.