 The novel is substantially rewritten from a version that originally appeared in the magazine "Amazing Stories Quarterly" in 1930 under the title "White Lily".The novel is a science horror story that involves silicon crystalline lifeforms threatening to overwhelm carbon life on Earth.Groff Conklin, reviewing the 1952 edition, gave a mixed opinion; praising "one of the most magnificent science-horror ideas ever created," but ridiculing the plot as "probably the worst yellow-menace-plus-Bolsheviks-plus-religious-prejudice melange ever to hit science fiction."