Since 1972, reprints have included a foreword by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on Venus have rendered the novel's descriptions of that world inaccurate.

These animals, many of them phosphorescent, include an aggressive carnivore called an orange patch that shoots a jet of water at its prey, and the V-frogs, small amphibians that the human colonists keep as pets.

Starr, Bigman, and Morriss go to the airlock to deal with the crisis, where they meet the city's chief engineer, Lyman Turner, the inventor and owner of a laptop computer carried with him.

He then returns to the submarine, and pilots this to the surface of the ocean, where he intends to communicate his findings to an orbiting space station to be relayed to the Council on Earth.

In Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus, Asimov returned to a recurring theme of his work — the use of mental powers to influence or control the actions of others.

Writing in The New York Times, Villiers Gerson praised the novel as "crackling with suspense, lit by humor, sparkling with complexities of plot, and alive with interest".

[2] Reviewer Groff Conklin found Oceans of Venus a cut above the series's first two installments, calling it "a colorful and exciting tale.

"[3] Anthony Boucher similarly reported Oceans an improvement over the series's previous installments, singling out its "combining plausible adventure, interesting alien life-forms and a sound detective story.