CONTENTS:

• PSEUDO EDITORIAL by Maurice K. Hanson
• ADVERTISMENT SECTION
• COSMIC CASE No. 3 by D R Smith
• WHEN SPACE TURNED GREEN by Reg Stevens
• "ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION" (March 1938) Reviewed by George Stephen Palmer
• IDEAS AND IDEALS by Albert Griffiths
• THE SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION REPORT by the Executive Committee
• BRITAIN'S SECOND CONVENTION

• QUESTIONNAIRE #4 (missing)

• AMATEUR SCIENCE STORIES #3

CONTENTS.............

Pseudo-Editorial................................................... by Maurice K. Hanson Cosmic Case No. 3................... by D. R. Smith When Space Turned Green................. by Reg Stevens AUSTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION - March 1938...................... reviewed by George Stephen Palmer Ideas and Ideals............................................ by Albert Griffiths The Science Fiction Association Report................... by the Executive Committee Advertisement Section.................. Britain's Second *Convention..............

3 4 8 9 12 15 19 20

Editor: Maurice K. Hanson, 25 Bernard Street, Russell Sq., London WC1, England.
Associates: Edward. J. Carnell, Arthur C. Clarke

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Cont....

That these Rielavech-like creatures decided to stay on, catering for themselves was incredibly impolite of itself, but the nauseating means they employed can hardly be stated with calmness and dignified restraint. These sub-anthropoidal beasts caught, killed, and cooked and ate animals of air, land and sea. The stench of frizzling flesh fouled the pure air of our greatest city, prostrating with retching sickness the entire adult population within a considerable radius. Our protests were treated with contempt and in self defence we were compelled to evacuate a large area of our largest city around the space field where the invaders had camped. It was a great sacrifice, but we would have evacuated the whole planet without hesitation had we had any means of estimating the depravity of these malignant minds, and the horror they would bring on our peaceful existence.

The closest link between the Rielavech and the Homo Sapiens Races is that both inherit that rarest of qualities, a sense of humour. We, the Rielavech, are the most highly cultured race to be so hampered,

Naturally it is the primitive, thoughtless minds of the children of the Race that have to be most carefully governed and taught, and perhaps it is true that our schools are not entirely pleasing to a self-willed child. In some way this Jenkins discovered the disaffection and saw in it a means of causing us annoyance. Shortly after the evacuation he and almost his entire company entered the still habitated portions of the city and took up a position by the entrance of our largest junior educational building a little before the children were due to return to their sleeping quarters. As soon as the children started to march out in their orderly files some twelve of his men opened certain cases they had brought with them and, producing popular instruments, began to play frivolous music. Like insects round a light the children gathered round the alien band, and Jenkins, flinging aside his cloak to reveal himself clad in motley apparel, made a speech inviting every child there to come to an 'entertainment', as he described it, at his encampment. With his glib tongue and gay appearance and antics, aided by the

This is, perhaps, the last chance we shall have to contribute to the advancement of Universal culture, and it is correct that our very death should further this aim. The Race Homo Sapiens has always been a menace to culture ever since its entry into the Combine, and now the barbarity of a few of its members has killed a far higher culture than it can ever hope to attain. While it exists it is a constant menace to every civilization of the Universe. It must not be allowed to continue its murderous career. In the name of peace and universal friendship I ask that the worlds of system of 397-5756 be cleaned of life."

(Part 2 of this greatest Cosmic Case -- the defence of Homo Sapiens -- will appear in our next issue.).

When Space Turned Green
by Reg Stevens

Rodney Condon blinked, adjusted his glasses, and looked through them again. Distinct, in the field of the special lenses they floated; a large -- very large -- space ship and several small ones.

"Fight!" decided Mr. Condon. "Like Jap torpedo boats and a Russian battleship. Or an Indiaman and pirate jinks". He was well informed on matters maritime. Yet somehow it didn't seem like a battle. The "attackers" were so small, by comparison. More like lighters around a steamer, or -- "Lifeboats, by Gosh" mused the observer. "That's it. One end of the big fellow is smashed to rags. Rocket tubes blown up, shouldn't wonder. Or meteors. Are they meteors?"

Even at this distance a drift of fiery particles seemed dimly visible athwart the scene. Condon had other things to attend to, but needless to say he turned his glasses again to that section of space at the earliest opportunity. The meteor stream was no longer in evidence, but the space-liner and its satellites were unaltered. But were they? There was a curious lack of definition about the big ship. It was not out of focus, but the lines of it seemed indistinct and less clear-cut than they had been. Rodney fussed with his optical equipment, but the blurring persisted.

"Wonder if the sun's melting it?" he ruminated. "Must be pretty hot in the full glare, and besides the heat there'll be ultra-violets, cosmics and all the other rays you read about." Further observations

"Lo Roddy," hailed this personage, falling into step with the scientist, "Had a good trip? I expect you found cycling warm work. Say, you've caught the sun all right."

"Yes, we've had a real summer for once" agreed Roddy gingerly adjusting his glasses upon a badly skinned nose. Then he glanced aside into a shop window and exclaimed with a chuckle "Oh, look! That old 'Wonder' is still there. The cover was getting pretty faded and off colour before I left town, and I'm hanged if it looks like anything in particular now."

And indeed, after a month's exposure to the sunshine, Paul's drawing for "Castaways on Deimos" had faded to little more than a monochrome smudge.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION -- March 1938
Reviewed by George Stephen Palmer

Cover First thing that will strike you is - new title - "Astounding Science Fiction", A great improvement on its previous ugly-sounding name. Nice work, Mr. Campbell, and if you'll only chop off the "Astounding" part of the title you'll get a medal from me.

"In Times to Come" Good news. McClary, Doc. Smith and Jack Williamson all coming back, the last-named with the first of the new concept 'MUTANT' stories. Will this be a re-hash of the thought-variant idea of a year or so back? We'll know in times to come.

SOMETHING FROM JUPITER by Dow Elstar
Once you get over the fantastic basic idea of "metabolic transformation", details of which are carefully avoided, you will find this story quite good reading. It is quite a novel idea in a way and this, if nothing else, induces me to rate the story GOOD.

FLIGHT OF THE DAWN STAR by Robert Moore Williams
To begin with this looked like being a very ordinary sort of hack-yarn -- "space-warps" and "positron-guns" -- but it later develops into an interesting story with a surprise ending. GOOD

THE MASTER SHALL NOT DIE by R. de Witt Miller
Positively the best story in the issue. This will be one of the year's hits, with its wealth of human interest and feeling, its easy style and its clever but straight-forward conclusion. A really tip-top effort. EXCELLENT

DUEL OF THE SPACE LANES by William C. Beckett
Just a very ordinary space-adventure story with no new ideas. Pleasant light reading, though. FAIRLY GOOD

WINGS OF THE STORM by Manley Wade Wellman
A weird tale, pure and simple. I don't know how this got into "Astounding Science-Fiction". FAIR

MARTYRS DON'T MIND DYING by John Victor Peterson
Quite a promising start for a new author, this time story is full of paradoxes, but it pulls a bit of a surprise out of the bag towards the finish. FAIRLY GOOD

FLAREBACK by Kent Casey
You'll all like this refreshing interplanetary story, written as it is in a witty almost cynical style. GOOD

EYE OF THE PAST by Eando Binder
The usual Binder story -- shoddily written, stereotyped characters, and big, bad, nasty, aliens. A clever plot, but 'hack'-ish. FAIRLY GOOD

ILLUSTRATIONS: Striking improvement shown in Schneeman's work in this issue, his drawing for 'Dawn Star' being really fine work. Wesso and Dold - no better, but no worse than usual, and Binder's pictures not quite up to the high standard he has been setting himself in the two previous issues. (Brass Tacks and Science Discussions you'll find in the middle of the magazine -- a new idea that'll give you a bit of a jolt if, as I do, you look at the back of the magazine for Brass Tacks before anything else.)

Note This issue of "NOVAE TERRAE", though dated March 1938, is the first to appear since the January 1938 issue.

No, Mr. Smith has a far more fitting end in view, something more in keeping with the loftier ideals of scientific fiction. In short, it is to serve as a means of spreading scientific enlightenment among the masses. Sugar-coated science a la Gernsback, via such muddlers of science as (see below) or through Schachner shadowgraphs of pseudo-science.

Exponents of so naive an idea forget, in their righteous zeal, that anyone wishing to take copious draughts of science without the usual hangover, can do so quite easily without consulting scientific fiction. In fact they would be well advised to leave "scientific fiction" very much alone, if they wish to accumulate weighty masses of scientific erudition.

I am well aware that this argument can be wielded with equal force against the exponents of the "sociological aspects". I realize fully that the usual science-fiction story found in the "Big Three" contains about as much sociology as it does literary fluency -- both are of negligible quantity.

My imagination quails at the thought of Mr. Smith waxing eloquent over the subject of magazine science-fiction, for I believe that he is under no illusion regarding its peculiar quality of blah -- as his recent criticism of ASTOUNDING shows. I will join with him in the denunciation either from a scientific or a sociological standpoint, of much that is labelled "Science-Fiction".

However, even among this mawkish effluvium

(Editors' Note: You will all know what name to fill in here.)

Whilst not wishing to dogmatize to an undue extent, it seems to me that true science-fiction should attempt to portray the impact upon society and civilization of new scientific ideas and ideals. Adopting this wide classification, many of science-fiction's fundamental plots and ideas can thus be understood, analysed, studied and correlated. The ubiquitous interplanetary story, for example, can be shown to be in many cases an attempt to portray the effect upon mankind of interplanetary travel. That is just one example of many.

Advanced thinking and high ideals are not the monopoly of fans, states Mr. Smith with refreshing candour and a really remarkable insight. To such logic I must bow my head. But because of this must we abandon our hight ideals, or at least cease applying them to science-fiction?

Hardly. We seek to make science-fiction not merely the vehicle for such ideas, but an actual force which will help to make them facts.

By so doing we are, in my humble opinion, raising science-fiction from the level of bedtime stories and fatuous fantasy to something more in keeping not only with the "loftier ideals of the sociologists", but with the aims of literature as a whole.

Is such a laudable ambition, then, to be termed a "drift away from scientific fiction"?

I think not.

Executive Committee: On January 3rd 1937 the SFA came into being. It was first proposed that London area members -- including most of Britain's leading fans -- should assume control, but the objection was raised that there was no local group to link them, and the organising of such a group would take some time. The Executive Committee was therefore chosen from members of the Leeds group, this choice being later confirmed by the Council.

In October 1937, however, the London Branch came into being and has since made a reputation for active and enthusiastic work. Containing 4 of the 7 members of the Council and 15 other members (in contrast to Leeds' 9) it was natural to suggest that control of the society should pass to London. Further, the association had grown so rapidly that executive work has assumed such proportions that it cannot be carried out completely by the Leeds Branch.

Accordingly Mr. Mayer proposed to the Council "that the Headquarters of the Science-Fiction Association be moved from Leeds to London, the new Executive Committee consisting of Mr. Kenneth G. Chapman as General Executive Secretary, and Messrs. Eric C. Williams and Sidney L. Birchby as Assistant Executive Secretaries." The proposal has been unanimously passed by the Council and the following are the arrangements for the change-over, which should be noted carefully.

Until the day of the Convention, April 10th 1938, the society will run as at present from 20 Hollin Park Rd., Leeds 8. After the Convention the headquarters will be 59A Tremaine Rd., Anerley, S.E.20. Members should take great care to send communications to the correct address. In

Mr. Carnell will continue as Hon. Treasurer and Mr. Hanson as Editor of "NOVAE TERRAE". All other Association publications -- with the exception of "The Science-Fiction Gazette" will be issued as at present from Leeds. And, until further notice the Back Number Supply Service will continue to run from Leeds.

New Members: We are glad to welcome the following new members: M. L. Neale (Sidcup); W. A. Devereaux (Tadworth).

This report will probably be the last to be issued by the present Executive Committee, and we can only conclude by wishing the new executive the best of success, by thanking all members of the Association for the valuable support they have given us in the past, and by assuring everyone that we shall continue to ((support)) the Association to the best of our ability.

Branch Reports:

Leeds Branch: Two new members were recently welcomed -- Messrs. Colin H. Macklin and William G. Stone. Following the meeting on Jan. 29th, Mr. D.W.F.Mayer gave a lantern lecture entitled "Can We Reach the Moon?" Two days later the lecture was repeated before the Leeds Astronomical Society. On Feb. 12th the first of a series of talks by guest speakers was given, when Mr. M.E.Rosenberg discussed Religion. At the same meeting Mr. F.W.F.Dobby was elected to the new Branch position of Asst. Librarian. The Branch awaits with pleasure the visit of Council Chairman, Mr. K.G.Chapman, and Mr. M.K.Hanson on March 20th.

Brch. Chairman: H. Warnes, 61 Thorne Grove, Gipton, Leeds 8.

After the usual Branch business Mr. Carnell was called upon to deliver the dope on U.S. fans -- their activities, love lives, jail sentences etc. Unfortunately Mr. Carnell announced that he found it impossible to trace the life of any one fan in detail as Americans are so intensely active as to offer world-lines of extra-ordinary complexity; he therefore gave a reading from one of the current U.S. fan mags. In the middle of an important passage Mr. W.H.Gillings staggered in looking like an Abominable Snowman. Amidst vague mutterings between Mr. Carnell and the new arrival Mr. Sid Birchby opened his talk on "The Next War". He so horrified us with the possibilities of nasty death to come that when he at length concluded on a note of hopeful despair, he netted not one appreciative hand-clap. We all sat round feeling rather miserable until after one or two desultory questions, Mr. Gillings, now thawed out by the creeping glow of nourishing stout, was called upon to read the afternoon's classic story, Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space". Mr. Gillings moved to a more convenient spot away from the beer and commensed reading. His audience sat enthralled, then interested, then passive, then replete, then a little fidgety. After 1 1/2 hours heroic reading without a stop Mr. Gillings drew his story to a finish. Grunts and deep sighs sounded from about the table, of ecstasy or relief.

The big moment then arrived -- a programme of s-f music offered by Arthur Clarke. Several faces became stonily resigned as the handle was wound, and as the first notes of "Things to Come" thundered out, eyes wandered to papers and magazines. And then as the maddening rhythm of Mossolov's "Steel Foundry" slammed and roared across the frosty air eyes became expressive once more, but alas, only with amusement and disgust...

Branch Chairman: Mr. R.J.Hodgkins, 1903 W. 94th Place, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Advertisement Section (Cont. from page 3.)

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