Astounding Science Fiction, February 1945 (British Edition)

# Catalog Note

Astounding Science-Fiction, Vol. IV, No. 9 (British Edition), February 1945.

This issue contains five works of speculative fiction. The featured novelette "Blind Man's Buff" by Malcolm Jameson concerns a competitive race to explore and map Venus. Multiple spacecraft attempt to descend through dense cloud cover to claim territory, supervised by an umpire. The protagonist Travis and his engineer Hartley possess an experimental magnetoscope device ("Maggy") that penetrates the planet's obscuring atmosphere to reveal an ionospheric phenomenon resembling a crystalline sea. Rival factions, including the well-capitalized Farrington-Driscoll combine deploying numerous vessels, compete for survival and territorial claims. Most ships crash into unseen hazards; those that land encounter turbulent conditions and water damage. A second novelette, "Beam Pirate" by George O. Smith, follows. Three short stories complete the issue: "The Wedge" by Isaac Asimov, "Kindness" by Lester del Rey, and "The Iron Standard" by Lewis Padgett. OCR degradation prevents full details on remaining stories.