Astounding British Edition, August 1958

# Astounding Science Fiction, August 1958 (British Edition)

This issue features "Close to Critical" by Hal Clement, the first part of a three-part serial about Tenebra, an extreme-environment alien planet orbiting Altair. The story opens with a remotely-controlled robot landing through Tenebra's crushing atmosphere—described as eight hundred atmospheres dense—and surveying a landscape with brittle vegetation and rolling hills. The planet operates under triple Earth gravity with oily sulfuric-acid seas and unusual physics where quartz dissolves like salt and raindrops reach fifty feet diameter.

The issue includes novelettes and short stories: "Special Feature" by Charles V. de Vet; "The Question" by Gordon R. Dickson; "You Take the High Road" by Frank Herbert; "Fool Killer" by Stanley Mullen; and "One-Eye" by John Rackham. Editor John W. Campbell's editorial, "Research Is Antisocial," discusses the distinction between logical deduction within known postulates ("insearch") and venturesome exploration beyond established frameworks ("exsearch"), arguing that contemporary culture undervalues the latter.