New Worlds Science Fiction No. 40

This October 1955 issue of New Worlds features science fiction stories and articles. The editorial by John Cornell discusses the anticipated 1957 satellite programme, drawing parallels to astronautics enthusiasm in the 1930s and 1940s. The issue includes a profile of Charles Eric Maine (34-year-old pen name of David McIlwain), a BBC and TV engineer who has written the radio play "Spaceways" (adapted into a 1952 film), two further plays, and several forthcoming novels including Crisis 2000 and The Isotope Man.

The fiction includes Lan Wright's "The Con Game," a story about human and alien intelligence competition over a matter transmitter discovery on a primitive planet in the Bootes Sector, with the Lutherians as rival faction. Additional stories listed are "Stormhead" by Francis G. Rayer, "Rock 83" by Alan Barclay, "Little Girl Lost" by E.C. Tubb, and the second installment of Wilson Tucker's serial "The Time Masters." Articles cover the film Timeslip and celestial debris.