Astounding Science Fiction (UK Edition)

About this issue

This issue features four science fiction stories. The lead novelette is A. E. van Vogt's "The Storm," set in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud's Fifty Suns galaxy. An apparently invincible Earth battleship arrives seeking robot populations that fled there millennia ago. Captain Maltby, a "Mixed Man" (hybrid robot), is conscripted to guide the ship into a massive ionic storm as a trap—though he doesn't know the storm has gone nova. The Earth commander, Grand Captain Laurr, threatens the planet to extract information about robot locations while navigating weather intelligence deliberately withheld by local authorities. Eric Frank Russell's "Symbiotica" involves explorers encountering a machine-dominated civilization on Mechanistria, only to discover a seemingly pristine jungle world hiding unknown dangers. Fredric Brown's "Paradox Lost" offers a whimsical explanation for dinosaur extinction. Frank Belknap Long's "Willie" concerns a forgotten ancient city where a servant retains memories others have lost. H. H. Holmes' "Sanctuary" depicts a commandoman fleeing Nazis toward a mysterious villa with a haunted history, aided by a professor's intervention.