Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 78

About this issue

This issue features the opening installment of Douglas West's "Dead Weight," a three-part serial depicting a future society where Doctor Blue's immortality serum has created a permanent class of albino "Blues"—the treated immortals—who face systematic social discrimination and violence. The story begins with Captain Sam Falkirk of the World Police witnessing teenagers attacking a corner-prophet arguing for Blues' civil rights in Nations Square, followed by an insurance agent's unsolicited pitch. An included lecture explains that Blue's serum, discovered in 1967, arrests aging, restores youth, grants disease immunity, and turns recipients albino with identifying hand tattoos. The issue also contains four short stories: "Ideals Die Hard," "Melrose," "Asymptote," "The Gentle Rain," and "Upstairs" (by H. Philip Stratford), plus the sixth installment of Kenneth Johns' article "The Evolution of Man." Editor E.C. Tubb's editorial discusses the supposed loss of "sense of wonder" in contemporary science fiction compared to early pulp magazines.