Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 80

About this issue

Authentic Science Fiction, May 1957, No. 80. Edited by E. C. Tubb and published in Britain. The issue opens with Tubb's editorial on science fiction fandom and conventions, announcing the Fifteenth World Science Fiction Convention to be held in London in September 1957. The main novelette is "Trojan Horse" by Robert Presslie, a first-contact story in which an alien spacecraft arrives at Earth carrying advanced scientific texts and an invitation to take the ship. Suspicious of the gift, world authorities refuse to touch it until they locate the alien crew member (singular). Detective Joey Simons undertakes the hunt. The narrative shifts to Dave Knox, a pharmacist with a cynical demeanor who clandestinely helps the unemployed. A woman named Amethyst Jackson observes his kindness toward an old man and approaches him in a bar; Knox, revealing he uses walking sticks, rebuffs her cruelly. The story suggests Knox may be the hunted alien in disguise. The issue also contains short stories by J. S. Huegh ("Metamorphosis"), A. Bertram Chandler ("Dark Reflection"), Nigel Lloyd ("Eve No Adam"), and Philip E. High ("Life Sentence"), plus the conclusion of serial "Dead Weight" by Douglas West, Kenneth Johns's article "The Evolution of Man," and book reviews.