New Worlds Science Fiction #20

New Worlds, Volume 7, Number 20, March 1953

This issue features six original science-fiction stories. "The Exterminators" by Peter Hawkins depicts an alien empire that systematically clears worlds for colonization by dispersing virulent plagues. Health inspector Mike Yerrall, secretly an alien observer on Earth, is caught between duty and conscience when the plague begins infecting humans, including a child he cares for. His superior has been purged for hoarding antidote; when police inspector Drifeld arrives to eliminate Yerrall, a mysterious "Doctor Robinson"—revealed as an Underground agent—intervenes, exposing resistance to the empire's clearing operations and offering Yerrall the means to manufacture plague antidote.

Additional stories include J. F. Burke's "Golden Slumbers," A. Bertram Chandler's "Jetsam," Lan Wright's "...Is No Robbery...," John Christopher's "The Prophet," and E. C. Tubb's "Rockets Aren't Human." Articles cover atomic bomb science and cultural change. The issue opens with a profile of emerging author E. C. Tubb.