Space Stories, February 1953

Space Stories, Vol. 1, No. 3 (February 1953)

This issue features "The Big Jump," a complete novel by Leigh Brackett about a protagonist experimenting with transuranic materials that offer access to transcendent experience. The novelet "The Bleak and Barren Land" by Gordon R. Dickson depicts exiled settlers in a fractional Earth settlement they cannot fully reclaim. Short stories include Henry Hasse's "Three Lines of Old Martian," concerning a spinster schoolteacher solving puzzles on Mars; John R. Marshall's "Coming Home," addressing the challenge of revealing space secrets; and D. W. Barefoot's "Even the Bright Gods Must Die," featuring a bookworm protagonist. The magazine includes reader letters, a "Science Bulletins" feature covering first rocket flights and spatial glass, and advertisements for correspondence courses and direct-sale shoe and automobile seat-cover businesses. The cover is painted by EMSH.