Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 42 — page 156: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION widening our physical environs will of necessity widen our mentality. The whole of terrestrial culture—which _ ‘includes religions and ideologies— has been developed under fairly limited fields of reference. There can be no doubt that the fundamental non-absoluteness of all human values _ will be clearly revealed by contact with other worlds. Perhaps then, at last, we shall see the end of the illogical doctrine of ‘‘eternal verities.” INCONSISTENT It strikes me that it has been a feature of Authentic never to remain consistent; inasmuch as one can read a particular issue, feel utterly chagrined that such stuff can appear between covers, then, before the feeling of desolation has departed, another issue comes along that makes excellent reading. Because of this, I should imagine your readers’ letters are a well- balanced mixture of deep despair and wild exuberance. Nevertheless, the consistency of issues 34, 35 and 36 has remained high, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that this standard will continue or even improve. I am particularly surprised at the emer- gence of Bryan Berry as a good teller of stories, as against his previous mere writing of plots. His The Tree cannot be compared with some of his earlier work, and I am pleased to see that your persever- ance with this author has borne fruit. Another feature of Authentic that I have noticed is that the 155 Readers’ Pages are quite often as good as the stories themselves, and it is this section of the maga- zine that I always read first. P. W. Cutler, 333 Arundel Street, Landport, Portsmouth. Your letters are always most interesting and helpful, Mr. Cutler. We only wish you would send more. We hope you feel that we are improving our quality with each issue now—one result of our policy of paying the highest author rates among British science fiction magazines. FANTAS ¥. It was my intention to give up this magazine on your change to fantasy, but as I had previously regarded Authentic as tops I was reluctant to think that with the name Authentic Science Fiction you would leave the science fiction ranks for good, bearing in mind that psychology is not the only science, S. Bigsby, 102 Allcroft Road, London, N.W.5. What on earth are you driving at, Mr. Bigsby! PROBLEMS My actual reason for writing to you is because I have a few problems of my own and I hope that you can help me with them. My first one is that I have a passion for reading science fiction but have comicloooks.conn