Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION Mclivaine’s Star (August Der- leth), Brothers Beyond the Void (Paul W. Fairman), The Dead Planet (Edmond Hamil- ton), Like a Bird, Like a Fish (H. B. Hickey), The Enchanted Forest (Fritz Leiber), The Great Void (Frank Belknap Long), From Beyond (H. P. Lovecraft), Line to Tomorrow (Henry Kuttner), The Gardener (Margaret St. Clair), The Martian and the Moron (Theo- dore Sturgeon), Null-P (William Tenn), Strange Har- vest (Donald Wandrei). You won’t regret buying this. (By the way, for science fiction fans these last two books would make excellent Christmas presents!) NON-FICTION Arthur C. Clarke and R. A. Smith have been doing a bit of collaborating in the creation of illustrated space books. THE YOUNG TRAVELLER IN SPACE (Phoenix, 38 William IV Street, London, W.C.2, 7s. 6d.) is mainly textual with a few illustrations. EXPLORA- TION OF THE MOON (Frederick Muller, 110 Fleet Street, Lon- don, E.C.4, 18s.) is mainly illustrations with a little text. In each case Clarke did the text and Smith did the illus- trations. The results are not equally happy. The cheaper book is the best, we think. This is because we consider Smith’s illustrations to be uncomfortably anemic. They always look more like pre- - liminary roughs than finished drawings and paintings. And The Young Traveller in Space benefits from having only three of them, whereas Ex- ploration of the Moon suffers from having one on every other page—45 in all. Indeed, the former book uses illustra- tions (of which there are some fine photographs) merely to support the text, but the latter uses the text. to support the illustrations. While both books are splendidly produced, the disparity in price cannot be overlooked. We sincerely regret that we cannot recom- mend Exploration of the Moon, but we highly recommend The Young Traveller in Space. The titles should make the contents obvious, and these contents are dealt with in the strictly accurate manner for which the text-author is well-known. Patrick Moore is becoming rather prolific at turning out books on astronomy and space, and his latest, WORLDS AROUND US, is as superficial and fragmentary as most of his others. This is published 131 connicloooks.com