Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 66 — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

_ Book Reviews FICTION FIRST LENSMAN, by Ed- ward E. Smith, Ph.D., pub- lished by Messrs. T. V. Bordman & Co., Ltd., 14 Cockspur Street, S.W.1, at 9s. 6d., is the second of the Lensman series of which Tri- planetary was the first. It is unashamed space opera of the most blatant type, with lily-white heroes and _ tar- black villains engaged in a conflict, the extent of which staggers the imagination. It is set in a period when fleets of spaceships travel constantly between the stars, and with the expansion of commerce the criminal element gets out of hand. So far do they get out of hand that it is only the discovery of the “‘Lens,”’ the mysterious, unforgeable, in- destructible identification of the newly-formed Galactic Patrol which gives honest men a fighting chance. And the accent is on fighting. The first lensman, Virgil Samms, gives the story its title, and with him you are transported to an assortment of worlds and meet an assort- ment of people which will leave you gasping. It seems hard now, looking back on the period when the Lensman stories first saw the light of publication, that, at the time, they were regarded as the ultimate of their type. Tastes may have changed since then, and the series has been completely rewritten, but one thing is certain. If you like adventure, high wide and handsome, this book is for you. THE MAN WITH ONLY ONE HEAD, by Densil Neve Barr, published by Messrs. Rich & Cowan, 178-202 Great Portland Street, W.1, at 9s. 6d., has a clever title, but that seems about all. It is about a man who, of all the inhabitants of Earth, alone remains virile and able to father children. His name, oddly enough, is Vince Adams, and the story is not what he does with his unique gift, but rather what is done to him by an outraged world. The book itself is infuriating in that the author doesn’t seem to know what to do with his situation. It meanders from the central character into all sorts of odd situations, none of them really germain, and 131 comiclooks.comn