Astounding British Edition, Vol. 6, No. 8

About this issue

This issue contains four science fiction short stories and two novelettes. "The Catspaw" by George O. Smith follows Thomas Barden, an ordinary man contacted in his dreams by a formless alien sentience from another star system. The alien implants advanced scientific knowledge into Barden's subconscious mind—a spacecraft drive enabling interstellar travel. The alien's faction seeks to prevent their world's aggressive faction from conquering less advanced civilizations; they hope technological parity will deter subjugation. Barden awakens three weeks later with complete mastery of the new science, but faces the problem of establishing credibility without institutional resources. He devises a strategy: publishing a brief, terse theoretical paper through the Terran Physical Society that might prompt scientists to conduct confirming experiments. The other novelette is "The Great Air Monopoly" by René Lafayette. Short stories include "Dreams Are Sacred" by Peter Phillips, "Dance of a New World" by John B. MacDonald, "Inheritance" by Arthur C. Clarke, and "Dawn of Nothing" by A. Bertram Chandler.