Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition

About this issue

This December 1943 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction features the novelette "Attitude" by Hal Clement as its lead story. The narrative follows Dr. Little, who awakens in a weightless hexagonal metal chamber aboard an unfamiliar spacecraft in second-order flight. His sleeping bag bears a number from the Gomeisa, a heavy cruiser, yet shows signs of prolonged exposure to space. Confined behind a locked grating, Little puzzles over his abduction and the mysterious circumstances of his captors. He is fed only lime juice at regular four-hour intervals, with no solid food provided. The story's premise involves captors who employ a curious system: they encourage their prisoners to devise escape mechanisms, yet mysteriously prevent their success at the final moment. The issue also contains short stories by Ray Bradbury, A.E. van Vogt, and Murray Leinster, plus an article on evolutionary biology by Frank Belknap Long.