Astounding Stories #193

In "The Imitator's War," the planet Cydan unleashes a cunning threat by mimicking both Earth and Lustra, driving the two powers toward total war. As deception spreads across the stars, the truth of the imitations is uncovered—revealing a plot that ultimately forces Earth and Lustra into an unexpected alliance.

In "The Coming of the Giants!" from Astounding Stories #193 (1988), humanity's confidence in its spacefaring future is upended when colossal alien beings descend upon Earth—only to overlook the planet entirely, their sheer size rendering human civilization invisible. The story quietly explores the irony of survival through insignificance, as pride meets cosmic indifference.

In "Among the Missing!" from *Astounding Stories* #193 (1988), a prospector returns from the desert with tales of a city of marble and gold, only to be dismissed as delusional by the man who once staked his expedition. When photographic proof finally convinces the skeptic, he becomes obsessed with finding the lost city—and the prospector—abandoning everything to search the wilds for years.

In "The 13th Floor!" from *Astounding Stories* #193 (1988), Hugh Carter, a man burdened by a failing heart, faces a harrowing choice when the elevator in his office building delivers him to a floor that shouldn’t exist. There, he meets a figure who claims to be Death—and is offered a chance to return to his wife, Jo, if he agrees to live another thirty years. As he descends, the truth begins to unfold in chilling silence.

In "Out of the Pits," miner Conn Landrum is pulled from the depths by Launa, a woman from a hidden underground society, forcing him to choose between the life he knows above ground and the mysterious world she offers. The story unfolds in stark, vivid contrast between the surface’s harshness and the subterranean society’s quiet, ancient rhythms.