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CONTENTS: ~ ~~ ~ The Orzu Problem [Lloyd Biggle, Jr.]; The Skitz and the Unskitz [Jefferson Highe]; Sputnik Shoes [Charles A. Stearns]; The Powder of Hyperborea [Clark Ashton Smith]; Never Marry a Venerian [Charles L. Fontenay]; Requiem for a Small Planet [Ray Cummings]; The Stars Are Waiting [Marion Zimmer Bradley]; Alaree [Robert Silverberg]; Shaggy Dog [Charles E. Fritch]; Red Flag Over the Moon (Article) [Romney Boyd]
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CONTENTS RED FLAG OVER THE MOON by Romney Boyd THE ORZU PROBLEM by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. THE SKITZ AND THE UNSKITZ by Jefferson Highe SPUTNIK SHOES by Charles A. Stearns THE POWDER OF HYPERBOREA by Clark Ashton Smith NEVER MARRY A VENERIAN by Charles L. Fontenay REQUIEM FOR A SMALL PLANET by Ray Cummings THE STARS ARE WAITING by Marion Zimmer Bradley ALAREE by Robert Silverberg SHAGGY DOG by Charles E. Fritch Editor and Publisher ROBERT C. SPROUL Art Director WILLIAM CLARK Editorial Consultant DONALD A. WOLLHEIM SATURN, MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY is published bimonthly by CANDAR PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., at 1 Appleton Street, Holyoke, Ma. Editorial office, 218 W. 48 St., New York 36, N. Y. Copyright 1958 by CANDAR PUBLISHING CO., INC. Entered as Second Class Matter at the Post Office at Holyoke, Mass. Single copy 35c; Subscriptions: Yearly (6 issues) : U. S. and possessions $2.00: Canada $2.25; Foreign $2.50. All material submitted must he accompanied by self-addressed, stamped envelope. The publishers assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. The names of all characters used in these stories are fictitious; any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental. PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
SATURN PRESENTS THE STARTLING FACTS After Sputnik and Muttnik, what? Science fiction has been talking about space-flight for years while the politicians laughed it off as "Buck Rogers" stuff. SATURN dares to present a realistic analysis of what the future of spaceflight is really going to be.
RED FLAG OVER THE MOON by ROMNEY BOYD After Sputnik and Muttnik, what? Science-fiction has been talking about space-flight for years, while the politicians goofed. SATURN dares to present a grimly realistic analysis of what the future of space-flight is really going to be. . A MOUNTAIN of self-deception came crashing down on the heads of the Western world on October 4, 1957, when the ominous beep-beep-beep of a man-made moon came circling the globe. For that satellite, the first actual step in the conquest of outer space, was not—as ten thousand sciencefiction- stories would have had it and as millions of lines of smug newspaper and magazine stories had predicted—was not an American invention. Only a few weeks earlier Russian claims to having perfected a powerful rocket capable of intercontinental cargo travel (the cargo being, of course, atomic warheads) were pooh-poohed. From the White House on down to the lowliest politicos, the report was greeted with shrugs, smiles of scorn for such obvious poppycock, and jeers that it was mere propaganda. But as it turned out the Soviets were not making scarehead stories, they were coldly stating facts. They produced a rocket capable of penetrating outer space. They blasted off a miniature globe many times heavier than our most ambitious plans had projected and at a higher altitude—and they then said that it was just an advance trial, a mere Preliminary to the real thing. And while the Russians were preparing to complete this first successful space breakthrough, what were we doing? We had postponed our efforts at putting up an earth satellite from an indefinite time in the fall of 1957 to an equally indefinite time in the early summer of 1958. Our officials were engaged in refereeing a ridiculous dispute between the Air Force and the Army as to which of several half-finished rocket programs should be scrapped and which kept. The earth satellite we p