A pretty good issue.
Star, Bright • novelette by Mark Clifton
A single dad is taking care of his daughter, who turns out to be a Bright, a kind of new step in evolution. She is much more intelligent that her father by the age of four or five, even though her dad is a “Tween” (something between the normal people and Brights). She learns soon to communicate telepathically and contacts another Bright child, whose parents soon “happen” to move to next door. The powers of the kids rise with a fast rate, until they apparently get trapped to another dimension. A well written and very good story in spite of a fairly worn premise. ****
Wailing Wall • [Marco 4] • shortstory by Roger Dee
A ship is stranded on a planet where humans used to be slaves of another species. The society seems to be very strange. That idea sounds a lot better than the story actually is. A lot of fairly pointless discussion several things which pretty poorly connected with the subject matter and a sudden ending. Pretty mediocre story. **
Dumb Martian • novelette by John Wyndham
A man who has taken a job on an asteroid for five years buys a Martian girl for his companion. He gets soon bored with the stupid “mart” and occasionally batters her and treats her overall very badly and condescendingly. A scientist comes to visit them and treats the “stupid mart” as a real human woman, which of course irritates the hero immensely. The scientist soon disappears after an "accident" . The Martian seems to be so stupid that she doesn't really react to that at all, at least it seems so.. A very good story, there was somewhat too much exposition at some places, but otherwise very entertaining and well written story. Something Astounding would never have published: an alien beating a human. ****-
Shipshape Home • shortstory by Richard Matheson
A science fiction author and his wife have found a real deal: a furnished apartment with extremely low rent. The apartment house has very creepy looking janitor, and the wife starts to suspect that he has some sort of sinister plans. And she claims that there are some sorts of engines at the basement. It shouldn't be hard to guess what is going to happen. Not too surprising plot. Loose writing, there is far, far too much arguing and discussing between the author and the wife about the same thing with even same words. The worst story of the issue.**-
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