A below average issue with fairly old fashionable stories.
Keep Your Shape • novelette by Robert Sheckley
A race of shape shifting aliens is going to invade earth. The invading expedition has only to smuggle a small device near a nuclear reactor, and the hordes of invaders are able to teleport to earth. There have been several earlier expeditions and they have all failed. And this one will fail also - there are so many exiting life forms to simulate that the invaders lose all interest at the invasion. A minor Sheckley, but enjoyable story anyway. ***½
Mr. President • shortstory by Stephen Arr
A man has been elected to a president with apparently near infinite power. He is soon swamped with important and far reaching decision and lasts about two days in office before a mental breakdown - just like all his predecessors. ***
The Book • novelette by Michael Shaara
An exploration ship gets a new captain, and there is one trip where both the new and old captains are taking part. They are flying to a star which is just emerging from an interplanetary dust cloud. There is a single planet where naturally humaniform life exists, and naturally there are very beautiful females. For some reason the inhabitants seem to have a very laissez faire attitude to everything. There are common meteor storms, and anyone might die anytime, so why bother much? A pretty bad story, but there are a few interesting ideas. **½
Unbegotten Child • shortstory by Winston K. Marks
A spinster is pregnant in spite of flatly denying any change of pregnancy. First a tumor was suspected, but then doctors find a heartbeat...
An extremely stupid story where tumors star to develop as fetuses as a new step of evolution. Badly written, also. **-
Clean Break • shortstory by Roger Dee
A vet is asked to take care of a sick bear on an eccentric looking gentleman's home. He is somewhat surprised about that, but he will even more surprised when he meets an exotic looking beautiful woman who speaks a strange musical language he has never heard before. Not so surprisingly (from a reader's point of view) he has stumbled upon an extraterrestrial zoo which is picking up animals from earth. The story is written in a quaint language which apparently is homage to something I don't recognize. Wodehouse perhaps? Well past its' due date – and probably was so already in fifties when it was published. **+
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