"Astounding Science Fiction", December 1942 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

"The Weapon Shop" is among the best known stories of the genre. "Piggy Bank" is among the more pulpish stories of Kuttner/Moore, but features a very curious robot.

Where I have a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there. Link on author's name fetches more fiction of author.

Note: Flash fiction pieces in this issue don't have their individual entries in table of contents, but are bunched together in a single entry called "Probability Zero".

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] A E van Vogt's "The Weapon Shop": "The shop was small--a little place that materialized out of nowhere. Yet, though the old man didn't realize--all the power of a world empire could not break it!"
2. [novelette] Cleve Cartmill's "Some Day We'll Find You" (B): Three groups of capitalists want to fund the commercialization of a certain invention by a broke engineer...
3. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Piggy Bank" (as by Lewis Padgett) (B): "The robot was a rabbit--or had that psychology. He had a diamond-studded body, & was trained to be untouchable. Even his owner could not touch him--without giving information that was suicide!"
4. [ss] A E van Vogt & E Mayne Hull's "The Flight That Failed" (as by E M Hull) (C): Making a future happen where Germany loses the WWII!
5. [ss] Ross Rocklynne's "Interlude" (B): When a caveman freed an advanced civilization of a dictator...
6. [ss] Frank Belknap Long's "To Follow Knowledge": "A strange tale of pluralities of worlds, of a theory based on the hypothesis that, in infinity, everything must happen not once, but many times."
7. [ss] Robert Moore Williams' "Johny Had a Gun": "Johny was a gangster, a small-time punk. But Johny showed up with a gun one night, in an alley fight, that was not small-time stuff--"
8. [ff] William M Danner's "True Fidelity".
9. [ff] Stanley Woolston's "The Human Bomb".
10. [ff] Jack Bivins' "Valadusia".
11. [ff] T D Whitenack, Jr's "O'Ryan, the Invincible".
12. [ff] Frank J Smythe's "My Word!".
13. [ff] L M Jensen's "Take-Off".

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XXX No 4.
Download scans as a CBR file. [via David T @pulpscans]
Related: Fiction from Astounding/Analog (only from issues edited by John Campbell) (whole issues only); old pulps; 1940s.

New at Project Gutenberg (6 June 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year fetch more matching fiction.

1. Robert Moore Williams' "Planet of the Gods"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Two planets circling Vega! But a more amazing discovery waited the explorers when they landed!"
2. [novel] E E Smith's "Triplanetary"; download; 1948: This is chronologically the first book in author's well-known "Lensman" series of space opera.
   
   Original shorter version of this story that appeared in Amazing Stories in 1934 is already online at Project Gutenberg; newly posted version appears to be a later novelization.
3. Frank Quattrocchi's "The Sword"; download; If, March 1953: "There were but three days in which to decipher the most cryptic message ever delivered to earth."
4. Paul W Fairman's "Deadly City"; download; If, March 1953: "You're all alone in a deserted city. You walk down an empty street, yearning for the sight of one living face--one moving figure. Then you see a man on a corner and you know your terror has only begun."

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (5 June 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year fetch more matching fiction.

1. Chester S Geier's "Cold Ghost"; download; Amazing Stories, November 1948: "All Hager had to do was slow the dogsled to a walk, and his partner died. A perfect crime--no chance to get caught!"
2. Knut Enferd's "Day of the Druid"; download; Amazing Stories, November 1948: "Be'al, all-powerful god, drank the blood of his victims. Would Gaar be able to save Marna, whom Be'al kept in eternal sleep, and avenge her people?"
3. Alfred Coppel's "The Invader"; download; Imagination, February 1953: "Invading Earth was going to be a cinch, the Triomed scout decided. But to make certain he must study its inhabitants--as one of them!"
4. George H Smith's "The Ordeal of Colonel Johns"; download; If, June 1954: "Colonel Johns, that famous Revolutionary War hero, had the unique--and painful--experience of meeting his great-great-great-great granddaughter. Now maybe you can't change history, but what's there to prevent a soldier from changing his mind about the gal he is going to marry?"
5. Raymond F Jones' "The Colonists"; download; If, June 1954: 'If historical precedent be wrong--what qualities, then, must man possess to successfully colonize new worlds? Doctor Ashby said: "There is no piece of data you cannot find, provided you can devise the proper experimental procedure for turning it up." Now--about the man and the procedure...'
6. Robert Moore Williams' "The Next Time We Die"; download; Amazing Stories, February 1957: "We journey to far places, driven on by ideals. We fight for lost causes, sacrificing our lives because the things we fight for seem worthwhile. But are we right? Are they worth being killed over? Perhaps. Then again, maybe we'll know better--The Next Time We Die".

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (28 May 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year fetch more matching fiction.

1. John Murray Reynolds' "The Golden Amazons of Venus"; download; Planet Stories, Winter 1939: "Dakta death, horrible beyond the weirdest fever-dreams of Earth-men, faced Space Ship Commander Gerry Norton. The laconic interplanetary explorer knew too much. He stood in the dynamic path of Lansa, Lord of the Scaly Ones, the crafty monster bent on conquering the fair City of Larr and all the rich, shadowless lands of the glorious Amazons of Venus."
2. Robert Moore Williams' "The Lost Warship"; download; Amazing Stories, January 1943: "Jap bombs rained down, there was a tremendous blast--and a weird thing happened to the Idaho".
3. Howard Carleton Browne's "Twelve Times Zero"; download; If, March 1952: "It was a love-triangle murder that made today's headlines but the answer lay hundreds of thousands of light years away!"
4. Ralph Sholto's '"And That's How It Was, Officer"'; download; If, July 1952: "When Uncle Peter decided to clean out the underworld, it was a fine thing for the town, but it was tough on the folks in Tibet."
5. Murray Leinster's "The Ambulance Made Two Trips"; download; Astounding, April 1960: "If you should set a thief to catch a thief, what does it take to stop a racketeer...?"
   
   Note: This appears to be a repost or update. I'd read it long back. An adventure involving a gadget that acts as a lucky charm, or something.

Related: Fiction from onld "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (14 May 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year yield more matching fiction.

1. Robert Moore Williams' "Sinister Paradise"; download; If, September 1952: "It was like a mirage in reverse, this strange island off the California coast--it couldn't always be seen, but it was there--in Time."
2. Jerome Bixby's "The Holes Around Mars"; download; Galaxy, January 1954: "Science said it could not be, but there it was. And whoosh--look out--here it is again!"

Related: Fiction from old "pulps".