The May 1931 issue of Astounding Stories (published by Clayton Magazines) is one of the many monthly issues of the pulp magazine that, under various editors and publishers, would define the trajectory of American science fiction. At this stage in 1931, the magazine was publishing action-oriented superscience adventures aimed at readers who wanted their heroes bold and their science spectacular.
These early-1930s issues represent the raw, exuberant state of science fiction before the literary refinement John W. Campbell would introduce later in the decade. The free EPUB download preserves these stories as a genuine document of genre history.