This December 1930 issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science is an early installment of the pulp magazine that would become the most influential publication in science fiction history. Published by Clayton Magazines under editor Harry Bates, the magazine at this stage concentrated on action-heavy superscience adventure stories, drawing on a stable of writers hungry to fill its pages with interplanetary battles, mad scientists, and alien menaces.
Reading these early issues illuminates how the genre’s conventions — and its ambitions — evolved rapidly over the decade that followed. The free EPUB download preserves this historically significant slice of early science fiction for readers and researchers.