The cover story in this edition is Greg Bear's 'A Martian Ricorso'. It reads badly today; even in 1976, the likelihood of finding complex organisms on Mars was rapidly declining, and this story has little to recommend it now (an all-male Mars expedition and 'Lowell was right' - the disappearance of the Martian 'canals' being put down to an exceptionally [and unfeasibly] long dry season). Hayford Pierce and Isaac Asimov both contribute short pieces that are anti-Governmental diatribes; there is part two of the serialisation of 'Children of Dune'; Ben Bova's editorial is a paen of praise to the historical role of gunpowder in shaping civilization; and there is a deeply technical article on particle physics. Perhaps the most interesting story is Kevin O'Donnell's 'A Matter of Pride', which seems oddly contemporary, dealing as it does with an American airman downed over North Korea in some near-future war, and who is subjected to an unusual method of confinement for PoWs.

And Lester del Ray's top book review of the month was for the first-ever 'Star Trek' technical manual.