Ray Cummings' "Brigands of
the Moon" holds first place, in my opinion. It was great!
Please keep up the excellent work.--Meredith L. Evons, 4001
Cedar Lane, Drexel Hill, Pa.

"_Evenly Divided_"

Dear Editor:

Although I missed the first few issues of Astounding Stories
due to the fact that I was not aware of its publication, I
have become a regular reader.

In glancing through your "Readers' Corner," I became aware
of the fact that most of the letters therein praise
Astounding Stories to the skies, and put it far ahead of any
other Science Fiction magazine. I will not go quite so far,
as it is my belief that most magazines of this type are on
the same level. In fact, it seems absurd to me to state
otherwise, as the authors who write for you one month
publish stories in another magazine the next month. Of
course, these authors put out, once in a while, stories that
are much better than their usual offering, but, taken over a
fairly long period of time, these periodic occurrences will
be about evenly divided among various magazines. I have the
conceit to believe that I know what I am talking about, as
my observations are based on five years of Science Fiction
reading.

Of course, while I believe that there are other magazines
equally as good, Astounding Stories is certainly not
inferior to any. There is always room for a Science Fiction
magazine of the same caliber as Astounding Stories, but
unfortunately for the public there are too few of
them.--James M. Kennedy, Ithaca, N. Y.

_Machine or Beast?_

Dear Editor:

Having read about every issue of Astounding Stories to date,
I have decided that it is the best of the three Science
Fiction magazines that I have read.

The best story that you have published yet, in my opinion,
is "Brigands of the Moon," by Ray Cummings. Sewell Peaslee
Wright and Victor Rousseau are also very good writers. The
only two stories that I did not like were "Murder Madness"
and "Earth, the Marauder." The former belonged in a
detective magazine, and the latter in the waste basket. It
was too far-fetched for even my imagination.

Now a word about your cover illustrations. The first issue
that I bought convinced me that your artist was a genius,
but my opinion of him is stead