Super Science Fiction, February 1957

This issue of Super-Science Fiction (February 1957, Vol. 1, No. 2) contains six short stories and two novelettes exploring themes of tension and danger in space scenarios. The featured novelette "Mission: Hypnosis" by Harlan Ellison follows Laird Barley, a troublemaking Navy recruit who joined only for the enlistment bonus. When officers from the Goner Squad subject him to hypnotic conditioning via flashing lights and deep-trance machinery, Barley learns he's been assigned a covert mission during an ongoing three-year war against the Aldeberanites. His commanding officer Farranaught, who is partially prosthetic, confronts Barley's insubordination and threatens him with deployment. The story explores Barley's resentment and defiance within a militaristic space-war framework. Additional stories include "Every Day Is Christmas" by James E. Gunn and works by Manly Bannister, Henry Slesar, Evelyn E. Smith, Ellis Hart, and Charles V. De Vet, alongside non-fiction pieces and features.