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Critical Difference
Critical Difference is the story of a Colonial Survey Officer named Massey assigned to a barren, frozen planet to check and approve colony installations. He discovers that this world's temperature is gradually getting colder. Eventually, the declining temperature will make the colony uninhabitable. The colony receives a coded message that the same thing is happening to their home world. The colonists rely on Massey to find a solution.
Murray Leinster was the pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an American writer of genre fiction, particularly science fiction. He wrote and published more than 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
Murray Leinster was the pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an American writer of genre fiction, particularly science fiction. He wrote and published more than 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
36 pages, Paperback
Published March 29, 2025
About the author
Murray Leinster
917 books136 followerssee also:
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.
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October 26, 2026
"Critical Difference" was a novelette published in Astounding in July 1956 and later combined with three other stories about the Colonial Survey, including the Hugo-award-winning "Exploration Team", into a fix-up novel published either as
Colonial Survey
or as
(The) Planet Explorer
. This initial completely stand-alone story was third to be published in Astounding but was moved to the first place in the fix-up version.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review