Chapter I: Foreword

Back in the early 40's, I remember a bull-session that some of us had with John W. Campbell, where he stated definitively that there could never be any such thing as a science-fiction detective story in the traditional "murder mystery" sense. His reason for this proclamation was that since almost anything can happen in a science-fiction story--the villain can pull any sort of dingus or super-phenomenon out of his hat--the reader would never have a fair chance to solve the mystery.

I didn't quite believe it, yet I couldn't think of any counter-argument to throw at John at the time. But, as Holmes would have said, it was all so absurdly simple! Of course there can be science-fiction murder mysteries, offering the reader as good a chance to solve the crime as he has in any ordinary murder-mystery where the author is playing fair. And you can have science-fiction wonders and dinguses and super-scientific phenomenon, too: you just make it clear that _nothing essential to the solution of the crime_ is wrapped up in super-science, or intricate phenomenon and extrapolation that only a scientific wizard could be expected to unravel. The motives, methods, and clues must all lie within the range of what is clearly presented to the reader. I hope _Puzzle Planet_ will convince you that the murder mystery does have a place in science fiction.

_Robert A. W. Lowndes_