The Queen of Zamba

FOREWORD

I wrote this novel from November 1948 to January 1949, and it was published as a serial in Astounding Science Fiction for August and September 1949. In 1954, Ace Books bought the paperback rights and published the story as half of an Ace Double, the other half being Clifford D. Simak's Ring Around the Sun. Donald A. Wollheim, then editor at Ace, changed my title to Cosmic Manhunt.

Don also insisted upon another change. In the original version, the hero's side-kick was a Chinese, Chuen (rhymes with "one.") The Ace publication took place soon after the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War. The Chinese were then unpopular because of their intervention in this war, so I was asked to change Chuen's nationality. After some argument (Wollheim wanted to make him an (East) Indian, which I said would have been all wrong) we compromised by making Chuen an Okinawan, Yano. The Ace version was reprinted in 1966 by Roberts & Vintner, Ltd., of London, as A Planet Called Krishna.

The present version is the original Astounding one, except that I have made minor editorial changes, mostly in punctuation, spelling, &c, in line with my present canons of style.

L. Sprague de Camp