CLOSE TO CRITICAL

First UK edition, first printing. Original red paper-covered boards, in dustwrapper. A very good copy, the binding firm, the boards very slightly bowed. The contents, with some spotting to the closed text block edge which very occasionally bleeds into the page margins, are otherwise clean and without stamps or inscriptions. Complete with the rubbed, marked and creased dustwrapper which has a few short closed tears to the edges, light toning to the spine and minor chipping to the spine tips. Not price-clipped (16/- on the front flap).

A science fiction novel set on a distant planet about a clutch of alien eggs that are stolen and raised by a human-built robot as part of an experiment. First serialised in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in 1958, the first edition in book form was published by Ballantine in the USA in 1964.