Astounding Science Fiction October 1950 (Volume 46, Number 2)
Illustrations by Ed Cartier, Miller, Orban. Cover by Ed Cartier, (for "The Hand of Zei.")

Serial: "The Hand of Zei" (Part 1 of 4) by L. Sprague de Camp [see note below]

Novelette: "Discontinuity" by Raymond F. Jones

Stories: "Trigger Tide" by Norman Menasco
"The Enchanted Forest" by Fritz Leiber

Article: "The Analytical Mind" by L. Ron Hubbard.

John W. Campbell's editorial is "Flying Machine."

"The Hand of Zei" - This serial was slightly epanded, and then split into 2 books for book publication in hardcover by Avalon Books in 1962 & 1963 - as The Hand of Zei and The Search for Zei. (The expansion probably consists of a new ending for the first part, and a new beginning for the 2nd part to recapitulate the first part.) For this first paperback edition as an Ace-Double in 1963, the 2nd "book" was "moderately abridged by the author" (to remove the recapitulation?) The Search for Zei was re-titled The Floating Continent for a British paperback in 1966 (but the 2nd book was not printed in Britain at all.) Decades later, in 1981, the serial was reunited for hardcover publication under the original magzine title (The Hand of Zei) by Owlswick Press. To complete the confusion, Ace reprinted the Owlswick text for its paperback edition, along with the rest of the series. (So that 1982 Ace edition is not exactly a reprint of the 1963 version.)