Launched in response to demand from readers for posters of the cover art of New English Library's science fiction paperbacks, it was initially very successful—its circulation had reached 150,000 by the third issue.

[3] The editorial team included Michael Osborn as art editor, with responsibility for the magazine's layout, and, initially, Aune Butt and Penny Grant, who acquired non-fiction and fiction.

This could not be sustained: Mike Ashley, a science fiction historian, suggests that poor economic conditions in the UK in the 1970s contributed to falling readership.

[3] Inflation, along with an increase in the cost of paper, meant that the price rose rapidly from 30p in late 1974 to 50p only eighteen months later, by which time circulation had fallen to under 20,000.

One such double-page image was Bruce Pennington's depiction of the spaceship Discovery from Arthur C. Clarke's The Lost Worlds of 2001, which was also used as the cover art for the issue.

[7] Artists featured in subsequent issues included Tim White, David Hardy, Roger Dean, Jim Burns and Josh Kirby;[3] the artwork depicted was not limited to works originally published by NEL.

[6] The tabloid format was larger than the paperback book covers where much of the artwork had first appeared, and David Hardy commented that as a result "every brush-stroke and blemish became visible".

Well-known British writers who appeared in the magazine's pages included Brian Aldiss, Christopher Priest, Ian Watson, Robert Holdstock, and Bob Shaw.

A series of interviews with authors appeared, each accompanied by one of their stories, including profiles of Samuel Delany, Harlan Ellison, J. G. Ballard, and Harry Harrison.

van Vogt, and Olaf Stapledon,[3] and under the pseudonym "Thomas Sheridan" ran a column called "The Query Box" in which he answered questions about science fiction.