Space Science Fiction Magazine

It published short stories by well-known writers, including Arthur C. Clarke and Jack Vance, but it was not successful, and the magazine ceased publication late in 1957.

[5] This sparked imitators, and during 1956 Lyle Kenyon Engel of Republic Features Syndicate persuaded an investor to finance a package of two radio shows and four magazines.

It was published by Republic Features Syndicate, Inc., of New York, and edited by Michael Avallone, who was not credited on the masthead, since he was also contributing material to some of the four magazines, both under his own name and under pseudonyms.

[9][7] Engel obtained stories from moderately well-known science fiction names for both issues, including John Jakes, Mack Reynolds, Jack Vance, and Raymond F. Jones, but many of the stories were "barrel-scrapings" from the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, in the words of one historian;[5] most had already been rejected at the other active science fiction markets.

[8] Ashley comments that the best story was Jakes's "The Devil Spins a Sun-Dream", which was atmospheric if poorly plotted; the protagonist, a human prospector on Mars, finds a fabulous city, but an ancient booby-trap destroys it before his eyes.

Cover shows four women in short gowns holding spiked poles and facing three men in helmets, one of whom has turned away with his hand on his chest. There are more women standing near a rocket in the background.
The Spring 1957 issue of Space Science Fiction Magazine ; the first of the two issues that appeared. The cover illustrates Milton Lesser 's "The New World to Conquer", in which spacemen come upon a planet of women who think of men as drones.