Space Stories

Among the better-known contributors were Jack Vance, Gordon R. Dickson and Leigh Brackett, whose novel The Big Jump appeared in the February 1953 issue.

[6] Sf historian Wendy Bousfield regards most of the lesser-known stories in the magazine as uninteresting, but praises Robert Zack's "Expedition to Earth", which is set in a "science fiction restaurant" where the alien staff are assumed to be merely wearing costumes, as a witty variation on the stereotypical hostile alien story.

Bousfield comments that Joanna Russ and James Tiptree, Jr. would later "expose the absurdities of this stock science fictional situation".

[1] The interior art was of generally good quality; the artists included Paul Orban, Virgil Finlay, Emsh, and Alex Schomburg.

The cover art, by Emsh, Earle K. Bergey, and Walter Popp, was stereotypical, with Emsh's cover for the February 1953 issue including what sf historian Wendy Bousfield describes as the three stereotypes of sf art: "the spaceman, the voluptuous blonde, and the threatening bug-eyed monster".