SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES

   Title used on 2 US DIGEST-size magazines during the 1950s, and on 1 UK magazine that began as a reprint and continued, using original material, after its parent - the 2nd US magazine - folded. (The title was used also as a variant title of SCIENCE FICTION CLASSICS, Jan-May 1973, Sep and Nov 1974.)The 1st US magazine published 9 issues Nov 1952-June 1954. \#1 waspublished by Science Fiction Publications, the rest by Future Publications. The issues Nov 1952-Sep 1953 were ed Lester DEL REY asPhilip St John; Harry HARRISON took over shortly before the magazine folded. The schedule was irregularly bimonthly.The 2nd US magazine, published by Royal Publications, was ed Larry T. SHAW and ran for 12 issues in 18 months, Dec 1956-June 1958. \#1 was numbered, confusingly, vol 1 \#6, continuing the numeration of a defunct magazine (Suspect DetectiveStories) from the same publisher; however, \#2 was numbered vol 1 \#2.The editorial policy in each case - more overt in Shaw's magazine - was to concentrate on adventure stories. The 1st SFA serialized del Rey's Police Your Planet (Mar-Sep 1953; 1956), as by Erik Van Lhin, and C.M.KORNBLUTH's The Syndic (Dec 1953-June 1954; 1953). The 2nd SFA used very few short stories, usually featuring 3 long novelettes per issue. Robert SILVERBERG, under various names, was a particularly prolific contributor,magazine versions of 6 of his early novels appearing there.Novelettes from Shaw's magazine were resorted into 5 issues of a UK edition marketedMar-Nov 1958 by Nova Publications, with both Shaw and John CARNELL credited as editors. Carnell alone, no longer using material from the parent magazine, continued SFA for a further 27 issues until May 1963, using a great deal of material by Kenneth BULMER (under various names) and novelettes by other writers regularly featured in the companion magazines NEW WORLDS and SCIENCE FANTASY. Notable stories included John BRUNNER'sSociety of Time series (1962; fixup as Times without Number 1962; rev 1974) and the magazine version of J.G. BALLARD's The Drowned World (Jan 1962; rev 1962). The UK SFA was numbered consecutively \#1-\#32, approximately bimonthly to \#14, and regularly bimonthly from then on. Though sometimes regarded as more juvenile than its two companionpublications, it remained continuously enjoyable.

BS