The Jackson Killer
by Philip E. High, New Worlds 106 (May 1961), 72-89.
One of High’s more coherent short stories. A specially trained government agent is sent to one of the colony worlds to flush out and kill a rare, off-the-scale IQ ‘superman’ whose inevitable paranoia heralds disaster. The twist more or less justifies itself.
The Martian Hunters
by Philip E. High, New Worlds 112 (November 1961), 71-88.
SF short story in need of a rewrite. Odd that High’s imagination could so effortlessly accommodate Martian technology and even an ethical framework far beyond human values, yet no characters outside his stock range of similarly surnamed (male) British heroes and villains.
Bottomless Pit
by Philip E. High, New Worlds Science Fiction 128 (March 1963), 49-63.
High’s fiction often gave creative vent to anti-militaristic sentiments, favouring fanciful SF means of triumph over unwarranted aggression. This short story posits a planet near-mythical in fending off alien invaders. Terrans are the latest, falling foul of a unique if improbable ecosystem.
Temporary Resident
by Philip E. High, New Worlds SF 159 (February 1966), 84-100.
A Cold War analogous SF short story with a twisty exploration of ‘who’s playing deep-rooted mind games with whom’. As so often with High, the wealth of imagination and effortless scope of ideas is let down by poor craftsmanship and muddled delivery.
Blind as a Bat
by Philip E. High, Science Fiction Adventures 25 (March 1962), 41-72.
Oddly ineffectual novelette. High drafts in a psychological prodigy to counter the telepathic advantage of alien invaders. After a largely unintelligible space battle, it transpires that the prodigy didn’t need to be and the formerly all-conquering aliens shouldn’t have defeated anyone, ever.
Guess Who?
by Philip E. High
New Worlds Science Fiction, Vol. 19, No. 56 (February 1957), 88-99.
SF short story in which High attempts to show up the military’s hard-ball pre-emptive aggression while also postulating how to deal with a ruthless species of telepathic shape-changers—an odd juxtaposition, as the latter come across as no better than the former.
Survival Course
by Philip E. High, New Worlds Science Fiction, No. 11, Vol. 38 (December 1961), 41-58.
A rare foray into first-personal narrative for High. This short story reads more naturally than much of his writing, and the SF idea is as imaginative as ever—albeit with little on show beyond the portrayal of concept (a uniquely hostile lifeform).
Squeeze Box
by Philip E. High (New Worlds, March 1959)
reprinted in “Isaac Asimov’s Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction Invasions” ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh (Roc, 1990), 350-364.
Workmanlike prose, artless storytelling, humanity triumphing (abruptly and at extreme odds) through dint of doughty everyman qualities and British wartime fortitude recrudescing at a species-wide level. Though lacking finesse, this alien invasion short story neatly captures High’s knack for imaginative SF wish-fulfilment.
Topside
by Philip E. High
Authentic SF, No. 83 (August 1957), 58-77.
Lopsided short story which spends too long bringing its (seemingly all-male) cast out of suspended animation post-cataclysm, and not enough on their reclaiming Earth’s surface. Of interest primarily in comparison with High’s novel Sold – For a Spaceship, which does the job properly.
The Mad Metropolis
by Phillip E. High (Ace, 1966)
reprinted as “Double Illusion” (Dobson, 1970)
While the central premise remains relevant—humanity entrusting itself to an AI but installing a kill switch that sends it crazy—High’s execution is amateurish, adding layer after extraneous, unpolished layer to turn an intriguing short story idea into a flabby novel.