Tag: Philip E. High

The Mad Metropolis

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.

Fugitive From Time

Fugitive From Time by Philip E. High (Hale, 1978) High’s novels were too often marred by instalove and sparse, wince-inducing female representation. His wellspring of SF ideas, however, cannot help but fire the imagination. Fugitive From Time is a fever dream of implacable alien menace, anti-war imagery and humanity’s metamorphosic coming-of-age.    

Sold – For a Spaceship

Sold – For a Spaceship by Philip E High (Robert Hale, 1973) High deploys his customary optimism in having the remnants of the human race awake from suspended animation to reclaim their much-changed planet. An enjoyable helter-skelter hodgepodge of pulp SF ideas, characters and landscapes, marred by male-female interactions that are early Hollywood cringeworthy.    

The Time Mercenaries

The Time Mercenaries by Philip E. High (Dobson, 1969) The anachronistic juxtaposition promises much—a submarine crew, fighting instincts still intact, is resurrected to defend a future civilisation of genetically ordained pacifists from alien invasion—but the premise is too quickly cast aside; the captain and his men become largely superfluous.    

Prodigal Sun

Prodigal Sun by Philip E. High (Compact, 1965) Philip E. High often wrote about corrupt future societies and humankind unleashing its benign hidden powers. In his early books, however, these take a confused, rather nebulous form. Prodigal Sun is an ideas novel with what seems (at best) an extemporised plot.