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Books written by Philip E High

Short story collections

A step to the stars

 

 A Step to the Stars (2004)
In the strange words of Philip. E. High, the familiar becomes the unfamiliar and human life and experience can be transformed! Here are ten entirely new stories of space and time that will transport you to the outer-most reaches of the universe.
Enter the worlds of the author's bizarre imagination, and take a STEP TO THE STARS!
The best of Philip E High The Best of Philip E. High (2002)
Welcome to the Bizarre Imagination of Philip. E. High
A world without laws where the basest criminal activity flourishes unchecked in a dog-eat-dog society...
Where the crew of a submarine find themselves flung millions of years into the past, the consequences are devastating...
The minds of the entire population of a city are infected by the thoughts of a madman, and become insane themselves - and the contagion is spreading...
Man-kind is facing extinction by an alien race of mind-readers who can anticipate man's every counter-attack...
Here is the first ever collection of the greatest short stories of one of Britains finest ever science fiction writers - Philip. E. High! Already well known on both sides of the Atlantic as a writer of many exciting adventure novels, these twelve stories reveal High as a true literary craftsman. A major science fiction event that is not to be missed!
Novels
Blindfold to the stars Blindfold from the Stars (1979)
The conquest of a galaxy is relatively easy providing the aggressor has the necessary technology and, more important, a safe method of over-coming possible opposition without bleeding to death in the process.
The Asdrake employed mutated micro-organisms which directly attack the brain of the planet's intelligent life - they liked this method. They could fight if they had to but were inherently lazy. This method had worked successfully on twenty-two occasions - why should it fail on planet 5/6/9. Sector 88 Sun System 46. "Tseudec" (Native Name: Earth).
Casualties from the epidemic were astronomical yet, in a complete paradox, failed to kill a single human being - the side effects took care of that. And those side effects were beyond the imagination. The survivors on Earth found undreamed of complications in rebuilding the world with the use of their new psychic powers - and perhaps more important, were they new powers at all, and if not who had removed them thousands of years ago?

Fugitive

 

 Fugitive from Time (1978)
He thought he knew himself. his strength, weaknesses and limitations.
A frightening encounter with two muggers, however, changed everything.
He had knowledge which he had no consious memory of leaarning.
He had faculties which he had never known he possessed.
He had memories beyond those of his notmal life. A life in which he had a different name.
He could not remember everything but he knew some dreadful alien creatures were hunting him. With his wakening memory, he knew also that the aliens would be able to detect him once more.
There was nothing left but flight. In this fast-moving science fiction novel, follow the fugitive across the universe to final confrontation with the aliens.
Speaking of Dinosaurs Speaking of Dinosaurs (1974)
Most people accept Darwin's theory of evolution. Well David Standing did... until one day he wandered by chance into a museum and saw the dinosuar.
As a gifted engineer his enquiring mind made him question how such a massive skeleton had been able to balance and move, his experiments proved it was impossible. then attempts were made on this life... And, in a horrifying tiem shift, back to the distant past, he visits Primeval Earth - where, naked and diarmed, he comes face to face with the truth about the evolution of man...
Sold for a spaceship Sold - For a Spaceship (1973)
They had slept in safety while destruction raged above them. When they awoke and emerged from their places of refuge, the world had changed - totally.
For man soon discovered that he was no longer the dominant species on Earth. Now there were other creatures, not only ready to dispute the point but well prepared to prove it.
It was later, much later, that the bulk of mankind discovered they had forfeited their birthright, traded their home, the planet Earth - for a spaceship.

Come on hunt an earthman

 

 Come, Hunt an Earthman (1973)

If you're human... the deadliest game
You may consider yourselves experienced hunters... You have hunted on many planets... But here things are different.
For here there are no mindless monsters or charging carnivores, but a devious, intelligent and different prey...
A prey who is out to get you before you get him...
Man!
The Butterfly Planet Butterfly Planet (1971)

Look down into the streets, the buildings, the parks. There is your battleground. Down there is the enemy -- an enemy who wears no uniform.
He walks behind you in the street, sits with you when you eat and perhaps swims beside you in a public pool. He may ask you for a light, sell you a flyer, or in another form, leave the smell of perfume on your pillow.
The enemy is young and old, male and female, and he is everywhere. Could such a situation arise... or has it already arisen? In this exciting short novel, the author depicts a world at war. An undercover war, so skillfully manipulated that sixty percent of the population are unaware of its existence. Yet, daily, the casualty figures climb higher and higher....
"His sense of the world is pessimistic, but he overlays that sense with plots of an epic cast... Enjoyable adventures."
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION

 
The Time Mercenaries The Time Mercenaries (1968)

There had been one war scare too many and so the human race had used genetic sorcery to delete the aggressive tendencies from its heredity. But now mankind was faced with an alien enemy so superior, so ruthless, that it was fight or be wiped out... and the humans could not fight. They couldn't even give orders to their robots to produce weapons.
The only possibility was to call up and bring back to life a museum exhibit, the submarine Euphrates and it battle-trained crew. The ship had been sunk a thousand years before and had been preserved to show the decadence of violence - violence which was the only hope against an enemy to whom the living space was all-important and human life was entirely superfluous.
Invader of my back Invader on My Back (1968)


Invader on My Back is set on this world but in a period of time far ahead of the present. A world which has fallen to chaos with the criminal elements controlling the cities and vast police forces ruling the unknown wilderness beyond.
Only one man, unknowingly, holds the key to the state in which society finds itself - a man called craig.
Craig, however, is an outcast, a pariah, feared by organised crime and despised by the police who, despite themselves, are compelled to use him.
This fast moving story tells of his fight, not only against forces unknown, but also of his attempts to reinstate himself into a society which as rejected him.
Twin Planets Twin Planets (1967)

Earth and Firma were twin planets - mirror worlds in a single time-track. Now Firma was halted in its rotation around the sun by the Aliens. Unless Denning and Liston, twin humans, could destroy the Aliens and get Firma moving again, Earth would some day repeat Firma's tragedy and be burned to a cinder.
The Aliens had an incredible array of weapons at their disposal.
Dennings and Liston had only their courage and their brains.
The Savage Futurians These Savage Futurians (1967)
Don't think new thoughts, don't improve anything. don't wander over the next hill... these were the commandments for the men and women of the experimental village - one of those carefully natured settlements established after the collapse of world civilization.
The rules were made by the benevolent Masters of the Island - and they had to be obeyed. To disobey was to be destroyed. But Robert Ventnor, villager with a dangerously high quotient of curiosity, was the exception. He fled - and evaded liquidation.
But he fled right into the hands of THESE SAVAGE FUTURIANS and thereby supplied the they that could blast apart civilization's second chance and destroy the world once and for all.
The Prodigal Son The Prodigal Sun (1964)
Power-greedy
men wished to rule the world, but one man stood in their way. Peter Duncan came from the planet Mattrain - but who was he? Was he human? If so, whence came his vastly superior intellect and technical knowledge? These were mysteries the Administration feared - because they could not find the answer to them. Too late they saw their danger. For, but then, Peter Duncan had escaped and taken refuge in the Devasted Areas, from which he continued to fight to save the human race from final and utter destruction. But then, he had a reason... Martha of the chestnut hair and striking beauty, who alone knew his secret and taught him how to love.
No Truce with Terra No Truce With Terra (1964)
From: The Shaldron Race
To: The Human Race
Greetings:
Your presence has been noted and the reason for your visit analyzed by our instruments... We have, therefore, taken the liberty of selecting one of your party for first contact, one whom we feel is best suited to grasp the motivations of both our races and arrange for future group contacts.
Peter Collard stared at the message with a cold feeling of foreboding. He felt pity for the poor devil.
"Who is this selected contact:"
"Ah now," Dyson became suddenly interested in the papers on the table. 'Well, I'm sorry and all that, but, as a matter of fact, they want you."

Double Illusion

The Mad Metropolis

 Double Illusion - Also published as The Mad Metropolis (1966)
Given: Earth 400 years from now - a rotten society in which mankind is doomed to die out.
A solution to the problem- an ultra-intelligent computer to govern humanity.
One man of seemingly average intelligence, but with an incredible I.Q. potential.
And you have: A corrupt society turned into a world where there is not corruption, because Mother Machine knows what's best for her human children and does it. Where that same all-powerful computer is rapidly turning men into zombies.
And where the world's only hope turns out to be one outlawed not-average man.
Result: An unusual science-fiction thriller.
Reality Forbidden Reality Forbidden (1967)
If wishes would only come true... how often has every human being thought that? How wonderful life would be if only we could have everything we ever dreamed of!
But the man who invented the dream-machine turned out to be the worst enemy humanity ever encountered! The dream became as real as the reality - and yet remained a figment of the imagination. And thereby the very foundations of civilization were undermined. Why strive - when you could get it all without effort?
REALITY FORBIDDEN is the unusual novel of that came afterwards. Of the world in which on the most rigid of terror kept the cities standing, and of the man who dared escape that world, to find the last place on earth where dreaming was not prohibited, and where one could not only have one's cake, but eat it as well!
 
  
 
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SHORT STORIES

Publication in which they appeared

 

  • The Adapters ..................................... Vision of Tomorrow 3
  • The Ancient Enemy ............................ Authentic 84
  • Assassin In Hiding ............................. Authentic 79
  • The Big Tin God .................................. New Worlds 126
  • Blind As a Bat ..................................... S F Adventures (GB) 25
  • Bottomless Pit .................................... New Worlds 128
  • Buried Talent ..................................... New Worlds 62
  • City At Random .................................. Nebula 19
  • The Collaborator ................................ Authentic 75
  • Dead End ............................................ Science Fantasy 55
  • Dictator Bait ....................................... New Worlds 118
  • Fallen Angel ....................................... Analog/Astounding V67 No.4
  • Fixed Image ....................................... Vision Of Tomorrow 8
  • Further Outlook .................................. Nebula 24
  • Golden Age ......................................... New Worlds 60
  • The Guardian ...................................... New Worlds 76
  • Guess Who .......................................... New Worlds 56
  • Infection ............................................. Nebula 39
  • The Jackson Killer .............................. New Worlds 106
  • Life Sentence ...................................... Authentic 80
  • Lords of Creation ................................ Nebula 37
  • The Martian Hunters ........................... New Worlds 112
  • The Meek Shall Inherit ....................... Nebula 26
  • The Method ......................................... New Worlds 124
  • Mumbo Jumbo Man ............................. New Worlds 90
  • Plague Solution .................................. Authentic 77
  • Point of No return .............................. New Worlds 132
  • Probability Factor .............................. New Worlds 116
  • Project Mars ....................................... New Worlds (USA) 5
  • Pseudo Path ........................................ New Worlds 86
  • The PSI Squad .................................... New Worlds 114
  • Pyscho-Land ....................................... Vision Of Tomorrow 4
  • Pursuit Missile .................................... New Worlds 95
  • A Race of Madman .............................. Nebula 38
  • Relative Genius .................................. New Worlds 134
  • Risk Economy ..................................... Nebula 27
  • Routine Exercise ................................ New Worlds 103
  • A School room For The Teacher ........ Authentic 74
  • Shift Case ........................................... Nebula 28
  • The Statics ......................................... Authentic 61
  • Survival Course ................................. New Worlds 113
  • Technical Wizard ............................... Vision Of Tomorrow 5
  • Temporary Resident .......................... New Worlds 159
  • Time Bomb ......................................... Nebula 23
  • The Time Of Light .............................. S.E Arts Review, Aut 80
  • To See Ourselves .............................. Nebula 40
  • Topside .............................................. Authentic 83
  • Wrath Of The Gods ............................ Nebula 14
  • SHORT STORIES SINCE 1997
  • The Kiss ............................................. Fantasy Annual 2 1998
  • The Gulf ............................................. Fantasy Annual 3 1999
  • One Hour to Darkness ....................... Fantasy Annual 4 2000
  • The Occultist ..................................... Fantasy Annual 4 2000 *
  • Chain Reaction .................................. Fantasy Annual 4 2000 *
  • Production Model .............................. Fantasy Annual 5 2003
  • The Elementals ................................. Fantasy Annual 5 2003
  • Bought on the Internet ..................... Fantasy Annual 5 2003 *
  • Time Ticket ....................................... Fantasy Annual 5 2003
  • Malfunction Syndrome ...................... Fantasy Quarterly 1 2001
  • The Artifact ....................................... Fantasy Adventures 1 2002
  • Guilty As Charges .............................. Fantasy Adventures 3 2003 *
  • A Question of Fuel ............................. Fantasy Adventures 3 2003
  • The Drainpipe .................................... Fantasy Adventures 4 2003
  • Let There Be Light ............................. Fantasy Adventures 5 2003
  • Seeds of Invasion ............................. Fantasy Adventures 7 2003
  • The Prisoner ...................................... Fantasy Adventures 8 2004
  • The Gunman ...................................... Fantasy Adventures 9 2004
  • The Lost Soul ..................................... Fantasy Adventures 11 2004
  • The Simulator .................................... Fantasy Adventures 12 2006
  • * Written as B J Empson
  • FINAL FOUR STORIES WRITTEN FOR FANTASY ADVENTURES 13 - AVAILABLE NOW!
  • This World is Ours
  • The Blackmailer
  • The Re-Conquestof Earth
  • The Wishing Stone

 

  • DOUBLE ILLUSION - RECENTLY REPUBLISHED!

Linford Mystery Library (Large Print) - F.A Thorpe (Publishing)