PHILIP E. HIGH – These Savage Futurians. Ace Double G-623, paperback original, 1967. Published back-to-back with The Double Invaders, by John Rackham (review to be posted shortly).

   Two rival organizations surviving the end of present-day Earth’s civilization battle over a psycho-genetically controlled primitive named Robert Ventnor. As it often happens in High’s stories, Ventnor is captured and quickly trained in almost an overnight transformation.

   In fact, Ventnor becomes an expert in both micro-robotics and biology, combining both fields to find new methods in curing diseases. It is therefore not surprising that he becomes the key to the future of mankind.

   The story of mankind’s fall is not the usual one, not war, but the over-centralization of production, and that of decreasing quality. The description of gradual anarchy is quite chilling.

Rating: **½

– June 1967

   

Biographical Update: Quite a bit of information about the author can be found in his online obituary written by John Clute, from which the following excerpt seems relevant:

   “Nothing High wrote was as unremittingly apocalyptic as Shute’s On the Beach (1957), but his space operas consistently pit figures of valour (and science-fictional super powers) against dystopian cultures and worlds. One of the best of them, Butterfly Planet (1971), typically engages manipulative aliens against an Earth splayed into dystopian factions; telepathic sex for the good, and instant devolution for villains, arousingly ensue.”