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. #PhilipEHigh #TemporaryResident

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. #PhilipEHigh

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). #SurvivalCourse #PhilipEHigh

Workmanlike prose, humanity triumphing (abruptly and at extreme odds) through dint of doughty everyman qualities and British wartime fortitude recrudescing at a species-wide level. Though artless, this alien invasion story neatly captures High’s knack for imaginative SF wish-fulfilment. #PhilipEHigh

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. #PhilipEHigh