Philip E. High · the Mad Metropolis

Space Captain:

Trent, captain of the space freighter Yarrow, came of a long line of spacyship commanders ... and all of them had been troubled by pirates. Due to the nature of the space drive, which permitted flight to the stars past the speed of light, ships in flight were in more danger to each other than from anything else. It was this ability of one ship's drive to blow out any drive near it that made space pirates so difficult to eradicate.

But this time Trent went into overdrive with a special device aboard – one that would turn the tables and make space permanently barred to pirates.

Trent was sceptical himself – and his scepticism stood him in good stead when he found himself more pirate bait than pirate baiter – and his secret weapon a space-warping double edged boomerang.

(112 pages)

The Mad Metropolis:

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 no corruption, because Mother Machine knows what's best for her human children and does it. Where that same all-poerful 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.

(142 pages)