Sold for a Spaceship [Hardcover]

Philip E. High (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hale SF | Publication Date: October 4, 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.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd (October 4, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0709139195
• ISBN-13: 978-0709139195
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Science, one out of ten: story, nine out of ten., December 9, 2011

By 

Marshall Lord (Whitehaven, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sold - For a Spaceship (Kindle Edition)

An entertaining Science Fiction adventure in which an exciting storyline largely makes up for terrible science.

The story starts with one of the central characters being awakened by machines after a long period of suspended animation in a shelter deep undergound. At some unspecified point in the late 20th or early 21st century, human civilisation had become aware that a catastrophe was about to hit our solar system: there had been about a decade's warning, which was just about enough time to build vast underground shelters and suspended animation facilites for the vast majority of humanity.

When the machines tried to awaken humanity many years later, between the catastrophe itself which has destroyed many of the shelters, and equipment failures over the passage of time, or imperfections in the suspended animation process, only a small proportion of mankind is successfully revived. The few million survivors find themselves struggling to cope with limited supplies and equipment in a very different world - in which mankind is not the only sentient species.

To survive on this new earth will require a new mankind, one which is willing to use new abilities which some of the survivors start to experience, and forge a new relationship with other species. Those who are unwilling or unable to do this may find, as the title of the book suggests, that they have sold their birthright for a spaceship.

The story is exciting and keeps you turning the pages. Characters and relationships depicted in the book are at best superficial, but essentially this is an adventure story and most of the people in the story are ordinary people trying to cope with shattering events.

The science, however, is poor even by the standards of 1970 when the book came out. The catastrophe which drives mankind to take extreme measures to survive is - wait for it - a comet passing directly through the solar system.

Doh! Comets are part of the solar system, and most of them pass through the inner solar system once per orbit without doing more than putting on a dramatic show, and sometimes not even that. Halley's comet, for example, passes through the inner solar system four times in every three centuries. To cause cataclysmic results a comet would actually have to hit the earth, or pass so close that significant fragments of it will do so. (It is occasionally suggested, though not usually by mainstream astronomers or historians, that the 1997 Hale-Bopp comet might have passed close enough to earth on its' previous visit to the inner solar system in about 2200 BC to have a signifcant effect on the planet.)

The story also includes vastly accelerated evolution by both plants and animals in a way which bears no resemblance whatsoever to any reputable scientific theories of either contemporary biology at the time the book was written or anything which has been suggested since. And there is no plausible explanation of the new faculties which the humans in the story mysteriuously develop.

One other content warning - this book was in line with or eve slighlty ahead of its' time in its attitude to racism, but things have moved on in the past forty years. Some dialogue in the book is now behind the curve and might upset one or two 21st century readers. In particular the main hero of the book, Rutledge, regularly exchanges mutual insults with his best friend, who is black, and these include racial insults on both sides - the book justifies this on the grounds that the latter didn't mind the insults because he knew that Rutledge saw him as a man, and not as a black man.

There is some good humour in this book, including clever mockery both of the way politicians and bureaucrats work, and of the attitudes of men and women to each other.

I used to love Philip E High's science fiction stories at the time they were written, mostly around the 1970's. Many of them, like this one, have dated, and this book is not the only example of the way the science was not always brilliant even by the standards of 1970, and many of the stories present humans as uniquely talented in a way which jars somewhat now.

However, High's best stories have not dated and even those which have, again like this one, are still fun to read.

Other books by Philip E High which I can particularly recommend include "The Time Mercenaries" and "Come, Hunt an Earthman (Venture SF Books)."

4.0 out of 5 stars Sold For A Spaceship, July 18, 2010

By 

anto73 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sold-For A Spaceship (Venture Sf Bks.) (Paperback)

Book from the Venture SF series written by Philip E High.
Pretty much what you'd expect from this series & this author in particular.
Fairly short book and easy to get through.
Did seem all a bit rushed at the end but & I would have liked a little more depth to the story.