As a dedicated fan of Rog Phillips, it is no surprise that the Rog Phillips page on this site is longer and more comprehensive than the other pages. I have had the pleasure of reading several of Phillips’ short stories and have been thoroughly impressed with each one. This is why I have included no less than four of Phillips’ stories in the first two volumes of Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond.
Rog Phillips was a highly productive science fiction writer, with a body of work that includes over 205 short stories. The first of Phillips’ stories featured in Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond is “Captain Peabody”, a thrilling tale of adventure and imagination that showcases Phillips’ exceptional writing abilities.
Captain Peabody
While the core psychology in Captain Peabody certainly showing its age, in these more enlightened times, Captain Peabody certainly provides a rattling good read and the Captain’s extreme response to the situation he is in is genuinely shocking to our modern sensibilities. However, if it wasn’t for Human Resource departments enforcing staff well-being standards, who’s to say this wouldn’t be where we’re at in the future?
Here’s a 5 minute sample from the audio version of Captain Peabody I narrated for Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond Volume One:
The second Rog Phillips Story in Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond Volume One was Rat in the Skull:
Rat in the Skull
Given that Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond Volume One already included a story by Rog Phillips, I had to think twice before including Rat in the Skull as well, but ultimately Phillip’s ability to write in such an engaging way won me over. It also helps that this story has such a poignant ending. Oh, yes, it was nominated for a Hugo award as well.
Here’s a five minute sample of my Audible Narration of Rog Phillip’s Rat in the Skull:
The full unabridged Audible Version of this story is 46 minutes and 23 seconds long. Both of these stories are available now in the Audible version of Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond Volume One:
Ye of Little Faith
This story reminded me a little of one of my favourite TV shows from recent years; The Leftovers. This story is all about the ramifications and fallout of a Mathematical Theory, the full understanding of which causes people to disappear. Before long, the main character has lost his mother and father and sets out on a desperate mission to understand the theory himself so that he can disappear and bring them back. It’s a great story, but I found it difficult to narrate. I think this was because it was the first story I’d narrated for a while, but also because Ye of Little Faith was significantly longer than stories I’d previously narrated. These factors combined to make the narration of the story a gruelling process. There were parts of it that reminded me of what Harrison Ford once said to George Lucas: “You can type this shit, but you sure can’t say it”. However, hopefully, this doesn’t detract too much from my vocal performance and I hope I’ve done the story justice. Judge for yourself in the five minute sample below!
The full, unadbridged Audible version of this story is a feature length 1 hour and 28 minute long recording!
The Gallery
This is a bonus story only available in the Audible version of Incredible Science Fiction Amazing Tales from the 50s and Beyond Volume Two. It’s narrated by my brother James Gibson who does a brilliant job of bringing Rog’s story to life. The Gallery is a very inventive but quite disturbing story about mind control and video conferencing. Native Americans and Indigenous Australian tribesmen believed that taking a photograph stole the soul. This seems to be the basic premise that Rog started with in the story. He then picked it up and ran with it a very long way. It also made me think about privacy concerns and an apocryphal story I heard about why Google Glass was never released. Apparently, people who wore them had a tendency to forget they were wearing them while they were broadcasting a continuous video feed of everything they looked at. Nobody really wants to see a first person perspective view of a urinal and associated activities.
Here’s a five minutes sample of James Gibson’s wonderful narration of The Gallery:
As I curate and edit further editions of my Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond series of books, I fully intend to include a few more of Rog’s wonderful stories. There are just so many to choose from that it makes my role as curator a much more onersous task!
Ye of Little Faith and The Gallery are available in the Audible Version of Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond Volume Two: