Book Review: Phoenix Prime

Book Review: 'Phoenix Prime' by Ted White

4 / 5 Stars

'Phoenix Prime' (188 pp) was published by Lancer Books in 1966; the striking cover art was done by Frank Frazetta.

I remember seeing this book on the store shelves when I was a kid; its brilliant cover painting made it stand out from any other title on the shelves. 'Phoenix Prime' also was a perennial entry in the sci-fi section of the used bookstores I patronized in my younger days. It often was accompanied by the two sequels in the so-called 'Qanar' trilogy: 'The Sorceress of Qar' (1966), and 'Star Wolf' (1971).

For all my familiarity with the book, I never actually picked up a copy until recently. So..........how does 'Phoenix Prime' stack up as a 60s sci-fi adventure ?

'Phoenix' opens in New York City in the mid-60s, where a young man named Max Quest discovers he has superhuman abilities, including levitation, thought-reading, and pyrokinesis. His girlfriend Fran is at first alarmed by the display of these abilities, but Max assures her he is in complete control of his powers, even as he admits to having no idea from whence they come.

Max's astonishment over his changed persona is abruptly interrupted by waves of physical and psychic assault from mysterious entities known only as the Others. 

Outwardly human in appearance, the Others possess the same superpowers, but use them to manipulate and coerce people for their own advantage. When Max rebels against this misuse of power, he is marked for elimination by the Others.

Although Max Quest is able to resist the attacks by his enemies, the Others are quite willing to take advantage of his affection for Fran by exiling her to Qanar, a planet located in a dimension parallel to that of Earth. To save Fran, Max is forced also to journey to Qanar. There he discovers, to his dismay, that his superpowers are inert..........and the plentiful dangers lurking in the trackless desert will have to be faced with nothing more than the makeshift tools he can fashion from the stones and branches lying in the sand..........

I perhaps may be over-generous in awarding 'Phoenix Prime' four of five stars. It has within it much of a pulp novel; the opening chapters address the superman theme in a way that calls to mind the superheroes of the Marvel comics then emerging as a pop culture phenomenon in the mid-60s. 

With the journey of Max Quest to Qanar, however, the novel suddenly transforms into a Planetary Romance. It's this transition that gives the novel an engaging quality, for White takes care to avoid the traditional conventions of that sub-genre of sci-fi. 

White elects to give his expository passages a contemplative, almost existential quality that reflects the influence of the New Wave movement then rising in sf circles. However, to keep the narrative from becoming too static or self-absorbed (a failing common to many New Wave novels) he provides segments of violence and mayhem that are effective in their intensity (but also quite politically incorrect by modern attitudes - !).

Summing up, 'Phoenix Prime' is one of the better examples of mid-60s sci-fi. It takes advantage of the freedoms granted by the advent of the New Wave movement, while not sacrificing a sense of fun and adventure. If you should see a copy on the shelf, I recommend picking it up.