The Hour Of The Phoenix by Richard Saxon (book review)

Firstly, there are a lot of Richard Saxons out there now. The author of ‘The Hour Of The Phoenix’ appears to be a penname for Joseph Lawence Morrissey, although I might question that as he is supposed to born in 1905 and considered to be alive still. Anyway, whatever.

‘The Hour Of The Phoenix’ starts off with the end-of-the-world. Another large blue star with its own planets is slowly colliding with the Solar System. It gives mankind a chance to prepare and breed 500 people, 300 men, 200 women. Of them, there are only 83 couples and they are sent into space with 10 years of supplies as part of Project Eden to keep mankind going elsewhere. We follow the lives of Christopher aka Kit and his wife Stella. Instead of going to Proxmia, they land an planets of the blue star, have a couple children and, in turn, send them off again. That’s the plot in a nutshell but there are some spoilers in there. The back cover does not match the story. A lesson not to trust a cover, at least from the 1970s SF paperbacks.

There is still a lot wrong with this book, although probably not seen or recognised at the time. Both Kit and Stella are subject to high tensity ultraviolet which permanently darkens their skin. What we know now is that would probably promote skin cancer. Sending out the survivors only in pairs is going to limit the genetic pool and probably inbreeding. The awareness of this wouldn’t have been that sharp in the 1960s but you would think they would have sent out group spaceships than people in pairs. In some respects, I suspect Saxon was trying to avoid copying the film ‘When Worlds Collide’s plot elements. Instead, it’s more like a bottle show in a novel. I found it a quick read really and the review here is really to show you can have a quick turnover if you want a short book.

GF Willmetts

July 2026

(pub: World Distributors, 1972 from a 1963 book. 140 page paperback. Price: varies. ISBN: 7235-5099-9)