The Watch Below

" … his remarkable talent for extrapolating human survival under enormously hostile conditions is exploited to the full in a tense and moving novel group of humans trapped in the hull of a sunken ship -- for generation! Skilfully woven into the desperate problems which confront [them] is the story of a far different group of beings, creatures who face extermination with courage and determination equal to that of the humans" (blurb). The Watch Below more than fulfilled the potential James White had shown a s novelist in Second Ending and Open Prison. He produces meaningful drama without subjecting both sets of voyagers to the Dreaded Lurgi, flat atomic batteries and Ghod knows what all else.