The Fishers of Darksea

An isolated island in a post-holocaust world is the setting for Eldridge's first adult novel, which follows a well-received children's book, The Shadow of the Gloom-World. Life on barren Darksea depends on the ocean and what the Fishers can catch, but the island's rigid superstitions regard the sea as poison and all fear the monsters that dwell therein. The sighting of one such creature, a one-eyed fish, prompts young No-mirth to question his elders and suffer ostracism. For his pains, he is taken aboard a submarine (the one-eyed fish) and told of the outside world, which is still recovering from the war. This dark, downbeat novel works best when it sticks closest to fact in the early sections, which transcribe to SF the hard life of Aran island fishermen. November