Space Prison

Tom Godwin (1915-1980) has a strange career as a sci-fi writer. He has written only three novels and around thirty short stories. With such exiguous production he managed to deliver an outstanding tale: "The Cold Equations" (1954) and a very readable novel: "Space Prison" (1958) (aka "The Survivors").

His works are very representative of the sci-fi from the `50s: not so great character development, action centered storyline, young adult readers oriented. Nevertheless the present book managed to have a Gnome Press edition and at least two Pyramid Books edition, a good performance for a little known author.

The story starts when war between Humans and Gerns erupted. In this context a human interstellar ship with eight thousand colonists is captured. Half of the group is stranded in a hellish planet very suitably named Ragnarok. The four thousand Rejects has to face 1.5 gravity pull, prowlers (a deadly mixture of wolf & tiger), unicorns (massive murderous bulls), Hell Fever, rotten weather (in short term and long term) amongst other "hazards". Their numbers soon dwindle to forty nine!

From that point on generation after generation the Rejected, steel themselves with only one aim: take revenge on the Gerns.