Bantam, 1990, $4.50, ISBN 0-553-26466-4, 276 pages

The enemy Morthans built themselves a super starship, plugged it into the spacelanes of the Alliance, and let fly with big weapons and little morals. In the middle of this mess is Liberty Ship 1187--battered, beaten, toothless, and about to be turned into space dust or dinner. You see, the genetically superior Morthans see humans as something lower on the food chain and love to pop open a can of humans and eat them. Yum!

Gerrold's prose brings fast-paced, hide-and-seek WWII U-boat style warfare to the sci-fi genre. If he confuses WWII Liberty cargo ships for sci-fi destroyers, most won't notice. If it reads a little like a cross between Run Silent, Run Deep and Alien, most probably won't mind that either. What you will notice is a straightforward story of the humamn spirit seeking revenge and redemption. The characters flesh out nicely, the situation calls for heroics, and if all the good guys don't survive, well, enough do to help the ship limp back to space port.

And then the troubles really start...

You see, once a jinxed ship, always a jinxed ship--and crew. The plight continues as the ship gets a new tough-as-nails, head-of-steel-plate captain who whips these bunch of dejected misfits into a super crew.

Well, OK, that's a little on the cliche side, but once you find out about the doublecross and double-doublecross that goes on between the humans, Morthans, and various factions within, you'll be pleased to have picked up the book.