A powerful, wholly original novel is constructed with enormous skill and written with rare perception and intuition [in Annerton Pit]. [In the story of the characters'] incarceration and of their attempts to escape from the chill, slimy, terrifying underground labyrinth, the horror of the deliberate, detailed writing approaches that of Poe. But there are also intimations of Dostoevsky, for the greatest impact of the novel is psychological. Martin, who has secretly been an idealistic young supporter of the revolutionists, is placed in an agonizing situation; after the rescue by the police he must, ironically, become "the tool of the very system that scarred the green hills, poisoned river and sea, murdered plant and creatures and spun mankind faster and faster towards destruction." Moreover, he realizes miserably, "It's not much of a problem being right. It's doing right where the trouble begins—doing it and going on doing it while life comes up and hits you with situations where there aren't any rights to do." And left alone in the mine, sightless Jake undergoes a devastating mental experience and suffers the worst trauma of all; physically agile, intellectually keen, and uncannily sensitive, he is the real hero of the book. (p. 150)
Ethel L. Heins, in The Horn Book Magazine (copyright © 1978 by the Horn Book, Inc., Boston), April, 1978.
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