- Paperback: 624 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reissue edition (Feb 13 1989)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345359828
- ISBN-13: 978-0345359827
- Product Dimensions: 15.9 x 4 x 23.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 621 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #285,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this apocalyptic novel of the sea is that Brinkley has been able to spin so slender a plot to so great lengthmore than 500 pages. Global nuclear disaster has struck, and the guided-missile destroyer Nathan James, short on food and fuel, its crew of men and women seriously depleted by desertions, sails the seas in search of an uncontaminated landfall. The Nathan James is apparently the only ship afloatuntil it meets a Russian sub and a little belated glasnost is arranged. The destroyer's captain, a man given to Conradesque reflections more often ponderous than illuminating, describes how he struggles to assert his authority and maintain crew morale, how he establishes a settlement on an unpolluted Pacific island, assigning to his female crew the task of ensuring the continuation of the human race (he has a steamy affair with one of them himself) and how he handles, among other problems, a case of multiple murder. Brinkley (Don't Go Near the Water, Quicksand) clearly knows the U.S. Navy, and his narrative has its moments. However, his style here is turgid and the story as a whole, unlike the sleek and deadly Nathan James, sits pretty heavily in the water.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The author of Don't Go Near the Water superbly depicts life on a U.S. Navy destroyer after a heavy nuclear exchange. That women are now integrated into the navy adds to the interest. The survivors hunt a safe haven where life and perhaps the human race can continue, away from radiation. A Russian submarine, apparently friendly, appears and then is gone, while a group of mutineers irrationally try to return "home." The captain's narration is thoughtful and sensitive. Inexperienced with women, he must oversee the desperate assembly-line attempts to conceive children that he himself does not join. More than a military adventure, this is a first-rate study of beauty amid ghastliness, engrossing to the end.William A. Donovan, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Please use a flippin' PERIOD!,
By Russ (Duluth, GA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Last Ship (Paperback)
A great premise and much thoughful work, but Brinkley goes on and on and on and on and on and on and what was the editor thinking when he proofed this book when he looked at it and read it and then considered what type of modifications should be made and then he didn't notice that most every sentence is hundreds of words long and that they tend to comprise lenghty paragraphs and drove me up the wall trying to struggle past these elephants in the room to attempt to distill any type of story or pacing or plot or mood because the sentences that Brinkley constructs are limitless and if you move your lips while you read you better take a huge breath or you will suffocate before you finally, eventually, make it to that rare and glorious period that Brinkley may or may not decide to put at the end of a rambling thought that somehow, by the laws of literature, finally come to an end and possibly it is some type type of radioactive mutation that has caused all of the periods to wither and die, maybe.(period)
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lost Opportunity,
By A Customer
This review is from: Last Ship (Paperback)
This book has a cool premise, but the author wastes the idea with his needlessly dense prose. Don't get me wrong -- I read a fair amount of dense books, but this one wasn't worth it.And did anyone else pick up vibes (subtle or not so subtle) of political and moral ideology that just helped to make the storyline sink? I felt beaten over the head innumerable times for why women should be in the Navy in combat positions, why nukes are evil, etc. Simultaneously, my interest waned considerably. Very soon into the book, the joy of reading was replaced with the tortuous process of trying to finish it in order to find out what happens in the end, but with little enthusiasm and fun in the process.
5.0 out of 5 stars
This One Stays With You.,
By
This review is from: Last Ship (Paperback)
I first read The Last Ship some 10 or 12 years ago. I got hooked. I know all about the writting style complaints, but hey, my other favorite book is Moby Dick...call me a sucker for over-wrought sea stories!This is less about the "end of the world as we know it," and all about escapeism and fantasy projection. Who among us, as a perfect fantasy, does not dream about removing civilization's constraints, wondering what we'd do in a world without rules and restrictions? So we sign on to the Nathan James and find out by looking through Brinkley's eyes. I think it is a pretty good view. The ending does suck...very unsatisfactory. Unless, that is, there were to be a sequel in the work. Since the book was written so many years ago, I fear Brinkley has dropped the implied promise of the book's last page. Too bad. I'd like to know what happened to the crew members who left for "home." I recommend this book.
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