The Last Ship: A Novel - Softcover

Brinkley, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0142181439 ISBN 13: 9780142181430

Publisher: Plume, 2013

Synopsis

Hailed as “an extraordinary novel of men at war” (The Washington Post) this is the book that inspired the TNT television series starring Eric Dane, Rhona Mitra, Adam Baldwin and Michael Bay as Executive Producer.

The unimaginable has happened. The world has been plunged into all-out nuclear war. Sailing near the Arctic Circle, the U.S.S. Nathan James is relatively unscathed, but the future is grim and Captain Thomas is facing mutiny from the tattered remnants of his crew. With civilization in ruins, he urges those that remain—one-hundred-and-fifty-two men and twenty-six women—to pull together in search of land. Once they reach safety, however, the men and women on board realize that they are earth’s last remaining survivors—and they’ve all been exposed to radiation. When none of the women seems able to conceive, fear sets in. Will this be the end of humankind?

About this title

From the Publisher:

We published THE LAST SHIP rather quietly as a trade paperback in 1987. During the mid-eighties, the Reagan years, the Cold War was still on and fears of nuclear war were at a height not seen since the early sixties. Naturally,a slew of books came out to feed the fear.

THE LAST SHIP took that "genre" to a new level. William Brinkley is a terrific story teller, and he's also a wonderful writer. I remember reading this book and being torn between my instinct to race through the book and wanting to slow down to a near halt to admire the paragraphs and his use of the English language. (I was driven more than once to the dictionary, not that the vocabulary was instrusive in any way.)

I am heartened to see such recent comments from customers. I have seen this book reorder steadily for years, and it is terrific to read reviews from new found fans. Perhaps the nuclear testing in India and Pakistan revived the interest in books like this, but I think it is more likely that THE LAST SHIP is so well written that it has stood the test of time.

Sheila Phelan, Director of Circulation

From the Inside Flap:

able horror of total nuclear war has been let loose upon the world, and only one ship, the Nathan James, with 152 men and 26 women aboard, has survived. Her captain narrates the electryfing story of this crew's voyage through the hell of nuclear winter, their search for survivial, and the fate of mankind when they find an uncontaminated paradise.
"Beautifully written...A magnificent book."
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

About this edition

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0142181439
• ISBN 13: 9780142181430
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 624