This is Nevil Shute's first published book. His books have sold over 14,000,000 copies, which speaks for itself. This story of daring adventure kept me on the edge of my seat. I love the way he writes; straightforward, no jumping around from one character to another trying to figure out what they all have to do with the story and without trying to remember what year this chapter is versus the last and the next. He has a simple but yet very descriptive style of writing that makes it easy to follow.