John S. reviewed on 11/11/2008 + 2 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 9

Be forewarned: this is not a book that you will finish in one night or two. That, however, is part of the books charm, because as you read the 616 oversized pages of jam-packed text you will not want it to end.. I certainly did not. Indeed, I was captivated by The Last Ship in a fashion that few books have ever been able to do. I began to think of the characters as real people, and I actually found myself at times having to reassure myself that this is, after all, just a book. Just a story.

In part, I suspect, this is due to the subject matter. The Last Ship is the story of the U.S.S. Nathan James , a state-of-the-art navy destroyer, and home to some of the last survivors of an all-out nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Mainly, however, the reader is drawn in by the authors writing style. Brinkley doesnt just captivate his readers; he has a sort of power over them with his painstaking attention to detail, laborious prose, and exceptional command of the English language that few authors, at least in my experience, can equal.

The Last Ship follows the experiences of the Nathan James through a nuclear war that, through a quirk of fate, leaves her unscathed. The story is told in the first person through the eyes of her captain as he slowly realizes that the unthinkable has occurred, and the human race for all intents and purposes has destroyed itself. We never find out how the war started or why it was fought. These are unimportant, the author seems to think. Hes right, of course. Is there really any petty concern of mankind that can justify the slaughter of billions?

As the Nathan James cruises down the coasts of Europe, Africa, and Asia they are horrified at the destruction. Survivors, if they can be called such, gather on the beaches in hopes that help will arrive. Help that can never come. Brinkley describes in detail the terrifying effects of radiation poisoning, and at times these passages are difficult to read. This is not a book for the squeamish. There is also occasional explicit sexual content that may offend some as well.

Seeing the radiations effects firsthand, the crew of the Nathan James soon realizes they can never go home, and with a grim determination the captain realizes that his crew may be the last best hope for humanity to start again.

And so they begin the search for a habitable island in the Pacific where they can construct a new community with the ships complement of men and women (the former outnumbering the latter by roughly six to one). But there will be trials and tribulations along the way. A senior ships officer and a sizeable portion of the crew desperately want to return home to their loved ones despite the fact that America has been decimated and is now an uninhabitable radioactive wasteland. And an accommodation must be reached with the only group of survivors the Nathan James encounters: a Russian nuclear missile submarine.

Can humanity start over? Will the crew of the Nathan James be able to re-establish a shattered civilization? Can the American and Russian survivors overcome their mutual suspicions and learn to work together? The answers to these questions lie within the covers of The Last Ship, but dont expect things to go smoothly, and be prepared for more unexpected twists and turns than you can imagine along the way.

With a fascinating plot, highly intriguing characters and an all too possible (at the time the book was written) scenario, The Last Ship is one of the best reads I have come across in years. More than that, however, the book carries a very important message: a nuclear war simply cannot be won. The author takes great pains to portray in vivid detail the effects of the war exactly to hammer this point across.

In many respects, The Last Ship is a period piece and a product of its times. Published in 1988 just before the end of the Cold War, The Last Ship may seem outdated with the fall of the Soviet Union. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. For the threat of nuclear war may certainly rear its head again in the future. Those who contemplate it could be winnable (as some in the Reagan administration did in the eighties) need only to read this book to be convinced otherwise.

In sum, The Last Ship works, and works well. The story matter alone is enough to prove the novels value over time. But the authors luxuriant writing is what puts The Last Ship over the top. Obviously, the man is himself an avid reader of books, something that has made him an exceptional author. In proof of this, Ill let Brinkley himself have the last word on The Last Ship with one of my favorite passages, told by the captain himself.

"I have often wondered how anyone who does not read, by which I mean daily, having some book going all the time, can make it through life. Indeed if I were required to make a sharp division in the very nature of people, I would be tempted to make it there: readers and non-readers of books. ..It is astonishing how the presence or absence of this habit so consistently characterizes an individual in other respects; it is as though it were a kind of barometer of temperament, of personality, even of character. "

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