THE LAST SHIP

by William Brinkley ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 18, 1988

Total nuclear war forces the men and women of the only surviving American naval ship to find a safe place to rebuild the human race. By the author of Peeper, Breakpoint, and Don't Go Near the Water. Mercifully free of political exe-grinding, The Last Ship looks at the effect rather than the causes of a nuclear holocaust. The U.S.S. Nathan James, a nuclear-powered destroyer, has been designed for one main task: to fire its cruise missiles in the event of all-out war. Its target is the Soviet city of Orel, and its firing position is above the Arctic Circle in the Barents Sea--a location that turns out to protect the ship from the fate of all other naval vessels. Alone in the ocean, prevented by radiation from coming to rest in any known port, and faced with a limited supply of atomic fuel, James' captain heads the ship south in search of safe harbor. Outside the Mediterranean there is contact with a surviving Russian submarine, and the two captains work out a survival plan. The Nathan James will go south to seek out a radiation-free island; the submarine Pushkin will retrieve fuel from a Soviet supply to share with the Americans. The destroyer's voyage, however, is a nightmare. A third of the crew abandons the search, taking the ship's boats with them; nuclear winter sets in at the equator; and the peace they find on their island is short-lived. An old-fashioned book of the sea: long, thoughtful, stem, occasionally lyrical, the work of a mature mind. First-rate.

Pub Date: March 18, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION