The Last Ship: A Novel

This book was just a painful read. The author must have gone out of his way to use the most torturous sentence structure imaginable. Semicolons should be used rarely and with reason and effect, not in every other sentence. I consider myself to be reasonably well-read, with a better than average command of the English language, but this book had me using the dictionary lookup on my Kindle constantly. As for the less technical complaints, the plot moves much too slowly. The overly wordy, repetitive descriptions make the entire novel two to three times longer than it needs to be. And, last, some of the descriptions of the love scenes border on vulgar - not at all needed or appreciated in a novel like this. The idea of a post-apoplectic survivors' tale that didn't involve super viruses or zombies sounded good, but this book just doesn't deliver.

First, beyond the names of a few of the characters (and the ship) this book has nothing to do with the TV show. Just so you know. If you are looking for an illumination of the show, look elsewhere.An interesting story, nothing to do with the TV show, but literary slog. You should download the Kindle sample before you decide the prose is worth the effort.As this book was written nearly 20 years ago, lots of reviews have been written, so feel free to look them up. Most make similar points. Then you can decide if you want to invest in reading this book (625 pages and 14 hours, according to Kindle).The most common point is that there is a good story here, but it can be a labor getting through the author's convoluted prose. His complex inverted sentence structure can induce skimming for actual dialog, for which you might go several pages (see what I mean about inverted?) and he writes as if he held a thesaurus in his lap. I've no way of knowing, as he is now dead. He may have actually had such a working vocabulary. But I doubt it, given he occasionally conflates "further" with "farther" and the like.I get the impression he is attempting to be "literary", but he comes off as a poor attempt to emulate Arthur Conan Doyle.Another point is an implicit misogyny. The Navy had then just allowed female midshipmen (itself, a nomenclature irony) and in the imagined (at the time) allowance of presence shipboard. So, in this futuristic setting the interaction of on-board female and male personnel is imagined. For this, he can be forgiven as it is speculative from 1988 to some only imagined future date.So summary: An interesting story, nothing to do with the TV show, a literary slog. I found it worth the effort for the story, but I am a fast reader, so the slog wasn't to onerous.

I won't lie The Last Ship a really interesting idea. A crew on a missile destroyer miles away from land are the only survivors of a nuclear war that has destroyed not only America but the rest of the world. The detail in this story is good as William informs every bit of what Nathan James does and how it all works gives the reader what they need to know about everything going on in the story.However my problem with The Last Ship is their is not a lot of dialog between characters and when their is they don't have much to say. When you start off on chapter 1 the story goes to the events after WWIII then backwards to the beginning which I really don't like having to backtrack in a story. Also their is no scenes where the captain of Nathan James tells his crew the horrible news that their families, friends, children, wives and husbands are dead. It goes from how the event happened till a month later where the ship is sailing through the ruins of London.And last their aren't that many characters we get to meet in the story it's just mostly the captain talking with one or two people that's about in and very little background on these characters as well. For a novel that's over 600 pages long I thought it would have more then this but it doesn't and what a shame as the idea for this story sounded good but when it comes to the story telling it fails to make it interesting.

This was a whole different kind of book than I was expecting. First of all, beyond the title and the name of the ship, it has NOTHING in common with the TV show. It's written in an unusual, extremely verbose style, almost as if it was written a hundred years ago or more. It's more like something from Melville or Conrad than a modern novel about a modern navy ship. More often it feels like the story should be taking place on and old sailing vessel, except for the fact that it takes place after a nuclear war and is about surviving radiation. But despite this oddity, after getting use to the style I found myself drawn in and unable to put it down. I lost a lot of sleep staying up reading this book over the course of a week or so. I loved it, right up until the end when something that hadn't been set up in any way occurred, and then the story stopped abruptly, never really ending. I thought it was just setting up for a sequel, but there doesn't appear to be one. Despite that, it's a great read.

Massive fan of the TV series ,so was very excited to read the novel. I have to admit, the author knows his stuff but he does tend to waffle on. I mean, a lot. The majority of the book is mainly things and feelings being described, in great detail. In the end I jumped several section and forced my self to read until the end where it seems so much of the book was taken up with so much waffle, the final, exciting chapter seems rushed and squeezed into the last remaining pages.Very disappointed.

This mammoth book follows the story of the officers and crew aboard the US Navy Destroyer the `Nathan James' in their journey to find safe haven after nuclear war. With 152 men and 26 women aboard the challenges they face are narrated by the Captain of the ship.Brinkley has put together an epic story although it's difficult to say if the book is well written or not. The emotional turmoil of the captain is described at length with the most complex of language - I found myself reaching for the thesaurus on more than one occasion. Brinkley does go on and on.... and on about the seamen, their duty, the sea and the sky! While a very packed book, its slow going and a bit of a struggle at times.Despite this Brinkley has produced a piece of work that earns its place amongst the best apocalyptic novels written; a challenging read but rewarding at the same time. If you're a fan of this genre then this book should on your list!

If you have trouble getting off to sleep at any time, day or night, read this book. It is so mind numbingly boring! Why the author has to endlessly disect every thought and action of the main character, leaving you praying for the next sentence in a conversation, is beyond me. The plot is very thin but the book is very thick! One of the main events towards the end seems to be thrown in as a lead up to a sequel, with no real reason or believable explanation. I waded through until the bitter end but really wish I hadn't wasted the time or the money on what turned out to be a very disapointing read.

A great book-- once you get into it. The introduction read like a cross between an academic paper on the nature of command and a philosophical discussion on the nature of the sea, but don't let that get you bogged down. A great book with vivid imagery that will stay with you.

The idea behind the book is sound but it bears no relation to the recent series except in token form.Sadly the narrative descends in to page after page of waffle and the book suffers as a result. Its really sad because it could have been a great book. I guess its a poor relation to "Down to a sunless sea" and " On the beach" which are infinitely better reads.