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The Last Ship

A Novel

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The Last Ship

Written by: William Brinkley
Narrated by: Christopher Lane
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About this listen

Hailed "an extraordinary novel of men at war" (Washington Post), The Last Ship is the book that inspired the TNT mini series starring Eric Dane, Rhona Mitra, and Adam Baldwin, with 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 USS 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 - 152 men and 26 women - to pull together in search of land. Once they reach safety, however, the men and women on board realize that they are the 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?

This thrilling tale of post apocalyptic suspense is perfect for readers of Going Home by A. American, Lights Out by DavidCrawford, The End and The Long Road by G. Michael Hopf, and One Second After by William Forstchen.

©1988 William Brinkley (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Espionage Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Military Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense War Exciting
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This version of the Apocalypse from the perspective of Navy personnel and specifically from the captain was to a large degree original. It came with some harsh realities. As with other reviews, I found the captain very prudish, closed minded and quite immature in many ways. There was far far too much self reflection enough that in some cases, I skipped ahead 30 seconds. That said it would not be an easy job being the captain of a warship and as events unfold the decision-making responsibility is enormous. In short, the story was contagious. I couldn't stop knowing that there would be some unexpected turns and twists. The section that refer to sex I think could have been blurred over a little. Don't get me wrong. I have an open mind but somehow this part didn't seem like it belonged in this book.
I think the performance was really good. The story was fantastic with enough reality thrown in to make it gripping as much as gritty.

Amazing story

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interesting book. it could have done without the random and explicit XXX chapters lol

pretty good

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I did generally enjoy this book for a number of reasons. I thought the audiobook’s narrator Christopher Lane did an exquisite job of performing the Captain’s voice. I also enjoyed the language the writer used - beautiful word choice that doesn’t try to cater to the low-vocabulary reader. I also enjoyed the back-story, which starts several hours into the listening experience (the story structure is present, then backstory to near present, then present again).

What I didn’t enjoy was the initial portion of the book; I found it over-long, dull, and difficult to get through. I understand the purpose - to introduce the listener to the present day characters, and to navy roles and traditions. But I felt that the author spent far too much time on this section. It very much reminded of Melville’s Moby-Dick, where Melville expended a copious amount of ink discussing whaling and all the different types of whales (as an aside, I did find it interesting that the author had a character named Melville).

I also didn’t enjoy the character of The Captain. He was excessively prudish, expended far too much time on over-thinking external situations, and far too much time on personal introspection. I found him to be a very tedious character. Since it’s his character that that tells the character, it is difficult to get away from this nature. It’s a bit sad that it took a nuclear war to give him interesting material for the reader.

Enjoyable, With Some Annoying Aspects

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Interminable stream of consciousness becomes somnolence producing. Impressed by the scenarios he presented but somewhat naiive with respect to survivors’ mental health and response based on a somewhat idealized view of sailors. But interesting story. I wonder if real sailors would have joined together. But hey, that’s what science fiction is about.
Also should have taken more than 2 goats for genetic diversity.

Good story but drones on a lot

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The mood of the chapters set the listener almost to the tone of the crew, the dark days felt like they droned on forever, looking back felt like listening to insanity as insanity had taken hold of the characters. Book 7 final chapter had such alarm and terror it gave me the same chill down my spine as I felt while reading through the wildest chapters of Turner Diaries. Shame the show absolutely dropped the ball compared to the book.

Content sets tone

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To think that this novel is not so far fetched from reality. That humanity is presently capable of destroying life as we now know it. Performance is masterful. One aspect of the story that was not necessary and added an icky was the xxx explicit chapter.

Realistic and sobering

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Way to slow, way to much detail and nothing happened after 4hrs, I gave up at that point

Extremely slow

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This has been one of the best books I have ever read, however, this narrated version was really hard to listen to.

This book sounded better in my own head when I first read it, and even that horrible attempt at a television series of the same name based on this book, was better than this narration.

Ruined by Mr. Magoo, the Narrator.

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