Customer Reviews

Long Voyage Back

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although this book was written in 1983, it is just as scary and applicable today. Rhinehart wrote a very realistic book about nuclear holocaust that could still happen, except probably not by the Russians against the US. The scenario of thieves, pirates and desperate & fanatical people just trying to survive makes you feel like you are going thru it yourself. A horrible prospect, to say the least. I liked the idea to attempt to sail away and survive off the sea. Having just finished this great book, I feel like I was right there and part of the group. I wish there was a sequel. This is one book that is worth the read & hard to put down.

Not a bad read based upon its limited scope. The majority of the action takes place upon a trimaran sailboat in Atlantic and Caribbean waters. It has a well done believable beginning as the "war clouds gather." The escape from a suddenly desperate surviving populace is tense and exciting. Sailing away from the devastation and desperation is a different approach than I have seen in most similar novels. Good character development also. I got a little tried of being seasick, but I guess they were on the boat alot. I've read all the apocalyptic books on all the Amazon lists and this one is worth the time. The ending was rather disappointing but getting there was fun. Blurb: A tight, simple, staightforward story of survival told in style with adequate character development and a lip biting plot using effective linear movement.

Using the topic of sailing away from a nuclear war, Luke Rhinehart creates a moving yarn of radiation clouds, near escapes, refugee centers, pirates, famine, plague, and survival. Insights into life in the Caribbean and South America after the war are prophetic.

I read this book when I was high-school. I am *cough* 34 now. But, I will never forget this book, or rather the way I felt about it while reading it.
It is a book about nuclear war and it's results...but more than that, I remember when I read it, I was almost in a panic. I read it when we were in the throes of the cold war in the late '80's and it would give anyone the willies to read a very realistic book about a nuclear halocaust around that time...but it was different than that....I actually FELT like this was really happening when I read the book. A strange, and undescribable feeling that we were all doomed.
So needless to say, this book, to me was very powerful, and well written.
I just happened to think about it today and thought maybe it would be here...and voila! Amazon never fails!!

I love survival and "end of civilization" stories, and this one doesn't disappoint. I also love sailing adventures and this is a good one.

Rather than using a multiple-viewpoint method that so many disaster novels utilize, with characters all over the world, this story sticks with the tight-knit group of survivors on the trimaran. The author does a good job in describing the sailing aspects and the challenges of crew interaction in a manner that will be appreciated by sailors and landlubbers alike.

The nuclear holocaust angle is well done, and how people react to the terror. There is a good balance of on-water vs. on-land action in the book.

Fast-paced adventure, hard to put the book down.

Great character development. "Olly" is a treasure.

Minor gripe #1: some of the fighting is a bit theatrical. At one point, somebody is actually knocked out by receiving a quick karate-chop to the neck. God I hate the knockout-punch myth as it appears in books and movies.

Minor gripe #2: Since the boat is a trimaran (three-hulled) sailing vessel, WHY IS THE COVER PHOTO OF A SLOOP???!!!!!!!

Somebody really screwed the pooch in the publishing house by putting a photo of a SLOOP on the cover of a novel that takes place on a multihull! To make matters worse, it was published by the Naval Institute Press of Annapolis, MD!! I bet the author still gets shudders over that to this day. Unbelievable error to anyone who sails.

Great read -- recommended.

I read this a few weeks ago while on a "nuclear war/end of the world" reading frenzy.
As a longtime fan of The Diceman and The Diceman Returns, I found this book a very pleasant change in genre and style of writing for typical Rhinehart stuff.

I love reading post-apocalyptic books and just happened across "Long Voyage Back" at a local used book store. Lucky find for me.

I grew up during the Cold War days and this book was published during this period - 1983. We had attack drills, hiding under our desks, during my early school years. And nuclear war with Russia was never very far from anyone's thoughts. So to me, this book brought back a lot of memories of those fearful days.

I liked this book - a lot. I thought it very believable, for the most part. The only other book (that I can recall off the top of my head) that had survivors of a nuclear war escaping at sea was The Last Ship and that was a large ship rather than a small sailing vessel - a trimaran. If you like sailing, there's a lot of it happening in this story. A small group of people escape into the Atlantic Ocean after nuclear strikes decimate the world.

Was some of the story a little farfetched? Maybe. But thankfully none of us actually knows how we would react in the same circumstances.

Character development was great. Most characters were described in detail - good and bad. I definitely had some favorites that I wouldn't mind being in close quarters with during a disaster and some that I probably would have thrown overboard. The deprivations of the crew of the trimaran - and a good portion of the world - are described vividly.

I think this is a fine example of post-apocalyptic fiction. No zombies or monsters - just people trying to survive in devastating circumstances.

I liked this book a lot. It is a good core PA read.

It's a neat angle on the PA survival story. It has all the normal PA stuff, search for food, avoid the bad people, argue amoung your group and a little plague thrown in, But all this is done on the water in a sailboat.

It reminds me of the book The Last Ship.

The book reads very quickly and is easy to follow.

Long Voyage Back

The sea air must affect peoples' common sense or people were really stupid back in the 80s or all that fallout scrambled their brains or I finally found out the true meaning of Yuppie Angst.

Item: Baddies are never killed. Just given parole and a berth on the boat.
Item: Baddies never outright kill Goodies. The Goodies are herded into a group and everyone yells until something happens and the Goodies get the guns back.
Item: The main Goodie's squeeze AKA "Kumbaya Jeanne" decides to throw all the guns overboard near the end of the book. Maybe she got tired of all the herding but this happens after the Goodies finally kick the Baddies into another boat.
Item: When "Kumbaya Jeanne" threw the guns in the ocean, I threw this book in the garbage. Don't know how it ends, don't care.

There are more items but I don't want to waste anymore time thinking about this book. I just want to warn fans of post-apocalyptic fiction.

Strange thing is that I read this book years ago. I was reminded when Frank tried to use his credit cards right after the Bomb. About the only thing from the book I remembered.