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Long Voyage Back
*The classic tale of nuclear Armageddon available for the first time in eBook form!*WHEN THE BOMBS CAME, ONLY THE LUCKY ESCAPED. IN THE HORROR THAT FOLLOWED, ONLY THE STRONG WOULD SURVIVE.The voyage of the trimaran Vagabond began as a pleasure cruise on the Chesapeake Bay. Then came the War Alert … the unholy glow on the horizon … the terrifying reports of nuclear destruction. In the days that followed, it became clear just how much chaos was still to come. For Captain Neil Loken and his passengers, their shipmates were now the only family they had, the open seas their only sanctuary, their skill and courage all that might get them out alive.“LONG VOYAGE BACK is a breathtaking adventure, a vivid story of human endurance and the will to live, and thought-provoking entertainment with a horrifyingly timely theme.”--The Washington Post“A most devastatingly powerful book… an absolute gem of a suspense yarn… rivets you to the chair until you finish it… a minor masterpiece.”--Pittsburg Gazette“A tremendous work of fiction—utterly gripping”--Time Out (London)
408 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 28, 1983
13 people are currently reading
452 people want to read
About the author
Luke Rhinehart
31 books436 followersLuke Rhinehart was the pen name of the author George Cockcroft.
He was born in the United States, son of an engineer and a civil servant. He received a BA from Cornell University and an MA from Columbia University. Subsequently he received a PhD in psychology, also from Columbia. He married his wife, Ann, on June 30, 1956. He has three children.
After obtaining his PhD, he went into teaching. During his years as a university teacher he taught, among other things, courses in Zen and Western literature. He first floated the idea of living according to the casting of dice in a lecture. The reaction was reportedly of equal parts intrigue and disgust, and it was at this point he realized it could become a novel. Cockcroft began experimenting with dice a long time before writing The Dice Man, but this made progress on the novel rather slow.
In 1971, London-based publisher, Talmy Franklin, published The Dice Man, Cockcroft's first novel as Luke Rhinehart. Soon afterwards, Cockcroft was engaged in the creation of a dice center in New York City.
In 1975, he was involved in a round-the-world voyage in a large trimaran ketch. Later, he spent some time in a sailboat in the Mediterranean, where he taught English and from there moved to a former Sufi retreat on the edge of a lake in Canaan, New York.
On 1 August 2012, at the age of 80, Cockcroft arranged for his own death to be announced, as a joke.
Cockcroft passed away (for real) at the age of 87 on November 6. 2020.
He was born in the United States, son of an engineer and a civil servant. He received a BA from Cornell University and an MA from Columbia University. Subsequently he received a PhD in psychology, also from Columbia. He married his wife, Ann, on June 30, 1956. He has three children.
After obtaining his PhD, he went into teaching. During his years as a university teacher he taught, among other things, courses in Zen and Western literature. He first floated the idea of living according to the casting of dice in a lecture. The reaction was reportedly of equal parts intrigue and disgust, and it was at this point he realized it could become a novel. Cockcroft began experimenting with dice a long time before writing The Dice Man, but this made progress on the novel rather slow.
In 1971, London-based publisher, Talmy Franklin, published The Dice Man, Cockcroft's first novel as Luke Rhinehart. Soon afterwards, Cockcroft was engaged in the creation of a dice center in New York City.
In 1975, he was involved in a round-the-world voyage in a large trimaran ketch. Later, he spent some time in a sailboat in the Mediterranean, where he taught English and from there moved to a former Sufi retreat on the edge of a lake in Canaan, New York.
On 1 August 2012, at the age of 80, Cockcroft arranged for his own death to be announced, as a joke.
Cockcroft passed away (for real) at the age of 87 on November 6. 2020.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
April 30, 2021
An okay read. Somewhat dated and not just because the political situation in the world has changed. I agree with the author in terms of war and especially nuclear war. As I grow older I have come to realize that war is an imbecilic thing and great pains should be made to avoid it. Rhinehart portrays a world that will be a horrible place indeed if the bombers and missiles ever fly. There is little in the way of hope and even the ending is just a thin ray of sunshine. However there are other aspects of the story that feels clunky in 2016.
It's obvious that it was written in 1980/1981 and reflects the concerns of that time and (possibly) the author's politics. I feel confident that the unnamed President of the United States is based on Reagan (at least how Mr. Rhinehart saw him). Thirty-five years ago it did not seem implausible that Ronnie was going to push the button. I recall the early years of the Eighties when the Cold War heated back up. I don't fault the author for believing that the United States might initiate a war considering what was taking place in the early years of the 1980's; Iran hostage crisis, Soviets invading Afghanistan, crack down on labor unions in Poland, war in Central America, bad economic news, renewed arms race and so on.
Looking back on that time it's amusing (?) to realize that ten years later the Soviet Union would cease to exist. However hindsight is 20/20 and at the start of the Eighties almost nobody would have predicted a relatively peaceful end of the Cold War in just a decade. Many of us believed that the only way the Cold War was going to end was with a hot war . In Mr. Rhinehart's novel not only do those who are involved with the military and the government come across as despicable, but also high level business participants (stockbrokers, businessmen, developers and so on). I suppose the Capitalists receive some of the blame for the war since they contribute to the economy that feeds the war machine. This is definitely not a Tom Clancy novel trumpeting the glory and superiority of the American Way.
However, a good post-apocalyptic nuclear war novel isn't hampered by changing times. Pat Frank's classic Alas, Babylon is a prime example of a novel that has long been obsolete not only due changing politics, but technology, science and society. Yet Mr. Frank's novel has never been out of print since it arrived in 1959. Any good book can outlast it's time when it achieves a balance that gives it a timelessness. Admittedly achieving such a thing is like catching the proverbial lightning in a bottle. It's a rare and magical thing that many try to accomplish and fail at. Seems to be one of those things that happen when least expected. "Long Voyage Back" does not achieve this feat. It's a well written novel and Mr. Rhinehart is obviously a capable and intelligent writer. His novel is many notches above the machine gun and muscle macho nuclear Post Apocalyptic fare so typical of the time period. See Total War and Pilgrimage to Hell as a couple outstanding examples of the other type. It's thoughtful, dark, and horrifying, but it isn't all that exciting or suspenseful. The fact that it takes place on a large sailboat actually hurts the story. There were times I found myself at a total loss as to what was going on.
Many of the nautical terms were confusing and I had a difficult time picturing the layout of the vessel. A diagram or two of the craft would have helped as well as a glossary of nautical terms. The action sequences were probably more realistic, but they weren't very suspenseful and for such a competent writer Mr. Rhinehart actually indulged in many a cliché and stereotype. One glaring example of such clichés is the hero , the boat's captain, who is a real he-man. Very much cut from the macho mold of the time and is nothing much to get excited about as a result. Then there are several long sections in which the characters lecture one another and the narrator lectures the reader. The end result is a book that tends to drag.
When I began this review I stated that the book was okay and I stand by that. I read it a little bit at a time and often skimmed over pages since there were long sections that the story tended to bog and nothing was lost by a little speed reading. The world that is created in "Long Voyage Back" is intriguing enough to hold one's attention for short periods of time, but it isn't a read from front to back in one night. It might be more realistic, but it isn't engrossing. Though not as bleak as The Road it's about as interesting as that highly acclaimed novel (yes I am going against Oprah Winfrey - sorry). Now maybe it's wrong to want a novel set in such a horrific world to be exciting, but I do and this one doesn't achieve that. So two stars for creating a terrifying and plausible setting, but no more.
It's obvious that it was written in 1980/1981 and reflects the concerns of that time and (possibly) the author's politics. I feel confident that the unnamed President of the United States is based on Reagan (at least how Mr. Rhinehart saw him). Thirty-five years ago it did not seem implausible that Ronnie was going to push the button. I recall the early years of the Eighties when the Cold War heated back up. I don't fault the author for believing that the United States might initiate a war considering what was taking place in the early years of the 1980's; Iran hostage crisis, Soviets invading Afghanistan, crack down on labor unions in Poland, war in Central America, bad economic news, renewed arms race and so on.
Looking back on that time it's amusing (?) to realize that ten years later the Soviet Union would cease to exist. However hindsight is 20/20 and at the start of the Eighties almost nobody would have predicted a relatively peaceful end of the Cold War in just a decade. Many of us believed that the only way the Cold War was going to end was with a hot war . In Mr. Rhinehart's novel not only do those who are involved with the military and the government come across as despicable, but also high level business participants (stockbrokers, businessmen, developers and so on). I suppose the Capitalists receive some of the blame for the war since they contribute to the economy that feeds the war machine. This is definitely not a Tom Clancy novel trumpeting the glory and superiority of the American Way.
However, a good post-apocalyptic nuclear war novel isn't hampered by changing times. Pat Frank's classic Alas, Babylon is a prime example of a novel that has long been obsolete not only due changing politics, but technology, science and society. Yet Mr. Frank's novel has never been out of print since it arrived in 1959. Any good book can outlast it's time when it achieves a balance that gives it a timelessness. Admittedly achieving such a thing is like catching the proverbial lightning in a bottle. It's a rare and magical thing that many try to accomplish and fail at. Seems to be one of those things that happen when least expected. "Long Voyage Back" does not achieve this feat. It's a well written novel and Mr. Rhinehart is obviously a capable and intelligent writer. His novel is many notches above the machine gun and muscle macho nuclear Post Apocalyptic fare so typical of the time period. See Total War and Pilgrimage to Hell as a couple outstanding examples of the other type. It's thoughtful, dark, and horrifying, but it isn't all that exciting or suspenseful. The fact that it takes place on a large sailboat actually hurts the story. There were times I found myself at a total loss as to what was going on.
Many of the nautical terms were confusing and I had a difficult time picturing the layout of the vessel. A diagram or two of the craft would have helped as well as a glossary of nautical terms. The action sequences were probably more realistic, but they weren't very suspenseful and for such a competent writer Mr. Rhinehart actually indulged in many a cliché and stereotype. One glaring example of such clichés is the hero , the boat's captain, who is a real he-man. Very much cut from the macho mold of the time and is nothing much to get excited about as a result. Then there are several long sections in which the characters lecture one another and the narrator lectures the reader. The end result is a book that tends to drag.
When I began this review I stated that the book was okay and I stand by that. I read it a little bit at a time and often skimmed over pages since there were long sections that the story tended to bog and nothing was lost by a little speed reading. The world that is created in "Long Voyage Back" is intriguing enough to hold one's attention for short periods of time, but it isn't a read from front to back in one night. It might be more realistic, but it isn't engrossing. Though not as bleak as The Road it's about as interesting as that highly acclaimed novel (yes I am going against Oprah Winfrey - sorry). Now maybe it's wrong to want a novel set in such a horrific world to be exciting, but I do and this one doesn't achieve that. So two stars for creating a terrifying and plausible setting, but no more.
March 26, 2013
Cold War apocalypses are an acquired taste; one which I've lost. They seemed so bold, honest and edgy then, but so lame--even silly now. That is partly because they were so over the top with survivalist or social engineering, but mostly because it never happened. But it could have. From the end of World War Two (1945) and certainly after the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) until the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved, much of the world was gripped in a bilateral tug of war with threatened (among other buzz phrases) Mutual Assured Destruction. If MAD or counter-force versus counter-value, Circular Errors Probable and air raid drills mean nothing to you, then neither will this book, originally published in 1984.
Today's apocalypses come watered down--the Hunger Games, et al.--but we drank the brew straight in the 70s and 80s, and then--poof!--the Warsaw Pact disappeared. And it all seemed like a bad dream. It was real; we've just forgotten.
The story is silly--even by those standards--but the characterization and storytelling is good.
An okay read.
Today's apocalypses come watered down--the Hunger Games, et al.--but we drank the brew straight in the 70s and 80s, and then--poof!--the Warsaw Pact disappeared. And it all seemed like a bad dream. It was real; we've just forgotten.
The story is silly--even by those standards--but the characterization and storytelling is good.
An okay read.
May 5, 2012
Oh dear. I really love The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart, but this book is simply not very good. Incredibly pronounced gender stereotypes are so overdone that it's not in the least bit offensive, it's just really really funny when viewed post-feminist revolution. The plot is completely predictable. It's a real page turner though. Think of it as high octane pop music, in literary form.
March 12, 2025
Discussing books with a friend, we found that we had a common taste in reading a dystopian novel from time to time and that we both held several books of that ilk in high regard. He then lent me two that he held close to his heart and that, at all costs, I must treat well and ensure they got back to him (in their same dog eared condition?). No pressure.
So the Long Voyage Back is the first of those books, published in 1983. I read it conscious of and allowing for the prevailing views, social norms and practices of the time, as I always try to do. Namely judging the book on its quality of writing and story and not how different today can appear. However, I couldn't help the odd wry smile along the way due to some dated views and expectations.
I much enjoyed this story of a small group of people desperately trying to stay alive on a trimaran, fleeing the nuclear holocaust resulting from the Americans and Russians deciding to rain all hell down on the northern hemisphere. What was good was the pretty relentless pace and depiction of the many other after effects, even if you were 'lucky' enough to survive the initial blast and subsequent radiation fallout. Contamination, mass starvation, cholera, typhoid, new diseases, lack of medical care, societal breakdown, lawlessness, racial divides and wholesale shunning of south fleeing refugees, wherever they tried to go.
What was not so good was that whilst it is acknowledged that everyone had to get on with staying alive (or dying), the effects of the shock and mourning, for everything and everyone obliterated, did not come across (if it were ever addressed). Indeed, most people seemed to be immediately interested in jumping into bed with a new partner(s) and to hell with the 2 day dead wife, husband etc. Indeed, many appeared to not let the lack of a willing partner inhibit them, rape and bartering for 'favours' being rife from day 1. A minor irritation of the book was the constant references to the layout of the boat that was their whole world. As such it should have been clear but the frequent descriptions were often over laboured yet still hard to visualise, the boat being a trimaran.
There are those who have dismissed the book on the basis that, since the wall came down, the idea of a nuclear war had become laughable. I think it is dangerous to think the possibility could ever be laughable. Now, more than ever, such books are relevant with much of the world submitting to authoritarian regimes. Indeed, with a smattering of sociopaths running the place, not least those in the USA, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, it should be remembered that they all have or are looking to have, a nuclear trigger.
I did love the nihilistic postscript saying that the book was a work of fiction and that the after effects of a large scale nuclear war would be so much worse...and I thought the author had the bleakest of outlooks nicely covered!
Ok, so I appreciated a good book but not a great one in my view. Hmm...I can see a white lie required, rather than admitting that view, when reporting back to my dystopian loving friend!
So the Long Voyage Back is the first of those books, published in 1983. I read it conscious of and allowing for the prevailing views, social norms and practices of the time, as I always try to do. Namely judging the book on its quality of writing and story and not how different today can appear. However, I couldn't help the odd wry smile along the way due to some dated views and expectations.
I much enjoyed this story of a small group of people desperately trying to stay alive on a trimaran, fleeing the nuclear holocaust resulting from the Americans and Russians deciding to rain all hell down on the northern hemisphere. What was good was the pretty relentless pace and depiction of the many other after effects, even if you were 'lucky' enough to survive the initial blast and subsequent radiation fallout. Contamination, mass starvation, cholera, typhoid, new diseases, lack of medical care, societal breakdown, lawlessness, racial divides and wholesale shunning of south fleeing refugees, wherever they tried to go.
What was not so good was that whilst it is acknowledged that everyone had to get on with staying alive (or dying), the effects of the shock and mourning, for everything and everyone obliterated, did not come across (if it were ever addressed). Indeed, most people seemed to be immediately interested in jumping into bed with a new partner(s) and to hell with the 2 day dead wife, husband etc. Indeed, many appeared to not let the lack of a willing partner inhibit them, rape and bartering for 'favours' being rife from day 1. A minor irritation of the book was the constant references to the layout of the boat that was their whole world. As such it should have been clear but the frequent descriptions were often over laboured yet still hard to visualise, the boat being a trimaran.
There are those who have dismissed the book on the basis that, since the wall came down, the idea of a nuclear war had become laughable. I think it is dangerous to think the possibility could ever be laughable. Now, more than ever, such books are relevant with much of the world submitting to authoritarian regimes. Indeed, with a smattering of sociopaths running the place, not least those in the USA, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, it should be remembered that they all have or are looking to have, a nuclear trigger.
I did love the nihilistic postscript saying that the book was a work of fiction and that the after effects of a large scale nuclear war would be so much worse...and I thought the author had the bleakest of outlooks nicely covered!
Ok, so I appreciated a good book but not a great one in my view. Hmm...I can see a white lie required, rather than admitting that view, when reporting back to my dystopian loving friend!
December 3, 2015
Nuclear war is so last season.
Or is it? I am one of those people who often ponders how the world will end. Different scenarios most often involve me being one of the last survivors and kind of the hero of the story.
In Long Voyage Back I would have been long dead.
Why?
Coz it's all about boating and seamanship and it all depends on how well you'll do at sea.
Me? Not at all well. No clue. Nada.
Ergo = dead.
Long Voyage Back is about a nuclear war which starts between Russia and The United States and a bunch of people are going on a boating trip anyway, so they end up on a boat at sea through the whole book.
It works best as a getaway story from the current reality that we live in. This is the sort of fiction I enjoy reading, where the story is set in real places but placed in a surrounding which could be possible in some sense but isn't taking place right now. (That way you get to put yourself in the story, me being the hero like I said in the beginning, and question different outcomes and decisions you'd make.)
The book is very laden with boating and ship related terminology. I didn't let it bother me at all and I didn't even understand all the terms used. The point for me was the story itself. But this could be a deal breaker for many, so just so you know!
In some sense the storytelling could be described as pretty superficial, since Rhinehart kept at the events and plot twists rather than the deeper effects of a nuclear war and a world being destroyed around these characters. I mean the "To be or not to be" of nuclear war. But, I still didn't mind. It's the reason for that one star missing from the rating, but as an entertaining piece of fiction, this book worked very well.
Sometimes its such a relief to read a book every once in a while where there is a lot of action and you really get into thinking about the fate of the characters: where will they go and what will happen to them there.
I enjoyed how Rhinehart brought up all these side-effects, if you will, of nuclear war, such as epidemics, robbing, people turning against each other etc. It really makes you, as a reader, an active part of the story as you question the cause and effect and especially the decisions the characters make.
Or is it? I am one of those people who often ponders how the world will end. Different scenarios most often involve me being one of the last survivors and kind of the hero of the story.
In Long Voyage Back I would have been long dead.
Why?
Coz it's all about boating and seamanship and it all depends on how well you'll do at sea.
Me? Not at all well. No clue. Nada.
Ergo = dead.
Long Voyage Back is about a nuclear war which starts between Russia and The United States and a bunch of people are going on a boating trip anyway, so they end up on a boat at sea through the whole book.
It works best as a getaway story from the current reality that we live in. This is the sort of fiction I enjoy reading, where the story is set in real places but placed in a surrounding which could be possible in some sense but isn't taking place right now. (That way you get to put yourself in the story, me being the hero like I said in the beginning, and question different outcomes and decisions you'd make.)
The book is very laden with boating and ship related terminology. I didn't let it bother me at all and I didn't even understand all the terms used. The point for me was the story itself. But this could be a deal breaker for many, so just so you know!
In some sense the storytelling could be described as pretty superficial, since Rhinehart kept at the events and plot twists rather than the deeper effects of a nuclear war and a world being destroyed around these characters. I mean the "To be or not to be" of nuclear war. But, I still didn't mind. It's the reason for that one star missing from the rating, but as an entertaining piece of fiction, this book worked very well.
Sometimes its such a relief to read a book every once in a while where there is a lot of action and you really get into thinking about the fate of the characters: where will they go and what will happen to them there.
I enjoyed how Rhinehart brought up all these side-effects, if you will, of nuclear war, such as epidemics, robbing, people turning against each other etc. It really makes you, as a reader, an active part of the story as you question the cause and effect and especially the decisions the characters make.
April 17, 2014
Great story about people trying to survive a nuclear war and its aftermath. Originally released in 1983 when tensions between the US and Soviet Union were still high.
I recently "discovered" this as a ebook, and read it for the first time.
While some aspects of this book are dated, that in no way reduces the human element in this story, or the chillingly all too real consequences of such a war. Most of the story takes place aboard a trimaran ship, caught in Chesapeake bay when bombs start hitting Washington and other Northeast Cities. The story follows their escape to the open Atlantic, the Caribbean, and southward. The geographic locations of the story only adds to the sense of realism, especially if you are familiar with them. More than anything else, this is a great story about a disaster bringing out both the best and worst in people in their struggle to survive. I highly recommended it.
I recently "discovered" this as a ebook, and read it for the first time.
While some aspects of this book are dated, that in no way reduces the human element in this story, or the chillingly all too real consequences of such a war. Most of the story takes place aboard a trimaran ship, caught in Chesapeake bay when bombs start hitting Washington and other Northeast Cities. The story follows their escape to the open Atlantic, the Caribbean, and southward. The geographic locations of the story only adds to the sense of realism, especially if you are familiar with them. More than anything else, this is a great story about a disaster bringing out both the best and worst in people in their struggle to survive. I highly recommended it.
April 11, 2013
Overall a pretty good, realistic, and well detailed post apocalyptic story set in the 1980s during and after a nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Russia. The characters were well done and interesting to read about. The plot wasn't bad and I really didn't find anything too big that turned me off about it.
Overall a good story. I enjoyed reading it.
Overall a good story. I enjoyed reading it.
October 3, 2014
The story centres around a group of people trying to escape a nuclear war using a trimaran yacht. The owner of the boat, his hired crew and some family and friends spend the initial part of the book trying to get away from the East Coast of the US, but their journey takes them to a number of other locations in an attempt to escape the usual combination of radioactive fallout, other survivors and disease. Many of the typical elements of a post-apocalyptic adventure tale are present, and although there isn't much in the way of clever or new material, the story was interesting enough to keep me reading throughout around 500 pages.
The book's age comes through in the details of which countries are involved, but if you can overlook this then the story is reasonable enough, albeit nothing original. For my taste the book featured a bit too much sailing terminology, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. That said, if you really feel the need to read a book about sailing after a nuclear war, then I have two other suggestions that are both superior, in my opinion:
'On The Beach' by Nevil Shute
'The Last Ship' by William Brinkley
The book's age comes through in the details of which countries are involved, but if you can overlook this then the story is reasonable enough, albeit nothing original. For my taste the book featured a bit too much sailing terminology, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. That said, if you really feel the need to read a book about sailing after a nuclear war, then I have two other suggestions that are both superior, in my opinion:
'On The Beach' by Nevil Shute
'The Last Ship' by William Brinkley
October 11, 2012
I'm a big fan of apocalypse/post-apocalypse survival stories and for me, this one lands somewhere between riveting/hard-to-put-down and preposterous, even comical. If you haven't read a book like that, give it time... you're bound to encounter something that simultaneously entertains you and makes you raise an eyebrow time and again. The writing is rife with the author's personal -- and dated -- feelings about conflict and most every social issue, and his hippie stylings color the development of every character in the book.
Certain events and characters described in this book were predictable, silly, cliche, and downright unbelievable... I got the feeling that the author wrote this novel in a day or two. Yet somehow, the book was a fun, engaging read and I enjoyed it.
Not a classic in its genre and not an example of modern literature... just an easy-to-read survival story stuck in the wierdest decade of my own life, the 80's.
Certain events and characters described in this book were predictable, silly, cliche, and downright unbelievable... I got the feeling that the author wrote this novel in a day or two. Yet somehow, the book was a fun, engaging read and I enjoyed it.
Not a classic in its genre and not an example of modern literature... just an easy-to-read survival story stuck in the wierdest decade of my own life, the 80's.
March 26, 2013
I've read a ton of these old nuclear Armageddon sci-fi books and while this one wasn't as captivating as some of the others, it was still a decent read. Like some previous reviews pointed out, the gender roles were so exaggerated as to be almost distracting... but had I read this 20 years ago they may not have taken so much of my attention. By the end of the book I was feeling much warmer toward the characters, enough to mourn the deaths of some of the characters. Also, the ending? Nicely done. In this genre you can only end a book with tragedy or with hope, and the author chose his ending well.
September 25, 2014
Wow, just, wow. Easily one of the worst books I've ever read. Characters that are cardboard cut outs , with zero attempt at character development. The author spends most of his book describing the tedious minutiae of sailing a trimaran which had me googling words like "daggerboard" until I finally said f**k it I don't care. Actually I ended up saying this about the entire book. Don't waste your time.
February 21, 2022
A 1980s apocalyptic thriller of nuclear war survival, Long Voyage Back makes a good companion piece to David Graham’s Down to a Sunless Sea. Both novels – which are very much of the drug store paperback genre – follow a group of survivors in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear war who find themselves in a more fortunate starting position than the average joe: Graham’s characters aboard a jumbo jet flying between New York and London, and Rhinehart’s aboard a well-equipped trimaran. This stroke of good luck might at first appear to be the solution to all their problems, and indeed they’re far better off than 99% of Americans; but, of course, their ordeal is only just beginning.
Long Voyage Back's protagonist is Neil Loken, a former US Navy officer who now skippers the trimaran Vagabond for an investment banker named Frank Spoor, and has just sailed it up from Florida with Frank’s son Jim for a weekend of sailing in Chesapeake Bay with some family friends. When the war breaks out – the first sign of which is the nuclear obliteration of Washington D.C. just to their north – Neil’s first instinct is to get them out to sea, away from the radioactive dust raining down on the land and the desperate refugees beginning to flock to the seaside towns and harbours, and merely escaping the bay takes up the first quarter of the novel. From there the story develops into a long voyage to reach some safe haven further south, contending with fallout, limited food, conscription orders from the rump of the US military, and power struggles within their own group. Down to a Sunless Sea has an obvious immediacy to its survival situation – a Boeing 747 needs a runway within a matter of hours – but Long Voyage Back is telling a story about the weeks and months that follow the initial war, as the last remnants of landborne civilisation continue to crumble.
Rhinehart manages all this pretty well. He has absolutely no illusions about how the nation-states of Latin America and the Caribbean would react to a flood of refugees pouring out of the nuclear-stricken United States, nor about the kind of situation they themselves would be in: simply surviving the war itself does not mean life in the Global South will blissfully roll on unimpeded when the global economy collapses overnight. When Vagabond docks for a time in the U.S. Virgin Islands, there’s an hallucinatory end-of-days atmosphere among the locals; part drug-induced carnival, part purgatory of fear and violence. (It’s also explicitly said that the entire Caribbean – majority black with a population of wealthier native whites joined by the kind of white Americans who owned private boats – is simmering on the brink of a race war; this probably could’ve been handled with a little more sensitively than Rhinehart writes it, but it’s hard to deny that’s probably how things would go down once the food started running out.) As Vagabond continues to sail further south in an increasingly fruitless search for a place where her crew of American refugees might be welcome, it becomes more and more clear that what might seem like an idle prepper fantasy (“if you had a boat and knew how to sail it, you’d be set”) would by no means be a clear ticket to long-term survival.
Long Voyage Back certainly has its flaws. Rhinehart occasionally leans too far into his own sailing knowledge, leaving the unfamiliar reader all at sea; he’s also not particularly good at writing the sort of run-and-gun action scenes which become more common in the novel’s second half. It also has the typical sort of thin characterisation, clunky dialogue and sexism that you’d expect from pop fiction of the 1980s – though less so, it should be said, than many of its contemporaries. But on the whole I really enjoyed it. It’s rare to see an American novel about nuclear war which spares much thought for what might happen to other countries, and Long Voyage Back mixes that with a solid, page-turning adventure of survival.
Long Voyage Back's protagonist is Neil Loken, a former US Navy officer who now skippers the trimaran Vagabond for an investment banker named Frank Spoor, and has just sailed it up from Florida with Frank’s son Jim for a weekend of sailing in Chesapeake Bay with some family friends. When the war breaks out – the first sign of which is the nuclear obliteration of Washington D.C. just to their north – Neil’s first instinct is to get them out to sea, away from the radioactive dust raining down on the land and the desperate refugees beginning to flock to the seaside towns and harbours, and merely escaping the bay takes up the first quarter of the novel. From there the story develops into a long voyage to reach some safe haven further south, contending with fallout, limited food, conscription orders from the rump of the US military, and power struggles within their own group. Down to a Sunless Sea has an obvious immediacy to its survival situation – a Boeing 747 needs a runway within a matter of hours – but Long Voyage Back is telling a story about the weeks and months that follow the initial war, as the last remnants of landborne civilisation continue to crumble.
Rhinehart manages all this pretty well. He has absolutely no illusions about how the nation-states of Latin America and the Caribbean would react to a flood of refugees pouring out of the nuclear-stricken United States, nor about the kind of situation they themselves would be in: simply surviving the war itself does not mean life in the Global South will blissfully roll on unimpeded when the global economy collapses overnight. When Vagabond docks for a time in the U.S. Virgin Islands, there’s an hallucinatory end-of-days atmosphere among the locals; part drug-induced carnival, part purgatory of fear and violence. (It’s also explicitly said that the entire Caribbean – majority black with a population of wealthier native whites joined by the kind of white Americans who owned private boats – is simmering on the brink of a race war; this probably could’ve been handled with a little more sensitively than Rhinehart writes it, but it’s hard to deny that’s probably how things would go down once the food started running out.) As Vagabond continues to sail further south in an increasingly fruitless search for a place where her crew of American refugees might be welcome, it becomes more and more clear that what might seem like an idle prepper fantasy (“if you had a boat and knew how to sail it, you’d be set”) would by no means be a clear ticket to long-term survival.
Long Voyage Back certainly has its flaws. Rhinehart occasionally leans too far into his own sailing knowledge, leaving the unfamiliar reader all at sea; he’s also not particularly good at writing the sort of run-and-gun action scenes which become more common in the novel’s second half. It also has the typical sort of thin characterisation, clunky dialogue and sexism that you’d expect from pop fiction of the 1980s – though less so, it should be said, than many of its contemporaries. But on the whole I really enjoyed it. It’s rare to see an American novel about nuclear war which spares much thought for what might happen to other countries, and Long Voyage Back mixes that with a solid, page-turning adventure of survival.
August 27, 2022
Classic post-nuclear written-in-the-'80s survival story, which is to say, the male and female lead have plot armor and so suffer everything except death, there's a lot of talk about women forced to barter their bodies for survival but none of the female characters ever have to, and there's more than one conversation that boils down to "nobody won this war". There's a somewhat-cringey racial element--as the protagonists sail southward, it becomes clear that the inhabitants of the Caribbean and South America blame white America (and the white Soviet Union, of course) for the war and ensuring starvation/plague/flood of refugees. None of the non-white people they encounter are friendly, they all speak in accents or patois, and their time on land on one island ends with the black natives uprising and driving out the white refugees. Our hero/lead protagonist, of course, is white and is described several times as looking like a Nordic god, even as the food starts running out and long days dealing with idiots on a ship get to him.
I mean, if you're looking for a fairly-gritty apocalypse, with the required postscript that of course a real nuclear war would be so much more horrifying that a mere novel could not describe it, you could do worse. You could also do better.
I mean, if you're looking for a fairly-gritty apocalypse, with the required postscript that of course a real nuclear war would be so much more horrifying that a mere novel could not describe it, you could do worse. You could also do better.
December 5, 2019
I enjoyed this book more than I would like to admit, and more than the book probably deserves. The book is the story of a group of survivors from New England, who take to the sea after nuclear war breaks out between the US and the USSR. Although the book offers some tantalizing glimpses of the geopolitics of the war, mostly it is just snippets heard by characters. Speaking of which, the characters are mostly white male archetypes (the military guy, the gruff seaman, the financier, the teenager, the bad guy), while the women accomplish little more than looking attractive. There is much that doesn't make sense in the book; the radioactive fallout from the global nuclear change gives the characters a mild case of the flu, even though some of them were survivors from the nuclear blasts in major American cities. The nuclear fallout from the sky can simply be swept off the boat and into the ocean with no concern.
In spite of all these shortcomings, I generally enjoyed reading this book. But anyone who wants to read a really good book about nuclear war is better off with Nevil Schute's "On the Beach".
In spite of all these shortcomings, I generally enjoyed reading this book. But anyone who wants to read a really good book about nuclear war is better off with Nevil Schute's "On the Beach".
October 3, 2023
This book was pretty good! There were some interesting characters and a great premise. The book’s strongest element is definitely its world building. Lots of great, realistic details about the world the characters are trekking through
Would’ve been three stars but I really enjoyed the ending
Would’ve been three stars but I really enjoyed the ending
July 20, 2020
Liked that all the sailing stuff was pretty accurate -- I've sailed a trimaran on the open ocean -- didn't like that there was a lot of sexism -- women in the galley, men making all the decisions.
June 24, 2024
Excellent couldn’t put down. Highly recommended
June 4, 2013
I wanted to give this book three stars because the plot was good and it kept my attention enough to finish it. However, there are some things that really got my knickers in a twist. For one thing, although the book was copyrighted in the early 1980's, the author must have written it in the 50's because the female characters in his novel seemed to have stepped right out of "Leave It to Beaver". At first I was a bit insulted but then it just became comical to read.
Secondly, what the hell happened to the family dog? Jeanne and her family are waiting for Vagabond to pick them up in the beginning of it all and they have a family dog with them. Inexplicably the dog disappears once the family is on the sailboat... uh, I mean the trimaran. I spent the entire book wondering what the hell happened to the dog. At worst, they should have kept it for food later, when things got hairy. Nick even bought dog food at one point but I guess it was for emergency rations because the dog was MIA.
Thirdly, what happened to Seth??? He was shot in the leg, brought to Moorehead City to a refugee center and after begging Frank to return to him, the group just left him. Nick even had antibiotics he found on the Navy ship that he could have used to perhaps save Seth. He even mentioned picking him up before they got the hell out of Dodge but once again, on the boat Seth is inexplicably missing. Maybe he's with the damn dog.
Lastly, the blood transfusion for Frank. What are the odds that Frank and Sheila knew their blood type and were compatible? I suppose the odds are good but nothing is mentioned about it.
Maybe I'm just harping on little things but sometimes it's the little things that a reader dwells on. I would especially like to know what happened to the dog, call me silly. I might have given this one three stars if it weren't for these things... it wasn't a bad read.
Secondly, what the hell happened to the family dog? Jeanne and her family are waiting for Vagabond to pick them up in the beginning of it all and they have a family dog with them. Inexplicably the dog disappears once the family is on the sailboat... uh, I mean the trimaran. I spent the entire book wondering what the hell happened to the dog. At worst, they should have kept it for food later, when things got hairy. Nick even bought dog food at one point but I guess it was for emergency rations because the dog was MIA.
Thirdly, what happened to Seth??? He was shot in the leg, brought to Moorehead City to a refugee center and after begging Frank to return to him, the group just left him. Nick even had antibiotics he found on the Navy ship that he could have used to perhaps save Seth. He even mentioned picking him up before they got the hell out of Dodge but once again, on the boat Seth is inexplicably missing. Maybe he's with the damn dog.
Lastly, the blood transfusion for Frank. What are the odds that Frank and Sheila knew their blood type and were compatible? I suppose the odds are good but nothing is mentioned about it.
Maybe I'm just harping on little things but sometimes it's the little things that a reader dwells on. I would especially like to know what happened to the dog, call me silly. I might have given this one three stars if it weren't for these things... it wasn't a bad read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2017
Good book
Good book. Good book. G o o d b o o k. G o o d b o o k.
Good book. Good book. G o o d b o o k. G o o d b o o k.
September 15, 2012
This novel reminded me of one of my favourite nuclear war books, On The Beach, in tone and style and the conversational exchanges between the hero and heroine.
After a devastating nuclear exchange, the hero, Neil, and several other characters seek refuge from the unfolding disaster on a trimaran but it proves to be only the start of their struggle for survival. They must deal with nuclear fallout, disease, desperate and evil characters, and hunger. Yet, as often happens in real life, the strains in their personal relationships often proves to be their biggest obstacle.
I loved the start of this book - the way the war unfolded and the individual battles the characters endured. Once they got on the boat, I felt the story started to drag a bit with the focus being on the unresolved love triangle instead of the fight for survival but I persevered and it picked up again. Once it did, I kept reading until I finished it. Funnily enough, it was the scenes against nature that I found most riveting, rather than the battles against self-serving individuals. Their struggle to find food in the middle of the ocean, or to overcome illness without adequate medicine, resonated with me. And the final scenes when they finally make it across the ocean to an island were very satisfying.
After a devastating nuclear exchange, the hero, Neil, and several other characters seek refuge from the unfolding disaster on a trimaran but it proves to be only the start of their struggle for survival. They must deal with nuclear fallout, disease, desperate and evil characters, and hunger. Yet, as often happens in real life, the strains in their personal relationships often proves to be their biggest obstacle.
I loved the start of this book - the way the war unfolded and the individual battles the characters endured. Once they got on the boat, I felt the story started to drag a bit with the focus being on the unresolved love triangle instead of the fight for survival but I persevered and it picked up again. Once it did, I kept reading until I finished it. Funnily enough, it was the scenes against nature that I found most riveting, rather than the battles against self-serving individuals. Their struggle to find food in the middle of the ocean, or to overcome illness without adequate medicine, resonated with me. And the final scenes when they finally make it across the ocean to an island were very satisfying.
November 10, 2012
Written in the '80s, this novel by Luke Rhinehart is still a nail-biter. I found myself looking and finding time to read it. I found the characters realistic enough to care about and even though the plot is a bit predictable (and why shouldn't it be, it IS apocalyptic, after all) Rhinehart still threw in some curves I wasn't expecting. It never ocurred to me before that refugees from America wouldn't be accepted or tolerated anywhere in the world. It's a terrifying trip with no hope of safety. Where would you go? Loved it!
April 28, 2013
TL;DR: Read this book if you are interested in sailing and survival of a small unlikely group but if you are looking for a likely military story, look elsewhere.
While the main starting point of the story is a nuclear exchange which rapidly turns into a global war, including all the trimmings like civil wars, starvation, south-versus-north wars of exclusion and all those horror scenarios often repeated in the 80ies, to me the real story was about a group of people forced to live on the sea, from the sea, and in the meantime avoid killing each other.
While the main starting point of the story is a nuclear exchange which rapidly turns into a global war, including all the trimmings like civil wars, starvation, south-versus-north wars of exclusion and all those horror scenarios often repeated in the 80ies, to me the real story was about a group of people forced to live on the sea, from the sea, and in the meantime avoid killing each other.
January 6, 2015
Mr. Rhinehart is a very good writer. I never lost interest in the story. "Long Voyage Back" only rated three stars instead of four because of the eye rolling racist and sexist stereotyping that was present through nearly the whole story. Not atypical for books of the time from white male authors, but this really detracted from my enjoyment of the story. A minor technical quibble--most people were unaware of the effect of EMP on electronics in the early 1980's, but many devices that would have been knocked out by the pulse from a thermonuclear explosion kept right on working.
November 20, 2012
I liked the book for a few reasons....it was closer to current times than some of the other books I have read recently. I read it at a fast pace. There are some memorable quotes in there about "running to stand still".
The book raised some great questions without being pretentious or preaching to me.
The book raised some great questions without being pretentious or preaching to me.
March 26, 2013
Grim and unsparing in descriptions of disease, radiation sickness and starvation after a prolonged nuclear exchange between the Warsaw Pact and NATO in the early 1980's. Not an easy or fun read, but it remains an unsettling reminder of how close we came to the brink of mutual suicide in the waning days of the Cold War.
September 14, 2014
For the sailors out there, check it out
set in the seventies this nuke war story is still timely. Very realistic, good characters, good details, and movement. I think this is exactly how its going to be even now in this century. the war scenario is plausible and the stupid president and govt are absolutely on the money. no way you'll be unhappy with this book purchase.
set in the seventies this nuke war story is still timely. Very realistic, good characters, good details, and movement. I think this is exactly how its going to be even now in this century. the war scenario is plausible and the stupid president and govt are absolutely on the money. no way you'll be unhappy with this book purchase.
April 27, 2013
Although dated (as it is set at the height of the Cold War) it describes the survival of strangers cast together on the yacht the Vagabond. During the story the author's anti-nuclear message is clear as the strangers become family while militarism is replaced by pacifism.
October 24, 2010
what a story nailbiting to the end
November 8, 2010
This is a hair-raising tale of post-nuclear war in the 80's. Great read.
March 31, 2013
I made it 220 pages in and then skimmed to the end. It dragged on and was ultimately anticlimactic.
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