The Last Whales: A Novel

by Lloyd Abbey

A mature Blue bull whale, weakened by parasites and mercury poisoning, searches for his mate and surviving calf, while remembering the events of his life

Genres: Fiction, Nature, Animals, Novels

358 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[P. Lundburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most memorable novels I have ever read. I even used it in a college nature literature class I teach, due in large part to the brilliant prose, well-developed plot, and most of all the fantastic character development. That the protagonist is a whale does not take away from our ability to empathize with the main character. As others have pointed out, the background for the story is well-researched, and plays an important role in the "agenda" behind which the story was written. Again, no matter -- this is an amazingly well-written and memorable novel in its own right.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE LAST WHALES is a weighty novel about a family of Blue Whales and their efforts to survive a gauntlet of hazards both natural and man-made. Whether through direct harm wrought by whaling ships, or the indirect, yet just as deadly, harm that exists as a byproduct of human activities like commercial fishing, pollution, and war, this book brings readers directly into the peril-filled ocean world and challenges to think about the thoughtless ways in which our species drives others to extinction.

"Extinction" applies to the human race, ultimately, as the climactic scene involves the denotation of an atomic bomb that profoundly affects the planet and its creatures. This fits with the era in which the book was written with its many Cold War anxieties. The whaling ships disappear along with humans, but the climate and oceans change drastically, forcing the wildlife to adapt quickly or perish.

Much like the long-lived, enormous cetaceans themselves, THE LAST WHALES takes its time. Don't expect to get through this one quickly. The author paints a complete picture of not only the main characters but also their ocean habitat and the many species they encounter on their global travels. Much has been written about the whale mating scenes, which are admittedly weird, but probably scientifically factual. Perhaps because their bodies are so alien to us, it's difficult to even imagine how these animals would reproduce. Perhaps mercifully, this is only a small part of the book.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blue, barely a woman, is lonely and desperate to hook up with someone - anyone. Finding a good man these days is next to impossible! As she is about to give up hope, she runs into a giant known only as the Bull. A recent widower, Bull has a broken heart and needs of his own. The pair are joined by Fin, and elderly woman who lost her entire family long ago. After forty years of suppressing her feelings, she begins to find love again, both emotional and sensual, when she is with her two young wards. But when Blue, a die-hard Southern girl, finds out that Bull is simply not from her part of the world, will the three be driven apart by her need to return home and to the life she knew, or will she take the plunge with her new family and continue in their seemingly endless display of steaming whale intercourse?

The only thing that I really knew about this novel was that it was about the last of the whales (duh), and I never expected that it would read like an erotica/romance. I only managed to get to page 87 before I had to return it (ILL), though maybe I will pick it up again in the future and finish it. It seemed like a book that I would really enjoy, but I never really got into it (and not just because of the massive amounts of graphic whale sex).

[C.I. DeMann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has stuck with me for years now, images and ideas from it burned into my head. Excellent work, highly recommended.

[Holly Lindquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

A post-apocalyptic tale with a different focus, in which the main characters are whales rather than humans. The author definitely did his research. Several species are represented here, including some dolphins who get roped into the human tomfoolery. As for the writing, it's slow-moving, heavy, and melancholic.. a bit like humpback whale music actually.

[Ladyjexie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Although it is impossible for a human being to view things through the eyes and mind of a whale, Lloyd has probably come as close as one can get."

Another 'changed my life forever' novel. ... Many tears shed for these blue whales.

[Enoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book 3
This is one of the few books that has made me emotional. I had to take breaks after reading a single page sometimes.
I'm so happy I stumbled upon it at a used bookstore.
It is quite technical and specific sometimes, but I loved it more for these details.

[Lafcadio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange protagonists in this book. They are all whales, but not like talking whales, regular whales. The book follows their migration almost like a discovery channel special, anthropomorphizing them.

[Lone Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘The Last Whales’ follows the fortunes of various different individual whales and dolphins. These characters have basic emotions, but do not speak, or even have names – they’re just referred to as “the blue bull”, “the fin whale cow” and so on. Whilst I enjoy realism in my animal stories, I do think they would have been more interesting and sympathetic if they’d talked, as it would have given them more personality.

The story is set at some unspecified time in the future, when humans have thoroughly wrecked the planet and the few remaining cetaceans are struggling for survival. Food is hard to find, some of the whales are turning to hybridisation as they can no longer find mates of their own species, and many calves are born deformed. As you can imagine, this makes for somewhat depressing reading, but I still found it an engaging book.

[Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reads like a textbook outlining the evolution and behavior of a range of ocean life, in particular whales, and specifically blue whales along with the drastic decline of the whale population because of hunting. These sections were dry and detailed.
Contrasting that are descriptions of feelings, emotions and memories of the whales that are anthropomorphic and scarcely believable. Yes, whales have large brains but in comparison to body size are they large enough for the descriptions given. The main characters are not given names ( an attempt to escape the anthropomorphism?) but are called the blue female, the blue bull and the Fin female. Details of the pursuit of the whale and the death by explosive harpoon are graphic.
I got half way through this.

[Theresa Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

My love for the ocean and the life within is strong. This will forever be a book I treasure.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

EVERYONE should read this to connect with the impact of modern living on creatures of the sea.

[Shanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told from the viewpoint of several whales and a few dolphins, this novel provides a very unique perspective. It is well-written, descriptive, imaginative, emotional, engaging, heart-wrenching. It is also not an "enjoyable" read due to the repeated tragedies befalling the animals. Through brutal hunting/fishing, environmental destruction, and environmental and biological effects of nuclear war, humans decimate the whale population.

TW: graphic descriptions of animal death, both human-caused and natural

[Connaught Cullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Granted, I read this book a long time ago, but I found it to be a gut-wrenching story about seeking your purpose for your whole life, finally finding it and than having it ripped from you. Have Kleenex handy.

[Julie Akeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been around awhile, but it seems to scream for anyone who is involved with Greenpeace to read it. I'm not smashing on the book, it's great, but it's a call for people to wake up that we are going to lose the whales if we don't stop what we are doing. As I recall from something else I read the blue whales were making a comeback, slowly, but they are being seen more, one was seen off the coast of California, which was rare. This wonderful novel can really make you cringe though, you care about the animals and so it's hard to take when a dolphin is flensed alive and a few other whales are killed by exploding harpoons. Really, this is an impressive novel of seeing a world being destroyed through a whale's eye.

[Paul Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this about ten or more years ago, couldn't put it down...there is no human dialogue, just the fictional story of some whales written from inside their own heads as best a human could possibly imagine - I'd like to add that it is not child-like in regards to being told through the whales perspective and many ppl who have reviewed it elsewhere couldn't resist the urge to include spoilers in their reviews, don't worry it's not like science fiction and you have to read between the lines to realize what's happening with humanity back on land. Also, some of the perspectives attributed to the cetaceans in the story (there are dolphins, porpoises and orcas as well as baleen whales)have paralels in actual research, for example, the extent to which cetaceans use their sonar, to use it as a sort of sonogram to detect changes in the bodies of other living things around them is not an idea Abbey just pulled out of his hat. If you like animals at all, give this book a chance.

[Xeandra Naicker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first time in my entire life that I’ve read a book and honestly didn’t know whether I loved it or hated it.

I would definitely classify this as one of the more difficult reads because of the endless prose. The book has no human characters, so pretty much everything is written in third person narrative.

It took me a really long time to get past the first few chapters because I was really overwhelmed by the copious descriptions of whale sex, something I was not expecting.

I struggled to deal with the constant deaths of the characters, often very gruesomely described. This was most definitely to draw attention to the seriousness of climate change but at times these events made me feel worse than George R.R. Martin ever has.

Overall, I was impacted by this novel. I just feel like the whale sex should have come later on as it’s extremely off putting so early in the book.

[K.C. Murdarasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kind of book that sticks with you. I took it out of a mobile library decades ago, but I've never forgotten the impression it gave of needless waste of life and the unseen tragedies caused by human global domination.

[Melanie]

Deep & Boring, but I finnished it. Quite sad really

[Hollieann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and repetitive. Gives an interesting view on whales, but nothing really happens except whale sex and birth and death.