The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story - Mark Helprin

Written by Mark Helprin
Read by Traber Burns
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story; The Seven Battles and Mutiny of Athena, Patrol Coastal Ship 15

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release date: October 3, 2023
Duration: 21:51:42

A Navy captain near the end of a decorated career, Stephen Rensselaer is disciplined, intelligent, and determined to always do what’s right. In defending the development of a new variant of warship, he makes an enemy of the president of the United States, who assigns him to command the doomed line’s only prototype––Athena, Patrol Coastal 15––with the intent to humiliate a man who should have been an admiral.

Rather than resign, Rensselaer takes the new assignment in stride, and while supervising Athena’s fitting out in New Orleans, encounters a brilliant lawyer, Katy Farrar, with whom he falls in last-chance love. Soon thereafter, he is deployed on a mission that subjects his integrity, morality, and skill to the ultimate test, and ensures that Athena will live forever in the annals of the Navy.

As in the Odyssey, Katy is the force that keeps him alive and the beacon that lights the way home through seven battles, mutiny, and court martial. In classic literary form, an enthralling new novel that extolls the virtues of living by the laws of conscience, decency, and sacrifice, The Oceans and the Stars is nothing short of a masterpiece.

“Helprin excels at creating three-dimensional characters, and Rensselaer is a man of high moral character driven by a deep sense of humanity with a Shakespearean reference always at the ready. Helprin masterfully blends adrenaline and heart while the plot pieces fall into place like tumblers in a lock. Military aficionados will appreciate detailed descriptions of weaponry and tactics, (ala Tom Clancy) while lovers of exquisite prose will be captivated by Rensselaer’s profundity, “A wayward mind entranced by dreams and incapable of transcending itself can be overruled by experience. Whether or not you call this wisdom, to see self-limitation and error overcome is one of the joys of existence.”…Booklist,