"SILVER BACK ISLAND" John Randolph Smith is second-in-command of a whaling ship that sets sail from Nantucket Island in 1820. When the ship sinks, killing its captain, Smith takes charge of the stranded crew, finding refuge on a deserted island. On one side of the island, the men discover a hellish jungle, inhabited by a murderous and unseen enemy bent on killing the crew. The other side contains remnants of an earthly paradise, a throwback to the destroyed city of Atlantis - and its last survivors. Smith's quest to save his men takes him deep into the dark side of men's souls. "Even though the idea of eating a fellow human being made me nearly gag at first, " he writes, "a day later I found myself dreaming what it would be like to consume the young lad's meat." A tale of faith woven with supernatural elements into a survival-of-the-fittest story, "Silverback Island" is a white-knuckled ride - a chilling science-fiction novel where only the strong survive.