In much the same way as Dog Soldiers is a novel about Vietnam, A Flag for Sunrise (1981) about third-world revolution, and Children of Light (1986) about Hollywood, Outerbridge Reach is a novel about the sea. As such, it extends from the literary tradition that includes Melville's Moby Dick (1851), Jack London's The Sea-Wolf (1904), Conrad's Lord Jim (1900), and Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Stone is clearly influenced by the concept of the sea as infinite authority, possessing unlimited power to transform, to cleanse, and to erase.

Merging the commonplace with the nightmarish, Outerbridge Reach is a complex novel that examines faith, commitment, endurance, and, in the end, human frailty, deceit, and loss.

Stone is acknowledged as being distinctively original among contemporary fiction writers, and Outerbridge Reach provides further extension to his literary reputation.