Customer Reviews

CloudDancer's Alaskan Chronicles: Volume II

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ah...forget the overboost - these are Pratt-Whitneys!! Yah sure, you betcha...

Anyway, I've known CloudDancer for 28 yrs (whew!) and every one of em has been etched in my memory with a smile. Always knew he was a great crooner but, the writing was a genuine surprise. Have to say, I should've known. Once an artist, always an artist no matter whether the canvas is a plane, a transcript, a song OR a Lady!! This guy is one of the best writers of a story I've come across. If any of you have read any Louie Lamour(sp?) books you'll know what I mean about a writer that can make you feel, smell, and see the action. CloudDancer is one of those writers.

Captain CloudDancer has written a couple of gems. Having tasted the

same kind of flying and experiences as he has, the stories became all too familiar, which leads to the kind of book you absolutely cannot put down.

Thanks for the memories my friend...!

Capt. Krunch

You should read the Chronicles, too, is my vote!

As you can see from the other reviews, pilots love these yarns. But anybody with the slightest interest in Bush Alaska and its larger-than-life characters, climate, and country will love the Chronicles, too.

Besides being a professional pilot with many thousands of hours in his logbook, Clouddancer is a soulful raconteur and a born storyteller. The best of these stories are people stories, and Clouddancer understands people, which is the most important thing in a writer.

That said, you have to make some allowances.

For one thing, as a writer, Clouddancer makes a great Bush pilot. By which I mean, he brings much enthusiasm and passion to his writing, but not-so-much polish (although we're working on that -- I'm his unofficial coach/consultant/cheerleader). So don't expect the kind of finely honed prose you'd find in an Ernest Hemingway novel (although there are comparable quantities of liquor and sex).

Also, about half of these stories are extremely technical accounts of various situations that come up in flying, both Bush and air-carrier. They'll be nearly incomprehensible to non-pilots, and perhaps not particularly interesting for those not into flying, per se.

But these are quibbles. I give the Chronicles 5 stars because they are, on balance, really great Alaska flying books, of which there are far too few.

Stan Jones

One-time amateur Kotzebue Bush pilot, as well as author of the Nathan Active mystery series, which is set in a fictional Alaskan Eskimo village modeled on Kotzebue, where Clouddancer cut his Bush-flying teeth