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69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best survival book to come along in years!, November 19, 2008
I have to say that I've liked Les Stroud from the beginning when I got a hold of a copy of his first movie, "Snowshoes & Solitude" which documented his yearlong stay, along with his wife, in the boreal forest of Canada.
His TV series has revealed what a talented woodsman and teacher he is who doesn't fabricate his storylines and film shots, unlike other hosts of "survival" shows. Les Stroud comes across as a guy who is the real deal- just the type of competent woodsman you want to tune into each week. I say this having been a fulltime survival instructor for years and having seen much of the nonsense on both TV and in the written literature that has been perpetuated in the industry. In my own fieldcourses, the conversation always arises with my students around the evening campfire, as to who is the best survival educator on TV today and, almost unanimously, everyone agrees on Mr. Stroud! No surprise.
So, I was pleasantly surprised to obtain a copy of this new book- probably the best book written on the subject of survival in years! Not only does it show practical skills but it has many helpful sidebars and tips for the reader. I was most impressed by the fact that the author gave credit, both in photos and writing, to his mentors and teachers along the way. Again, this shows what a class-act the man is and how he doesn't claim to be the sole repository of all wilderness knowledge like many other survival authorities.
Whether you are new to the outdoors or an experienced woodsman or woodswoman, I'd highly recommend this book.
Tony Nester
Ancient Pathways, LLC
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63 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not nearly as good as it should have been. , April 8, 2009
I'm amazed at all the glowing reviews to Les Stroud's new book... frankly I found it extremely disappointing on many levels although I meant to give it 3 stars, not 2.
Before Les' armchair fan-boys try to jump down my throat for insulting their hero, allow me to establish some points: 1) I'm the same age as Les. 2) I mentored my survival training since the early 1980's under Mors Kochanski, a recognized world-wide expert on boreal survival. 3) I've taught survival courses in the foothills & forests of Alberta for 20 years. 4)I completed the BOSS 28 day Field Course in '89 & instructed on their Winter Skills course in '90, after which I introduced their director to Kochanski (beginning a long relationship between the 2). So, I've got my time in & done my homework (yes, I've actually previously done most of the survival skills that Les mentions) that allows me to be an intelligently critical consumer of survival literature & gear (TY to Mors for that conceptual paradigm).
So, I would likely love to spend time w/ Les & would no doubt find him a fascinating, like-minded person. I don't watch TV much, but what I've seen of Survivorman is well done - I think Les' 7 day solo approach is great & a breath of fresh air in the 'schlock-tastic' glut of 'reality' TV. However, I'm just not thrilled w/ his book. Of course, authors often don't get to write the book they really wanted to due to publisher concepts, budgets, etc. But many of my criticisms are w/in the control of the author.
Can I say anything good about the book... absolutely. Survive does provide & repeat many great adages of survival that everyone should learn about prior to heading off into the wilderness. Les tosses in several real gems to get people thinking about maximizing their equipment & creating expedients. Although in many of those situations, Les willfully destroys his equipment such as car seats & balloon because he knows what he's embarking on... he's already planned for a 7 day stint which is always hard for average folks confronted by a wilderness emergency to accept - so they won't cut the seats out of their car readily. So you can find lots of good, solid information (but some I'll contest below)... I just say it wasn't done as well as it could be.
On the style & layout: Not Les' fault most likely, but using matte paper w/ only 2 colors of ink & B & W photos really diminished the potential value of the book. The B&W photos in particular are often unclear or indistinct - color w/ glossy paper would have added greatly to the learning value. The overall layout seems also indistinct. In a book of this nature, I would prefer to see many more headings & bold (clearer) type to easily guide the reader to finding pertinent information quickly & memorably. I also found many of his quaint expressions distracting & counter-productive... like 'creepy crawlies'...'bugs' or 'insects' work.
Let's establish what the book purports to be: the subtitle is "Essential Skills & Tactics To Get You Out of Anywhere - Alive." So, we can expect a well-organized, clearly descriptive book emphasizing many skills & techniques for anyone to use in practical, outdoor emergencies. Writing a survival manual that encompasses enough info to properly address survival anywhere on the planet is a daunting task indeed & rarely successful. The venerable SAS Survival Skills by Wiseman attempts to do this but suffers from it's own problems. Instead, we seem to get a hodge-podge of miscellaneous stuff tossed together with many, frequent anecdotes of Les' recent global adventures.
I'm stunned that people said the book was 'well-written?' Even given that he used a ghost writer, I found the book to be inconsistent, rambling & repetitive. He jumps around from region to region with various concepts then (sometimes) attempts to tie it all together at the end of the chapter. For example, in Water he mentions squeezing water from rotting birch wood (in the boreal forest), then immediately in the next sentence mentions banana & plantain trees (tropical). These were both in a section on water from plants, but still the organizational concept of the whole book seems to be that you could be dropped in ANY region of the earth at any time... which is likely illogical & confusing for readers who are typically going to be North American, European & possibly Australian. In the later chapters, he virtually repeats entire sections in Dangers & Hazards and Weather such as blizzards are bad for you. Organize the specialized info (i.e. Arctic, Tropics, etc.) into regions & leave it there.
Also, Les constantly refers to "consult a local expert beforehand" (to learn useful/dangerous plants, terrain, weather, etc.)... which seems another discordant tone on the providing 'essential skills' to keep the reader alive anywhere idea. Perhaps because Les' recent adventures have all been pre-planned, he's had the foresight & luxury to consult local experts. Realistically, I doubt most readers are neither going to the remote adventure locales like the high Arctic, Amazon jungle or Kalahari desert NOR are they likely to consult experts in what they consider their own back-yard region doing the activities they've always done.
On Shelters: he advocates the A frame w/ a small interior fire but poo-poo's the classic open lean-to. He even goes on to describe the gross inefficiency of the small interior fire inside the A frame in that he has to keep waking every 20 min to add a few sticks & has an awful sleep. One of the very few paramount needs in typical survival scenarios is to be warm enough to get 6-8 hours of sleep each day/night period (that & enough water). Perhaps he needs to learn how to make a proper body-length, parallel fire in front of the lean-to (& lose the ridiculous reflector wall with pounded stakes taken from every bad army/air force survival guide - pile up your firewood logs instead) so that he can sleep about 1.5 hrs at a time in winter before adding more wood.
On fire: he mentions he made fire from combining potassium permanganate & sugar & he devotes a whole page of photos to lighting fire w/ potassium permanganate & glycerin on rhino dung. Unfortunately... he doesn't at all explain how to really do this (but does reassure us that rhino dung - like most herbivores' - doesn't smell bad).
FYI, buy PP at a drugstore or swimming supply shop. To make fire w/ sugar: equal amounts of PP & sugar on a flat, dry stone; grind in a circular way w/ another flat rock - sparking, popping noises are followed shortly by flame - add tinder. With PP & glycerin, you MUST first re-grind the PP to a fine dust (it's usual consistency is similar to white sugar) before sprinkling a few pinches onto a dollop of glycerin (also found at the drugstore).
Why bother mentioning this if he doesn't explain how to do it fully? This sort of off-handed dropping of an idea occurs constantly. I doubt most people will master the Figure 4 dead fall trigger w/ the few blurry photos. Line drawings work much better for showing the detail cut angles needed. Rafts require a diagonal cross piece to prevent them from skewing out of shape. Essential Skills includes knots tied w/ no learning sequence (and FYI, his bowline is incorrect - it's referred to as a Left Handed Bowline & considered by sailors for centuries to be inherently less secure - put the running end INSIDE the main part).
One reviewer mentioned the book gave a good overview of flora & fauna, yet I can't find any descriptive text/illustrations of any animals or plants to support that comment? He claims to name the top 3 edibles in any environment... which is reduced to bland common name labels only (little info on how to prepare each item) with no illustrations or descriptions. We can pretty much assume that 'rodents' are recognizable by most people, but bull kelp is just another form of seaweed (or brown algae if you want to get technical, yet he lists them separately). He mentions "wild teas" as one of the 'top 3' more than once. Yet again he fails to specifically describe what plants make useful teas (oh yes...see: "consult a local expert before you travel there") & teas contain virtually no caloric value, so they hardly qualify as a 'top edible' in my view. Knowing that the fairly toxic Bog Rosemary looks much like & grows in the same regions as the flavorful Labrador Tea is important to know... but you won't find that info here.
Basically, if you are going to suggest eating more esoteric plants such as sea lettuce you really need to provide the scientific name, description, a distinguishing illustration & preparation/use instructions.
And... now I know sharks are a real hazard in my outdoor adventures??
In essence I got the feeling I was reading a pamphlet for fans of his show to vicariously enjoy many of his more recent, exciting adventures... most of which will never be available to the majority of the readers. Too many anecdotes about "the time I was on the...." and how almost all the individuals in the case studies he quotes survived because of watching his show. In many ways, the books seems like a semi-organized 'memory dump' of all of Les' adventurous experiences, during which he's made some serious mistakes (which he readily admits in his shows) as well as made many clever improvisations.
Lastly, I laughed out loud when I saw the pic on page 336... our man, w/ a steely eyed glare... holding his homemade spear to fend off 'critters' in Africa. What's wrong w/ that pic? First, the knife is a joke... it's one of the ridiculous Rambo knives created for the movie series - too big (for an efficient bushcraft knife w/ completely useless sawteeth on the back - real saw teeth on knives were only intended to allow aircrew to cut themselves out of plexiglass & aluminum aircraft - not for wood). Second, any seasoned survivalist will never advise lashing your likely only tool, the knife, to a spear where you can dull/bend/break it on the rocks, or worse, thrust it into an animal & watch it run off into the dark woods w/ your knife. Make several pointed, fire-hardened wooden spears but make them all about a meter longer than Les' spear - any lion or leopard would still reach you w/ its claws before you pinned it w/ his short little spear. But NEVER tie your knife on a stick for a spear. Of course, maybe Les had that goofy big knife along as a spare, but again, he doesn't explain the context adequately.
Seriously, I could critique this book far more than what I've mentioned already... I really do see that many holes in it. But then I've always despised when writers mention something superficially without adequately explaining it to a potentially novice reader. John Wiseman's SAS Survival has it's share of idiotic & erroneous material (sheet bend also wrong, spear thrower design is ridiculously inefficient & from the movie Quest for Fire - really, one column on how to make fire w/ a bow drill - go ahead rookie, that's all the advice you need, etc), but it gets republished regularly.
Sure, buy this book if you can, it does have many nuggets of useful information & some novel ideas, but I wouldn't take it as the bible of outdoor survival nor would I carry it in a pack... it could/should have been much better from a guy w/ Les' experience. You'd be better to first read '(Northern) Bushcraft' by Mors Kochanski on wilderness living skills; '98.6 Degrees' by Cody Lundin; 'Bushcraft' & others by Ray Mears; and the recent DK publication 'The Survival Handbook'.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
very good, November 27, 2008
Survival is Les Stroud's business. Long before he started making movies and doing Survivorman he was working as a professsional wilderness guide. He knows what he's talking about. Reading his book left me feeling a little horrified at how many times I've ventured into the woods with nothing but hiking shoes. Even if you aren't an outdoorsy person you'll enjoy reading the well written book and you'll benefit by getting everything on his survival list for your car. Accidents do happen and the prepared survive.
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