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on September 6, 2014
I am a frequent Sierra visitor so many of the locations mentioned are places I have been or camped -- that's my disclaimer! I enjoyed this book but not nearly as much as many of the other reviewers appear to have. Like some I think it would have worked much better in a shorter form. It would have been the perfect length for a New Yorker feature for example. Certain elements of the story get repeated so many times as to encourage section skipping, something I normally don't do in a book I like.
There are a couple of things in the book that rang a little odd to me. Referring to Randy's travels to Bangkok as "exploring" the religion of "hedonism" is hopefully intended as humor, and there are other places where the writer glosses over what seem to be major lapses in relationship judgement. Ditto for Randy's female friend in the mountains, who escapes with barely a scratch despite some pretty questionable tactics. I also did not really grasp the picture painted of Alden Nash, who seems to graduate from passive, annoyed observer to active participant only after the mystery has been solved. Maybe the writer had to steer around some complex politics in writing this book given that so many of the participants are still alive and even contributed to his work.
If the book's aim was to show what an incredible ranger and asset to our parks Randy was, then it succeeded completely. He seemed to be the absolute ideal ranger. Indeed I would have liked to have seen him move more into oversight and politics as he got older, as his thoughts on managing parks and visitors aligned very closely with my own.
There are a couple of things in the book that rang a little odd to me. Referring to Randy's travels to Bangkok as "exploring" the religion of "hedonism" is hopefully intended as humor, and there are other places where the writer glosses over what seem to be major lapses in relationship judgement. Ditto for Randy's female friend in the mountains, who escapes with barely a scratch despite some pretty questionable tactics. I also did not really grasp the picture painted of Alden Nash, who seems to graduate from passive, annoyed observer to active participant only after the mystery has been solved. Maybe the writer had to steer around some complex politics in writing this book given that so many of the participants are still alive and even contributed to his work.
If the book's aim was to show what an incredible ranger and asset to our parks Randy was, then it succeeded completely. He seemed to be the absolute ideal ranger. Indeed I would have liked to have seen him move more into oversight and politics as he got older, as his thoughts on managing parks and visitors aligned very closely with my own.
VINE VOICEon April 26, 2013
"The Last Season" is the story (really a mystery) of a National Park Ranger Randy Morgenson, who disappeared while patrolling in the back country of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks.
There are plenty of reviews now available, so one can get an idea about Randy and the book about his vanishing. I'll just add another 5 star review, as the book was enthralling. I took it everywhere with me because I could hardly put it down.
Highly recommended! If you love or even like the great outdoors, especially the mountains, this is the book for you. Part travel book, part meditation, part mystery, "The Last Season" delivers on all counts. I'm sure I read it again, even knowing how it all turns out. Get this book!
July 2014 update: I still have fond memories of reading this book. I judge other books against how much I liked this one.
There are plenty of reviews now available, so one can get an idea about Randy and the book about his vanishing. I'll just add another 5 star review, as the book was enthralling. I took it everywhere with me because I could hardly put it down.
Highly recommended! If you love or even like the great outdoors, especially the mountains, this is the book for you. Part travel book, part meditation, part mystery, "The Last Season" delivers on all counts. I'm sure I read it again, even knowing how it all turns out. Get this book!
July 2014 update: I still have fond memories of reading this book. I judge other books against how much I liked this one.
on March 23, 2006
OK. Total Disclosure: I worked with and was a friend of Randy Morgenson -- the subject of this book -- for over 25 years; I was also interviewed for the book (endlessly, it seemed).
For all that, when I read this (a manuscript copy), I found it compelling. I mean, I lived the whole thing pretty intimately, but kept wondering "hmm, I wonder what happens next?"
A number of the reviews emphasize Randy's apparently troubled life. That's kind of true, but I notice one of the reviewers calls it a love story -- a love for the land. And I think that's closer to it. It's also one of the few honest descriptions of the exciting, glamorous life of a backcountry ranger (the fast cars, alluring women, investment strategies...)I've run across (Jordan Fischer-Smith's "Nature Noir", though not about backcountry rangers, is the other excellent account of rangering).
Anyway, if you're a hiker or one of those folks who always wanted to be a backcountry ranger, this is the book to read. Maybe a cautionary tale but, really, it's all about not being happy anywhere else.
George
For all that, when I read this (a manuscript copy), I found it compelling. I mean, I lived the whole thing pretty intimately, but kept wondering "hmm, I wonder what happens next?"
A number of the reviews emphasize Randy's apparently troubled life. That's kind of true, but I notice one of the reviewers calls it a love story -- a love for the land. And I think that's closer to it. It's also one of the few honest descriptions of the exciting, glamorous life of a backcountry ranger (the fast cars, alluring women, investment strategies...)I've run across (Jordan Fischer-Smith's "Nature Noir", though not about backcountry rangers, is the other excellent account of rangering).
Anyway, if you're a hiker or one of those folks who always wanted to be a backcountry ranger, this is the book to read. Maybe a cautionary tale but, really, it's all about not being happy anywhere else.
George
on August 3, 2014
It is a excellent story that gives a reader not only some beautiful descriptions of some beautiful country in our nation, it also gives us some insight of the history of a park ranger and the large areas that they may be responsible for. It also. Gives us the political problems that a large organization to try and keep their equipment updated.
The trials of a Search and Rescue operation are very evident in this book. It reveals how even today with all of the dead communications spots in our country, even the best individuals can end up in a very serious situation and not be found until it is to late.
I rate this book at the highest level.
Bob
The trials of a Search and Rescue operation are very evident in this book. It reveals how even today with all of the dead communications spots in our country, even the best individuals can end up in a very serious situation and not be found until it is to late.
I rate this book at the highest level.
Bob
on February 9, 2017
Eric Blehm is so easy to read. I'm not one to sit and devour a book in short order, however, this is the second of his books I have finished faster than I wished. Love his style and the stories he shares. Read Fearless and The Last Season and will be continuously trying to catch up on all his other books. Blehm's meticulously researched events/lives must be cumbersome, but, his attention to detail injects me into the atmosphere.
on September 2, 2013
Author Eric Blehm clearly cares about the American wilderness and the people, like Randy Morgenson, who take responsibility for and at times succumb to its harsh beauty, but he's not very good at telling the reader about any of that. At one point, he quotes Wallace Stegner, who provided a harsh (but honest) critique to Morgenson himself, when Morgenson tried his own hand at writing, saying, "It's all about your feelings and sensations, and those don't communicate well to a reader. He half feels you indulging a sort of yeasty nature mysticism...." That's Blehm. The young Morgenson is a "dashing young ranger," "with ... expressive, gentle eyes that held a hint of something she couldn't put her finger on. Mystery, perhaps." Duh. Typical of Blehm's narrative is a "description" of an incident when Morgenson and a fellow ranger were called upon to handle a plane crash in the back country. The anecdote should be rich with detail. Instead, all we get is, "A plane had crashed, it was windy, snow squalls were settling in over the higher peaks, and ... the helicopter took off with their packs still inside. ...They had no survival gear. Fortunately, the helicopter was able to make it back through the clouds to pick them up after the operation." And that's it. No specifics. No details. We get the occasional quote from Morgenson's logs (e.g., "I yearned to know the plants, geology, glaciology, weather, and the effects of these things on each other") but unlike Morgenson, who supposedly gave "two pages" in his logbooks to "the song of the hermit thrush," Blehm offers only generalities. After wading through several hundred pages of Blehm's starry-eyed blather, I came away thoroughly disgusted with the late Mr. Morgenson. He appears to have been a selfish aging hippie who, having cheated on his wife and been served with divorce papers, walked off into the mountains, leaving his colleagues with the job of a heartbreaking and ultimately fruitless search-and-rescue mission. (His remains were found by a California Conservation Corps trailbuilding group about five years after his disappearance, near a gorge "where grasses and mountain flowers made a living in patches of silt and rocky soil." Again, no details.) Blehm could have used a few classes in botany, geology, glaciology, weather, and the effects of these things on each other and on the human beings who love and work in the American wilderness. It's a pity he preferred to indulge himself in yeasty nature mysticism, instead.
on March 23, 2013
An incredible book that works on so many levels. Randy Morgenson is the best of the best - an experienced back country ranger who patrols some of the most remote and deceptively dangerous country in America. His sudden and unexplained disappearance triggers a massive search-and-rescue effort that is as compelling as any thriller. But The Last Season is more than a real-life mystery. Pulling from Morgenson's own logbooks, author Eric Blehm also shares Randy's evocative views on nature and man's relationship with the natural world. The Last Season is also about human relationships - love gained and lost - and, if you are a Human Resources manager, a sharp lesson about what motivates people to work in some of the world's most dangerous professions. And for the disaster geek in me, there's even a bit of Incident Command. Unlike many real-life mystery books that end with more questions than answers, The Last Season offers a compelling (through sad) answer to "What happened to Randy Morgenson?" More importantly, the book demonstrates why Randy's life was so much more important than the circumstances of his death.
on January 12, 2013
Blehm gets it right in this book.
I trust that he gives us not only a compelling, but a true, portrayal of the complex and compelling man Randy Morgenson, because his account of what it's like to conduct a large-scale wilderness lost person search is bang on the money.
I have never seen search and rescue captured so well by an outsider. Why we do it, how we do it, the rewards and considerable frustrations, the second-guessing, teamwork and cross-purposes.
The way Blehm presents the nonfiction narrative as a genuine mystery is masterful. I live far from California and wasn't familiar with the Morgenson search when I read this book (though it turns out that I have friends who responded to it), and I could not guess the outcome. Blehm presents all the competing scenarios just as they would have come at Morgenson's friends and colleagues. (Be careful of some of the other reviews here. The spoilers really do spoil it.)
Better than Krakauer. Or as I told a colleague when I pressed this book on him, Krakauer could write as well as Blehm does if he would pull his head out of his own ass.
I trust that he gives us not only a compelling, but a true, portrayal of the complex and compelling man Randy Morgenson, because his account of what it's like to conduct a large-scale wilderness lost person search is bang on the money.
I have never seen search and rescue captured so well by an outsider. Why we do it, how we do it, the rewards and considerable frustrations, the second-guessing, teamwork and cross-purposes.
The way Blehm presents the nonfiction narrative as a genuine mystery is masterful. I live far from California and wasn't familiar with the Morgenson search when I read this book (though it turns out that I have friends who responded to it), and I could not guess the outcome. Blehm presents all the competing scenarios just as they would have come at Morgenson's friends and colleagues. (Be careful of some of the other reviews here. The spoilers really do spoil it.)
Better than Krakauer. Or as I told a colleague when I pressed this book on him, Krakauer could write as well as Blehm does if he would pull his head out of his own ass.
on July 12, 2013
What a fantastic read! I couldn't put this book down. I rarely write reviews on things, but I felt like it was necessary for this book. I have never been to the Sierra, but I have read multiple stories and have seen multiple shows on TV about it. But, this book takes you right into that rugged terrain. Meanwhile, bringing you intimately close to the life, family, and friends of Randy Morgensen. By the end of the book, I was so attached to him and the storyline, I felt like I had experienced everything and missed him as well. Amazing that Eric Blehm could bring his readers that close to Randy and his life. Randy was truly one amazing and inspirational individual. I feel like I will be reading this book over and over again. Well done!!!
