- Paperback: 373 pages
- Publisher: Harpercollins Canada (4 Nov 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002008866
- ISBN-13: 978-0002008860
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,721,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Confidence Building, Helpful Directions for Recovering from Being Lost or Injured with No Help in Sight
26 Jan 2009
Format:Paperback
If you like extreme adventures (particularly by yourself) or just want to feel safer when you drive out into lonely, untraveled areas, Survive! will teach you what you need to know about how to prepare for your trip, use your preparations for the best results, and avoid the kind of stupid mistakes that can be costly (even lethal).
Unless you are a survival expert or someone who takes survival courses, you probably don't remember much about what to do when in trouble other than what you might have learned in scouts as a youngster. That information, while somewhat helpful, is clearly dated (there are better solutions available) and may sometimes wrong (such as encouraging you to rub snow on frostbite).
Most of us find ourselves at times in a wilderness area with no one else in sight . . . feeling a little concerned about what could go wrong and then how to recover. I found reading Survive! to be extremely encouraging from that point of view. I read the book with the idea in mind of visiting a certain wilderness area and developed a plan for how I could make that trip much safer and more comfortable. To me, the benefits were enormous.
The book is organized so that you can take it along with you while on a wilderness journey and easily look up what you need to know. I advise that. You won't remember critical details of what to do otherwise. Just one tip (such as how to make snowshoes out of car seat and seat belts) can save a stranded driver's life. I recommend you keep a copy in your car's glove compartment as well. If nothing else, the pages can make for excellent tinder when you make a fire using your car battery!
Mr. Stroud has a nice writing style, illustrates his points well, and provides lots of relevant examples. Surviving may not be easy. Surviving may not be pleasant. But those who are counting on you to survive will appreciate it if you do. Mr. Stroud's book will help you have the confidence and mental toughness to make the right decisions and keep at it until you survive and make it to where you can get help.
It made me feel like a ten-year-old again to read the book, getting ready for my first overnight hike and camping trip into the Mojave Desert. I'm sure you'll recall many of your outdoor adventures as you think about how this advice would have been helpful in the past.
The only areas where the book could have been expanded are those where a lone driver gets stuck. Here's an example: Most people don't know how to improve traction by using techniques like deflating tires in sand, putting traction-improving materials under the wheels, and digging a pathway out of the stuck area. To do all this requires having a shovel in your trunk and being able to assess which methods fit your problem.
I recommend that Mr. Stroud write a car-owner's version of this book for those who drive by themselves and might get stuck or break down in a lonely area. Most people could get themselves out of trouble if they only knew how.
Unless you are a survival expert or someone who takes survival courses, you probably don't remember much about what to do when in trouble other than what you might have learned in scouts as a youngster. That information, while somewhat helpful, is clearly dated (there are better solutions available) and may sometimes wrong (such as encouraging you to rub snow on frostbite).
Most of us find ourselves at times in a wilderness area with no one else in sight . . . feeling a little concerned about what could go wrong and then how to recover. I found reading Survive! to be extremely encouraging from that point of view. I read the book with the idea in mind of visiting a certain wilderness area and developed a plan for how I could make that trip much safer and more comfortable. To me, the benefits were enormous.
The book is organized so that you can take it along with you while on a wilderness journey and easily look up what you need to know. I advise that. You won't remember critical details of what to do otherwise. Just one tip (such as how to make snowshoes out of car seat and seat belts) can save a stranded driver's life. I recommend you keep a copy in your car's glove compartment as well. If nothing else, the pages can make for excellent tinder when you make a fire using your car battery!
Mr. Stroud has a nice writing style, illustrates his points well, and provides lots of relevant examples. Surviving may not be easy. Surviving may not be pleasant. But those who are counting on you to survive will appreciate it if you do. Mr. Stroud's book will help you have the confidence and mental toughness to make the right decisions and keep at it until you survive and make it to where you can get help.
It made me feel like a ten-year-old again to read the book, getting ready for my first overnight hike and camping trip into the Mojave Desert. I'm sure you'll recall many of your outdoor adventures as you think about how this advice would have been helpful in the past.
The only areas where the book could have been expanded are those where a lone driver gets stuck. Here's an example: Most people don't know how to improve traction by using techniques like deflating tires in sand, putting traction-improving materials under the wheels, and digging a pathway out of the stuck area. To do all this requires having a shovel in your trunk and being able to assess which methods fit your problem.
I recommend that Mr. Stroud write a car-owner's version of this book for those who drive by themselves and might get stuck or break down in a lonely area. Most people could get themselves out of trouble if they only knew how.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the best survival books I have read, up there with Bear Grylls, Born Survivor and any of Ray Mears' works. I would say , do read all three as they each have their own views and comments on any given situation. All their views are valid and useful. I have learned from them all.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
83 reviews
117 of 126 people found the following review helpful
The best survival book to come along in years!
19 Nov 2008
Format:Paperback
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
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
314 of 365 people found the following review helpful
Not nearly as good as it should have been.
8 April 2009
Format:Paperback
I'm amazed at all the glowing reviews to Les Stroud's new book... frankly I found it extremely disappointing on many levels.
Before Les' armchair fan-boys try to jump down my throat for insulting their hero (and he is genuinely likable), allow me to establish some points: 1) I'm another Canadian & 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 those two survival icons). 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 (a 'Thank You' to my survival mentor Mors for developing that vital conceptual paradigm).
So, I would likely love to spend time with 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 with 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, I believe, within 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 & hot air balloon because he knows what he's embarking on... he's already planned for a 7 day stint where 'anything goes.' I believe it's highly unlikely that average folks confronted by a wilderness emergency will immediately accept that it's life or death - so they won't readily cut the seats out of their car because they still hold to a mistaken belief that they're walking just a few easy km to help. 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 with 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 with 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 the section '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 stating such things as blizzards are bad for you. Organize the specialized info (i.e. Arctic, Tropics, etc.) into regions once & leave it there.
Also, Les constantly refers to "consult a local expert beforehand" (to learn useful/dangerous plants, terrain, weather, etc. or in other words, everything this book is NOT teaching you)... 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. Overall, I find the "consult a local expert beforehand" a dereliction of duty on the author's part.
On Shelters: he advocates the A frame with a small interior fire but poo-poo's the classic open lean-to. But then he ironically goes on to describe the gross inefficiency of the small interior fire inside his favorite A frame such that he has to keep waking up from the cold 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 a correctly built (almost vertical roof) lean-to with a proper bough/brush bed. And in the lean-to he does show, he should lose the ridiculous reflector wall with pounded stakes taken from every bad army/air force survival guide - pile up your firewood logs as a solid wall instead to create a sheet of flame throwing heat toward your shelter... then you 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 innovative technique (but does reassure us that rhino dung - like most herbivores' - doesn't smell bad) nor does he suggest why one might be carrying potassium permanganate in the first place (FYI, it's a handy antiseptic & anti-fungal solution when dissolved in water).
Buy the potassium permanganate at a drugstore or swimming supply shop.
To make fire w/ sugar: equal amounts of pot. perm. & sugar on a flat, dry stone; grind in a twisting, circular way w/ another flat rock - sparking, popping noises are followed shortly by flame - add tinder, then fuel, then marshmallows. With potassium permanganate & glycerin (also bought at the pharmacy), 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 quarter-sized dollop of glycerin and waiting for bubbling to be followed by flames - experiment beforehand to better understand the ratios & times (perhaps print this section & insert in your copy of Survive?).
Why bother mentioning this if he doesn't explain how to do it fully? This sort of off-handed, yet incomplete, dropping of an idea occurs constantly throughout the book on many skills. I doubt most people will master the Figure 4 dead fall trigger with the few blurry photos. Line drawings work much better for showing the detail cut angles needed. Rafts for floating yourself or gear across water are best built with a diagonal cross piece to prevent them from skewing out of shape. Essential Skills includes knots fully tied with no learning sequence which most cordage novices will not understand (trust me, I've taught 7 knots to 100's of students - it's not an easy skill for some people to master). 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 mentions some animal hazards like bears & bull moose - but it might help to know that white tailed deer DOES w/ fawn injure far more people in Yosemite park than any other animal - lot more of those than bull moose or bears). The back of the book claims to name the "top 3 edibles" in any environment... which is blandly reduced in the text to imprecise common name labels only (little info on how to prepare each item) with NO illustrations or descriptions to properly ID such 'top edibles'. 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 also mentions "wild teas" as one of the 'top 3' in more than one environment. Yet again he fails to specifically describe what plants make useful teas (oh yes...see: "consult a local expert before you travel there") & realistically 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 any wild plants, but especially the 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. NOTE: one respondent to my review stated that he did have additional knives on that trip, but such information is never offered in the book (or is it implying that the reader needs to buy the DVD's & view all his TV shows to fully understand the context of each 'action' photo?)
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 ubiquitous SAS Survival Guide has it's share of idiotic & erroneous material (the sheet bend knot was illustrated dangerously incorrect for 4 editions & 20 years; the spear thrower design is ridiculously inefficient & from the fantasy movie Quest for Fire; there is 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 some 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'.
Before Les' armchair fan-boys try to jump down my throat for insulting their hero (and he is genuinely likable), allow me to establish some points: 1) I'm another Canadian & 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 those two survival icons). 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 (a 'Thank You' to my survival mentor Mors for developing that vital conceptual paradigm).
So, I would likely love to spend time with 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 with 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, I believe, within 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 & hot air balloon because he knows what he's embarking on... he's already planned for a 7 day stint where 'anything goes.' I believe it's highly unlikely that average folks confronted by a wilderness emergency will immediately accept that it's life or death - so they won't readily cut the seats out of their car because they still hold to a mistaken belief that they're walking just a few easy km to help. 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 with 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 with 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 the section '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 stating such things as blizzards are bad for you. Organize the specialized info (i.e. Arctic, Tropics, etc.) into regions once & leave it there.
Also, Les constantly refers to "consult a local expert beforehand" (to learn useful/dangerous plants, terrain, weather, etc. or in other words, everything this book is NOT teaching you)... 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. Overall, I find the "consult a local expert beforehand" a dereliction of duty on the author's part.
On Shelters: he advocates the A frame with a small interior fire but poo-poo's the classic open lean-to. But then he ironically goes on to describe the gross inefficiency of the small interior fire inside his favorite A frame such that he has to keep waking up from the cold 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 a correctly built (almost vertical roof) lean-to with a proper bough/brush bed. And in the lean-to he does show, he should lose the ridiculous reflector wall with pounded stakes taken from every bad army/air force survival guide - pile up your firewood logs as a solid wall instead to create a sheet of flame throwing heat toward your shelter... then you 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 innovative technique (but does reassure us that rhino dung - like most herbivores' - doesn't smell bad) nor does he suggest why one might be carrying potassium permanganate in the first place (FYI, it's a handy antiseptic & anti-fungal solution when dissolved in water).
Buy the potassium permanganate at a drugstore or swimming supply shop.
To make fire w/ sugar: equal amounts of pot. perm. & sugar on a flat, dry stone; grind in a twisting, circular way w/ another flat rock - sparking, popping noises are followed shortly by flame - add tinder, then fuel, then marshmallows. With potassium permanganate & glycerin (also bought at the pharmacy), 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 quarter-sized dollop of glycerin and waiting for bubbling to be followed by flames - experiment beforehand to better understand the ratios & times (perhaps print this section & insert in your copy of Survive?).
Why bother mentioning this if he doesn't explain how to do it fully? This sort of off-handed, yet incomplete, dropping of an idea occurs constantly throughout the book on many skills. I doubt most people will master the Figure 4 dead fall trigger with the few blurry photos. Line drawings work much better for showing the detail cut angles needed. Rafts for floating yourself or gear across water are best built with a diagonal cross piece to prevent them from skewing out of shape. Essential Skills includes knots fully tied with no learning sequence which most cordage novices will not understand (trust me, I've taught 7 knots to 100's of students - it's not an easy skill for some people to master). 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 mentions some animal hazards like bears & bull moose - but it might help to know that white tailed deer DOES w/ fawn injure far more people in Yosemite park than any other animal - lot more of those than bull moose or bears). The back of the book claims to name the "top 3 edibles" in any environment... which is blandly reduced in the text to imprecise common name labels only (little info on how to prepare each item) with NO illustrations or descriptions to properly ID such 'top edibles'. 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 also mentions "wild teas" as one of the 'top 3' in more than one environment. Yet again he fails to specifically describe what plants make useful teas (oh yes...see: "consult a local expert before you travel there") & realistically 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 any wild plants, but especially the 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. NOTE: one respondent to my review stated that he did have additional knives on that trip, but such information is never offered in the book (or is it implying that the reader needs to buy the DVD's & view all his TV shows to fully understand the context of each 'action' photo?)
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 ubiquitous SAS Survival Guide has it's share of idiotic & erroneous material (the sheet bend knot was illustrated dangerously incorrect for 4 editions & 20 years; the spear thrower design is ridiculously inefficient & from the fantasy movie Quest for Fire; there is 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 some 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'.
25 of 29 people found the following review helpful
very good
27 Nov 2008
Format:Paperback
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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