Rating: 
Summary: not up to par with The Loop and Horse Whisperer
Review: After reading The Horse Whisperer and The Loop, I looked forward to another read by Evans. But this one was a disappointment. It was predictable,(from a romance novel standpoint), and hokey,(two men who are best friends hopelessly in love with the same woman). Please!One thing I loved about the other two books was the realism about real life relationships. The actual smoke jumping part was pretty good, but that occupies only a small part of the novel. About half of it takes place in Africa with the main character, Connor, trying to do good deeds. But the ending was so Lassie-come-homish. Thumbs down!
Rating: 
Summary: Jump On
Review: Mr. Evans takes you from Montana to Africa and back in this romance novel about loyalty, friendship and love. He tells quite the vivid tale and puts the reader right there with the characters. A refreshing romance novel with a little adventure mixed here and there. As far as the novel being predictable well it isn't a murder mystery now is it? I found it enjoyable and the 550 pages turn themseleves. Those looking to become Smoke Jumpers need look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: The Smoke Jumper
Review: It's clear that Nicholas Evans has a love affair with MT, especially the very cool town of Missoula, but this book is disappointing if you were expecting it to be about smokejumpers and was pretty "hokey" and predictable. It's a romance novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible And Depressing
Review: The Smoke Jumper is well written, yes, but it's also incredibly trite. The whole love triangle thing is old and boring. Connor and Ed are best friends and Ed wants Connor to meet his love, Julia, who of course, is the only beautiful and interesting woman on earth. Naturally, Connor falls in love with this perfect vision and blah, blah, blah. There are so many unbelievable events occuring in this book. Skye, a troubled teen Julia is supposed to be helping, blithely runs toward a wild-fire before deciding, oh, wait, maybe I don't want to burn to death and then tries to escape. Give me a break! Even a seriously troubled teen does not want to burn to death and it was incredibly unbelievable that we're supposed to think she really thought she could get around it or outrun it. Ridiclous! And then of course, we have poor, little Julia marrying Ed when she's really in love with Connor. How selfish of her. She should have given Ed the chance to find someone who really loved him, not some woman who pities herself immensely and is incredibly unlikeable. And unbelievably, after Ed learns he can't father a child, he tells Julia they should ask Connor to be the sperm donor. Now, that admitttedly did make me laugh. What guy is going to ask his best friend to father his child? Julia throws a fit, of course, and then miraclously decides she'll do it because it's the only way she'll ever have a part of her true love. Okay, I admit it. After the part where Julia decides she wants to have Connor's child, I gave up on the book. It was just too ridiclous for me to waste anymore time reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: The title of the book may be misleading to some, especially those interested in Smokejumpers. The book is in two parts and is 560 pages. 220 pages were about a Smokejumper that was also a photographer. Maybe the title of the book should have been "World Photographer". The book was well written and exciting
but not what I was hoping for. If you want to read about Smokejumpers read Murry Taylor's "Jumping Fire".
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough story for 500+ pages!
Review: This book is only 50% about smoke jumpers, as the other reviewers have written. Moreover, I found that the last 1/3 of the book dragged the storyline too much and found myself flipping through pages and pages just to reach some dialogue. The story progressed very slowly.
Also, while other reviewers thought the character development was good, I found it to be superficial and not believable. This was especially true of Connor's character, who seemed to be on a self-destructive journey for no apparent reason. The guilt of loving your friend's wife would not drive a normal person to act as he did. The story was a weird combination of dark self-exploration and soap opera drama. It just didn't work for me.
That being said, the first half of the book was very entertaining and well paced - I just don't think it was worth the time spent to read the second half just to find out what happened!
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I did not even finish. I purchased on a business trip because of my limited choices at the hotel bookstore and it was a waste of money. I tried to keep with it and finally had to give up about 1/3 of the way through. I probably should have given up sooner.
Rating:
Summary: An Engrossing Tale
Review: This is an engrossing story of two, best friends, Ed Tully and Connor Ford, and Julia Bishop who is loved by both of them. These characters are so well defined they seem plucked from real life. I was surprised at how much I came to care about them. I found it difficult to put this book down. Evans keeps the interest alive throughout the whole story. There isn't one single dull patch. The landscape descriptions are so well written it is like looking at a picture rather than just reading about it. The smoke jumper scenes were like being there. My only criticism is for the first chapter, probably because it wasn't what I was expecting. It was sad and somewhat depressing. I think that this part of the story would have been better told in flashback fashion after the main characters had been introduced. But this is a small thing when weighed against the rest of the story. I loved this book.
Rating:
Summary: Should have jumped long before finishing this book.
Review: I have just finished this book and was gravely disappointed (though not surprised at all) at the outcome. Any intelligent reader would have the end figured out after the first section, if not sooner. What a shame that the two most lively characters in the story suffer untimely demises leaving the book dry and cold reading. The author also has a bad habit of running off in many directions leading the reader down a very boring path. This book could have, and most definitely should have, been at least 125 pages shorter. The only reason why I continued to read was because I wanted to prove my original hypothesis correct (and I did). It's such a shame that two characters (Julia & Connor) didn't perish in the many, many occasions they "stumbled" into together. One could only hope they don't make this into a movie.
Rating:
Summary: A book of real heros
Review: I was shocked to read so many negative reviews on this book. Yes, the setting was broader than Montana forest fire fighting but the title says something about the person's character as well, and that was the theme throughout the book. Perhaps so many found fault because they have difficulty respecting characters who don't put their own needs before all else. This is not a book for the ME generation. It is a wonderful story of good people facing life's difficulties with honor and dignity. The beauty with which it was written was like a salve to my soul, having recently read a string of popular novels with the descriptive power of fifth grade essays. I loved The Horse Whisperer and The Loop as well, and will certainly purchase the next Nicholaus Evans novel I see on the power of the author's name alone.
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