Rating: 
Summary: Flair or hype...?
Review: In reading the opening pages of chapter 1, Walker shows us how he paints with words... adjectives chosen a notch or two above what might be more accurate, if less exciting. I flew in the HH-3F Pelicans out of Kodiak, with Jimmy Ng and Tom Walters and others. My earliest missions were as search crew to help locate the bodies and wreckage of the 1471. I've been a hundred of miles out to sea in the HH-3F, in darkness above angry waters... pushed by high winds, the snow swirling around in the cabin, landing on the nav charts. I had to wipe the snow off just to read them. Yet as unusual as this experience might sound, it felt like we were just doing a job. No hype. No fish stories. (we saved that for the fishing :-) Walker presents perhaps an overinflated view. We weren't heroes, at least I never felt it. We just did the job, brought the helo back to the hangar, prepped it for flight, then hit the rack for some sleep. I always wore bright orange sox for "good luck", but beyond that, we simply put the bad behind us and did our work with coolness and reason. The amazing part of it was the circumstances that we sometimes found ourselves in, but the crews... we were just like everyone else. We did the best with what we were given. We always went out fully expecting that we'd come back. We never questioned it. There was no reason to accomodate those thoughts, and plenty of reasons not to. Walker colors the people he portrays as if they were larger than life, skilled beyond measure, a rare fire burning inside. But that wasn't us... at least it didn't seem that way having lived it. We were just guys with a job to do, so we did it.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome-sad-just a great read
Review: My husband brought this book back for me when on a fishing trip to Alaska. I thought it was great. No messing around, but straight to the point. It had me crying in the end. He truely had me from page one.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome-sad-just a great read
Review: My husband brought this book back for me when on a fishing trip to Alaska. I thought it was great. No messing around, but straight to the point. It had me crying in the end. He truely had me from page one.
Rating:
Summary: On the edge
Review: One of the most exciting books I have ever read. Events happen to real people with real stories. You feel the pain of helplessness and the loss of retreat. The author captures two sides of the story why fish and why risk your life to save others. This book puts you in the water with the fishermen and on the helicopter with the Coast Guard.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book
Review: Really good, captivating story. Once you get into Part II, it's hard to put the book down. However, there is something funky about the writing that I can't put my finger on. It's a bit wordy at times and the use of big words and multiple adverbs feels a little over kill at times. I must question the editing of the book as well. It seems like "the story" wasn't long enough for a full blown book, so elements were added afterward to help fill the pages. The early chapters do not synch and all along you're waiting for them to tie in together or for characters introduced in the beginning to come back later in the book... but they never do.Don't get me wrong, I highly recommend this book, but I can't give it 5 stars based on some editing and writing issues.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible story... good writing
Review: Really good, captivating story. Once you get into Part II, it's hard to put the book down. However, there is something funky about the writing that I can't put my finger on. It's a bit wordy at times and the use of big words and multiple adverbs feels a little over kill at times. I must question the editing of the book as well. It seems like "the story" wasn't long enough for a full blown book, so elements were added afterward to help fill the pages. The early chapters do not synch and all along you're waiting for them to tie in together or for characters introduced in the beginning to come back later in the book... but they never do. Don't get me wrong, I highly recommend this book, but I can't give it 5 stars based on some editing and writing issues.
Rating:
Summary: Yet Another "Perfect Storm"
Review: See if this story doesn't sound familiar, unexpected strong storm catches a fishing boat unprepared and sinks it and Coast Guard helicopters attempt a near impossible rescue at sea while loved ones fret onshore. Change the setting from the North Atlantic to the Gulf of Alaska, and it is "The Perfect Storm" all over again. There have been a lot of books that have attempted to follow the massive success of Sebastian Junger's bestseller. In the case of "Coming Back Alive," the story itself has its interesting aspects, but author Spike Walker lacks Junger's deft storytelling touch. The book tries to paint a backdrop of life in the fishing villages in Southeastern Alaska, but manages to do so somewhat incompletely. The snapshots of living in this vast wilderness are interesting but disjointed, and this portion of the book meanders. Walker throws in a couple of other dramtic Coast Gueard rescue missions, including one that ended tragically, but since those missions happened many years before the main story, they seem a little misplaced. And unlike the recently published, "The Rescue Season," which is about Alsaka Mountain rescue crews, this book doesn't do as good a job at getting into the psyche pf those who risk their lives in such a dramatic style helping others. Overall, Walker's book is not bad reading for those with a particular interest in the subject matter. But don't expect another perfect storm story.
Rating:
Summary: It Speaks the truth
Review: Spike Walker did an excellent job in portraying the sheer terror that the men of the La Conte felt. I've grown up around the Alaskan fisheries and I understand what the guys went through. For anyone who has never been around the most dangerous occupation in the world Coming Back Alive is and excellent portrayal of what Alaskan Long-lining is all about.
Rating:
Summary: Rescue on the Edge
Review: Spike Walker has a gift of taking the reader off the page and into the frigid, storm-swept Alaskan waters where fishermen -- and sometimes their rescuers -- find themselves, fighting to stay alive. Mr. Walker painstakingly details the accounts of a few choice Alaskan rescues -- and failures, all heroic. The action is gripping and real because the author knows how to tell a story. Coming Back Alive is extremely informative without weighing down the reader with too much technical and superfluous information. There's no guessing about what happened out there in the isolated Alaskan seas because Mr. Walker has followed through with years of reserach and interviews.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautifully Crafted True Account
Review: Spike Walker has crafted a true account of the "World's Most Dangerous Occupation", fishing off Alaska's, beautiful, yet treacherous coast. Walker is first and foremost a writer. Sure he LIVED the life he writes about in "Coming Back Alive", but he doesn't merely describe the events. Walker's craftsmanship transports the reader to Alaska. You know the helicopter pilot. You feel the 70 foot waves as Walker, thankfully for the reader, allows us a glimpse into HIS world. What a world it is. There is majestic beauty, and the raw power of nature,and the courage of the men and women living in our "Last Frontier". The book is written as a tribute to those who tempt nature by fishing her waters and the bravery of the United States Coast Guard. It's about heroes, and the true "spirit of American Independence". You'll love this True Story by a real master wordsmith. As a talk show host I read hundreds of books and this is only the second review I've ever written on Amazon. I KNOW you'll love this book, and writers, read this to improve YOUR style. Walker is quite possibly the best writer alive today. Read COMING BACK ALIVE and see for yourself Erskine, host Erskine Overnight (Saturdays on Business Talk Radio)
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