Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, unsentimental tale of subsistence in Alaska
Review:
Comparisons will be drawn between this book and Krakauer's excellent Into the Wild based on the common themes of living off the land and the unforgivingness of the Alaskan wilderness. Where Krakauer's book is a meditation on the romanticism and perils of self-reliance, The Final Frontiersman is an unsentimental and penetrating look at the physical, emotional and psychological challenges of making a living in this remote and and unforgiving environment.
Heimo Korth, his wife and two daughters and the life they lead are fascinating. Campbell's well-constructed narrative makes exciting and evocative reading.
If Chris McCandless, the subject of Krakauer's book, had had the chance to read this book, he might still be alive today.
Rating:
Summary: Great Adventure!
Review: I'm amazed with people who can forgo safety and creature comforts to set out to explore the world. Since I'm too timid for such things myself, I love to read about people who aren't. James Campbell's book was a great and easy read. I fell in love with Heimo Korth and his family and ended up envying their beautiful, simple and dangerous life.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, unsentimental tale of subsistence in Alaska
Review: Comparisons will be drawn between this book and Krakauer's excellent Into the Wild based on the common themes of living off the land and the unforgivingness of the Alaskan wilderness. Where Krakauer's book is a meditation on the romanticism and perils of self-reliance, The Final Frontiersman is an unsentimental and penetrating look at the physical, emotional and psychological challenges of making a living in this remote and and unforgiving environment.
Heimo Korth, his wife and two daughters and the life they lead is fascinating. Campbell's well-constructed narrative makes exciting and evocative reading.
If Chris McCandless, the subject of Krakauer's book, had had the chance to read this book, he might still be alive today.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I second the positive comments to what has been said earlier in these reviews. This man and his family were included in a National Geographic documentary titled "Braving Alaska". I originally read the review of this book featured in Outside magazine and thought the storyline sounded familiar.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I second the positive comments to what has been said earlier in these reviews. This man and his family were included in a National Geographic documentary titled "Braving Alaska". I originally read the review of this book featured in Outside magazine and thought the storyline sounded familiar.
Rating:
Summary: Little House in the Big Arctic
Review: James Campbell reports the life of Heimo Korth and the family he has raised, the last family of trappers to remain in the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Although this book has one foot in the "wilderness adventure can you believe anyone can survive this" genre (Heimo regularly traps in -50 weather and even jogs in -20 weather), it is also a kind of domestic family saga, almost a "Little House on the Prairie" but the prairie is the Arctic. Heimo, his wife Edna, and daughters Rhonda and Krin, face near tragedies and real tragedies lost in blizzards, or facing a broken-down snow machine miles from home, or jumping from ice flow to ice flow in desparate hope of making it back to shore, or falling through overflow ice on the river. Remarkably though, the main thing I'll remember about this book is the sense it conveys of Heimo's redemption (lost and alcoholic, he came to Alaska to trap in the 70s, but dried up and built a family there), and of the love and affection of a family who have no one but each other for months on end. This is a real testament to Campbell's skill as a journalist and author. The adventure and drama of the Arctic keep the reader turning pages like a good mystery but the after-effect is one of love and integrity.
Rating:
Summary: Little House in the Big Arctic
Review: James Campbell reports the life of Heimo Korth and the family he has raised, the last family of trappers to remain in the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Although this book has one foot in the "wilderness adventure can you believe anyone can survive this" genre (Heimo regularly traps in -50 weather and even jogs in -20 weather), it is also a kind of domestic family saga, almost a "Little House on the Prairie" but the prairie is the Arctic. Heimo, his wife Edna, and daughters Rhonda and Krin, face near tragedies and real tragedies lost in blizzards, or facing a broken-down snow machine miles from home, or jumping from ice flow to ice flow in desparate hope of making it back to shore, or falling through overflow ice on the river. Remarkably though, the main thing I'll remember about this book is the sense it conveys of Heimo's redemption (lost and alcoholic, he came to Alaska to trap in the 70s, but dried up and built a family there), and of the love and affection of a family who have no one but each other for months on end. This is a real testament to Campbell's skill as a journalist and author. The adventure and drama of the Arctic keep the reader turning pages like a good mystery but the after-effect is one of love and integrity.
Rating: 
Summary: The enigma of Alaskans
Review: Our northernmost state fascinates me. This book is an authentic look into the lives of a family living farther north than my imagination can envision. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) sounds desolate and foreboding and based on the accounts in this book it really is. The portrayal of the Korth family is not a Fairy Tale. They have no neighbors for hundreds of miles. Trapping is still their livelihood. At times I felt like I was reading the history of Lewis And Clark because the lifestyle is so dated but the encounters the author has with the family took place in 2002. They live 300 miles from Fairbanks which itself is a more northern city in Alaska. Well, everything "north" is relative.
The romanticism of Alaska's northern lights, salmon runs, calving glaciers and long days of summer that grow enormous flowers and vegetables fast and furious then frosted by August is hardly the true vision of the frostbitten fingers and fear of dying portrayed in this incredible book. Good read if frontiersman and the enigma that is Alaska fascinates you too.
Rating:
Summary: If you ever wanted to live in the Alaskan bush...
Review: Thank you James Campbell for your persistence in bringing the story of Heimo Korth and family to the world. Very few of us will ever experience the Alaskan wilderness beyond the tether of a cruise ship or the reach of a town. However, only in The Final Frontiersman have I been able to sense the tremendous strength of will and character it takes for someone to live, really live, longtime in the Alaska bush.
If you want to look over the shoulder of someone who has created a life in one of the most challenging environments in the world, then this is a must read for you.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: This book is so wonderfully written. James Campbell breathes so much life in every word and every paragraph, that it is one of those rare books that is hard to put down. My husband couldn't believe that I would be so taken in by a story about the wilderness.
Yet, the character development; the smooth writing style that describes the trials and hardships; all of the history that I learned made this such a three dimensional and rare treat. If only James Campbell had other books that I could purchase!
I read a ton of books and this is one of the few that I will definitely recommend to everyone that I know.
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