Last Breath : The Limits of Adventure

Rating:
Summary: Can't put it down!
Review: I just bought this book yesterday, and have been unable to put it down since then. It's an edge of your seat book and I highly recommend it to anyone who is involved in sports of any kind. It really makes you think. Highly recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: It's like reading television.
Review: Last Breath is a book that strives to be at once emotionally compelling and supremely factual. Or something. I don't see any evidence that it is trying very hard. Last Breath falls short in both aspects; the story telling is abysmal and its factual segments are at best dumbed-down, at worst outright wrong. Stark relies too much on proximity to death as a way to affect the reader: having blunt emotional trauma on his side, he spurns all aspects of good writing, and in this I include original metaphor, realistic characters, engaging writing style, and the junior-high rule (which still applies) of not using the same word twice in one sentence. All of the characters in Last Breath are alotted (at most) two traits: first, a piggish whininess and, second, a generic characteristic intended to generate sympathy. In several stories, Stark holds the families of his protagonists hostage in order to bully us, the readers, into craving a happy ending. Poor Jeremy! What will become of his little daughter? It made me want a lobotomy. The narrative, dull and cliche-ridden, lurches back and forth between the ordeals of irritating protagonists and a mishmash of anecdote and diluted physiological fact. In trying not to write over the heads of his audience, Stark oversimplifies and introduces ambiguity into everything that he tries to explain. Furthermore, neither he NOR his editor can be trusted as credible, having let slip the following statement, which is significantly contradictory of actual fact: "This is because [cardiac muscle] contains negative ions- certain types of atoms that are missing electrons." The most readable parts of Last Breath are the largely unaltered stories and anecdotes, not difficult to find in their original contexts, that Stark has gathered from others. In the end, this book does not convey any deeper understanding of death, and, in its attempts to marry the realms of fact and fiction, it lacks merit in either. I feel stupider for having read this.

Rating:
Summary: Not really worth buying...borrow it from the library instead
Review: This book is entertaining, but many times follows a very cliche pattern of speech and character. The first thing that the consumer must know is that these stories are FICTIONAL and based off of several accounts that the author received from friends and interviews. Somehow the information presented packs less of a punch with the knowledge that the stories are not true. Also, I could not help but get the sense that the author was trying to impress me with his outdoors saavy (he repeatedly trumpeted his talent as a backcountry skiier and kayaker and such) and his misguided word usage. The medical information is sometimes informative and other times very cloudy and vague. Stark's attempt to mix medical fact with fiction is a bit akward. Do NOT look to this book for survival skills! At best, it provides a small window into human physiology.

Overall, this book is a fun and fast read, but not worth adding to your library.

Rating:
Summary: I hope I only read about these desparate stories
Review: This was a good read. I followed the unfolding of one desparate story after another with interest. The medical side line was also interesting information. I appreciated the author's preface explaining how he got his information and what was fictionalize. It certainly helped that he has participated in most of the sports contained in these experiences gone wrong. This book was a unique find for me, as I had never read much adventure before.