Working on the Edge: Surviving in the World's Most Dangerous Profession: King Crab Fishing on Alaska's High Seas

Rating:
Summary: HAIR RAISING, BONE CHILLING, TOTALLY GRIPPING STORIES!!!!
Review: After having read "Working On the Edge", and now "Nights of Ice", my esteem for the author, Spike Walker and the other men and women of the Alaskan commercial fishing industry, has risen sky high!!! This book is as interest absorbing as the best of the best that I have read, including "The Perfect Storm"! The reader gets the feeling of really being in Alaska, in direct contact with the victims, survivors and rescuers. These two books, cover to cover, were impossible to put down without the question of "what happens next?!" Thoroughly entertaining reading, I was sorry when they ended, as they had my attention to the very last word!!! Great! Great!! Great!!! Thank you Mr. Walker, for the thrills of a lifetime!!!

Rating:
Summary: HAIR RAISING, BONE CHILLING, TOTALLY GRIPPING STORIES!!!!
Review: After having read "Working On the Edge", and now "Nights of Ice", my esteem for the author, Spike Walker and the other men and women of the Alaskan commercial fishing industry, has risen sky high!!! This book is as interest absorbing as the best of the best that I have read, including "The Perfect Storm"! The reader gets the feeling of really being in Alaska, in direct contact with the victims, survivors and rescuers. These two books, cover to cover, were impossible to put down without the question of "what happens next?!" Thoroughly entertaining reading, I was sorry when they ended, as they had my attention to the very last word!!! Great! Great!! Great!!! Thank you Mr. Walker, for the thrills of a lifetime!!!

Rating:
Summary: Over-rated
Review: As a commercial crab and salmon fisherman who worked out of Kodiak and Dutch Harbor at about the same time as Mr. Walker (I am actually somewhat surprised that I never met him), I had looked forward to reading this book for quite a while. But - I was disappointed. The book is a fairly accurate depiction of the life and times. The bar-life and the life at sea are described pretty accurately. However, I found Mr. Walker's various accounts of his own exploits to be tiresome (everthing from bench-pressing crewmates to his own virtuous avoidance of the drugs that were so prevelant). Further, the book is not very well edited. Notwitstanding the extensive research that he claims to have conducted, the book is full of minor inaccuracies, mis-identified people, and misspelled words. For example, he refers to a marine radio as a "VHS" radio (it is actually a "VHF" radio). He also mis-spells the name of Peggy Dyson (who was in fact truly an icon for mariners in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska) as Peggy "Dison." OK, these are minor examples, but there are quite a few of these, and there were also a number of mis-statements of fact that I can't recall at the moment. These errors are pretty unprofessional, and they make the book somewhat annoying to read. Overall, it's probably worth reading just to get a feel for what the lifestyle was like during the Alaska Fishing Boom Years. But it could have been better.

Rating:
Summary: A must read textbook for watermen, seafarers, or adventurers
Review: As a former crabber on the Chesapeake Bay, I was caught in one bad storm that Mr Walkers recounted sagas more than captured while vividly implanting, the stark terror, drudgery, and rewards of a profession few have experienced. My condolences to the families of those who dared and paid the price; my respect for the survivors. Mr Walkers book puts you out there with the action in a gripping spellbound story, that you will not stop reading until the end. I can't believe this book was not a bestseller and currently available. It was by far one of the best sea survival novels with accurate depictions I have ever read. You are there to fight to save your boat, work the endless rows of crabpots, work hard - play hard, suffer frayed nerves, enjoy good times and hard won cash.

Rating:
Summary: A survivor profiled says this is a fine, accurate book
Review: As a survivor of one of the disasters Mr. Walker has written about, I am hardly disinterested. This book is an excellent and accurate account and I hightly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: More then entertaining....
Review: Being the daughter of an Aleut who has fished many seasons in the waters of Alaska, I have grown up listening about many of the places found in Walker's book. This summer, I was fortunate enough to travel to Alaska with my father for the first time and we traveled to some of those places. Walker does an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere of the fish camps and the beauty of the land. I appreciate his honesty as he describes the hardships that he endured, and the fact that he is able to tell more then just a story but is able to add so much detail and information that the reader gets a realistic view of the industry and how it operates. Read it and pass it on....

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Coming from a commercial fishing family, I am usually critical of books written on this topic. Mr. Walker does an excellent job describing the life of those working on the water. If you enjoy adventure books, or if you want to learn more about devoting life to the commercial fishing industry, this book is extremely accurate. I enjoyed every turn of the page!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Coming from a commercial fishing family, I am usually critical of books written on this topic. Mr. Walker does an excellent job describing the life of those working on the water. If you enjoy adventure books, or if you want to learn more about devoting life to the commercial fishing industry, this book is extremely accurate. I enjoyed every turn of the page!

Rating:
Summary: As close to being there as you can be through reading
Review: Having experienced many simular situations to the author during my fishing days, I need to tip my hat (Helly Hansen raingear hood, really) to him for putting into words what it's like to push human endurance beyond reality and what happens when you do. Too many have heard romantized accounts of big money without the counterbalance of pain, injury, and death that go with it. Hopefully Mr. Walker's account will slow the tide, and open eyes to unseen dangers. By the same token, what a thrill it is to have worked with the best of the best, under the most demanding conditions, and overcome it all - that thrill is there as well. Nicely done, Spike - I have the feeling I'd be happy to take a turn on deck with you any time (assuming either of us are still up for such foolishness!)

Rating:
Summary: Could be about 100 pages shorter
Review: I enjoyed a lot of this book, but after a while it got pretty boring. All those heroic sturdy men wrestling the crabpots around the deck, the huge seas, the long drunks. The story gets repetitious after a while, and then you start to pay closer attention to the author's style, and it does not really bear much close scrutiny. A lot of it is overwrought and amateurish, full of cliches. Worst for me about the book was that in the end I was wondering what is so heroic about risking your life to make a lot of money really fast.