Rating: 
Summary: An excellent read if you like action.
Review: Great book! Not quite up to the first book, "Working on the Edge", but great. The author spares the reader all the scientific, high-tech bs of the "Perfect Storm", and gets down and dirty.
Rating:
Summary: Nights of Ice ... Spike Walker is great read
Review: Having lived my entire life in and around Seattle, In March 2001, I ventured North to Alaska to visit my daughter and her family. While there I picked up "Nights of Ice".Spike Walker's subject matter is, first of all, relevant to anyone who has lived near the sea. The Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, as one non-fisherman said, "I can't drink it all and I'm damned sure I can't swim that far." Life at sea in a boat, rolling and plowing through the next wave, gets into some folks blood. I'm sure it's that way with fishermen and women but the money don't hurt either. In any case its a perilous life. Nights of Ice takes us along for a ride with people, real people, who have experienced the worst the sea has to offer. Walker's intimate knowledge of workin' the boats has us searching for lights in a "can't see your hand in front of your face" stateroom, attempting, frantically, to pull on the survival suit. We are terrified of the boat goin' down with us still on board. We gasp for air and our heart seems to stop when we hit the 37 degree water. We, along with actual survivors, use every ounce of strength and resource our bodies are able to muster in order to survive. Nights of Ice and its individual, sometimes heroic, stories are an adventure in itself.
Rating:
Summary: Nights of Ice ... Spike Walker is great read
Review: Having lived my entire life in and around Seattle, In March 2001, I ventured North to Alaska to visit my daughter and her family. While there I picked up "Nights of Ice". Spike Walker's subject matter is, first of all, relevant to anyone who has lived near the sea. The Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, as one non-fisherman said, "I can't drink it all and I'm damned sure I can't swim that far." Life at sea in a boat, rolling and plowing through the next wave, gets into some folks blood. I'm sure it's that way with fishermen and women but the money don't hurt either. In any case its a perilous life. Nights of Ice takes us along for a ride with people, real people, who have experienced the worst the sea has to offer. Walker's intimate knowledge of workin' the boats has us searching for lights in a "can't see your hand in front of your face" stateroom, attempting, frantically, to pull on the survival suit. We are terrified of the boat goin' down with us still on board. We gasp for air and our heart seems to stop when we hit the 37 degree water. We, along with actual survivors, use every ounce of strength and resource our bodies are able to muster in order to survive. Nights of Ice and its individual, sometimes heroic, stories are an adventure in itself.
Rating:
Summary: A brief glimse of life on the edge gone wrong
Review: Having worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska myself, going from a green deckhand who didn't know what was dangerous to a highliner who could see things coming, I felt myself wanting to talk to the characters in the book - "No, don't do that!" In some cases, they made all the right decisions, and still lost, or through sheer divine providence, survived, against all odds. Well written, a straight take on what many times is an overly romantized profession.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining subject--marginal writing
Review: I enjoyed this book alot. All the stories deal with survival at sea in the waters off Alaska. The stories are kind of repetitive but if you like the first one you'll like the rest. The thought of finding one's self in the frigid Alaskan waters will make you pull an extra blanket on while you read. My only real complaint is that I would have liked more details on the fishermen involved (background, etc) so it wouldn't just have been names floating out there in the ocean. Overall, highly recommended adventure reading.
Rating:
Summary: This book will make you shiver!
Review: I enjoyed this book alot. All the stories deal with survival at sea in the waters off Alaska. The stories are kind of repetitive but if you like the first one you'll like the rest. The thought of finding one's self in the frigid Alaskan waters will make you pull an extra blanket on while you read. My only real complaint is that I would have liked more details on the fishermen involved (background, etc) so it wouldn't just have been names floating out there in the ocean. Overall, highly recommended adventure reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to put down!
Review: I have heard that King Crab fishing was dangerous. Spike Walker lets you know exactly what it is really like. I have a whole new respect for those who bring in our King Crab! This book brought many a tear.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining subject--marginal writing
Review: I read this on a trip to Alaska, so I got into it's "spirit" on location. The stories are quite entertaining, but when writers make junior-varsity comments and mistakes, it makes me wonder about the veracity of the actual stories:
1) Does everyone see their entire lives flash before their eyes when they are near death?
2) Some guy's one-year old child asks him if he is Santa Claus upon his return from an ordeal at sea. Clearly Spike has never spent time with a one-year old; not only can very few of them speak more than a word or two, but this one is so eloquent and knowledgeable that he thinks the old man is Kris himself!
3) The helicopter pilot makes it to a "small village airport" just before running out of fuel (which means it must have been between 5-10 minutes from the rescue locale since they only had 30 minutes of fuel left before the rescue attempt(hmmmm), but somehow a C-130 can get in and out of there to send them home while the chopper gets an inspection (hmmm hmmmm).
I'll leave it at that...
Rating:
Summary: I read the book in one sitting
Review: Spike Walker has hit the nail on the head with his focus on the misery and pain of being a deckhand. Behind the glory of fast money and a romanticized way of life is the harsh reality of seasickness, sleep deprivation and cruel hazing by crewmates. As a former commercial fisherman I felt all of these feelings again when reading this book, but I could not put it down until it was finished. The danger is real and Spike does a masterful job of drawing the reader in. An authentic piece of work.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent sequel to Working on the Edge.....
Review: Spike Walker is a journalist who speaks with the experience of having been and worked there over many season of crab fishing. His writing is very descriptive and provides the reader with a vivid description of the events as told to him by the survivors.
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