Cheating Death: Amazing Survival Stories from Alaska

Rating:
Summary: Strange but (Possibly) True Tales of Pioneer-Wannabes
Review: In Cheating Death, Larry Kaniut offers a series of short, unconnected tales of potentially deadly accidents whose victims walk away, if not unscathed, at least alive to tempt death again some day. Most of the accidents deal with the "normal" string of minor disasters that those who have lived in Alaska are pretty used to: small airplane crashes, small boat sinkings, small raft flippings, and encounters with not-so-small blizzards and bears. Most of these situations sound like the inventions of uninspired adventure writers except to those who have indeed lived for a time in the state that calls itself The Last Frontier, for we know that such adventures are indeed real life.

Kaniut's book is an eclectic collection of such adventures as might appear in glossy magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Shooter, and other such publications whose stories usually involve a vicarious injection of testosterone into the reader. In fact, it's usually an overload of testosterone that gets the victims into their scrapes to begin with: "Gee, there's a wide, fast-flowing, silt-filled river full of boulders. Let's see if I can conquer it in my noisy, polluting, totally unnecessary jet boat!" "Oh, look! There's a huge, ancient, majestic grizzly boar. Let's see if I can kill it with my very expensive sport rifle." The one thing that ties almost all of Kaniut's victims together is their chest-pounding bravado and their insistence on being where they shouldn't when they shouldn't-but that, too, tends to be real life in Alaska, as does the religious fanaticism that a few of the victims display ad nauseam.

Don't approach this little anthology looking for universal themes, character development, artfully interwoven plots and subplots, inspiring figures of speech (except maybe hyperbole) or anything at all of a memorable nature. However, if one is in need of some great outhouse reading material or wants to kill a few hours on the airliner between Anchorage and Seattle, Kaniut's collection of survival tales is the ticket! Knowing Alaska and its denizens, I have to admit that most of these wild tales may even have happened very much as they are told-with the exception of the giant octopus. That one I'm not buying (even if it does make a great read).

Rating:
Summary: 18 True Survival Stories
Review: This book is full of excellent stories of survival in the vast and varied wilderness of Alaska. What I enjoyed most about these stories was the sense of ordinary people up against the extraordinary forces of nature and circumstance. There's a personal flavor to some of the chapters. Almost as if you're hearing your neighbor telling a story about his cousin up in Petersburg. Is this the best written book in the world? No, but the true stories are pretty good.

Rating:
Summary: Go safely.
Review: This book would not exist were it not for the gracious first hand accounts given by the participants. Hopefully all who read Cheating Death will go safely in their outings, be they outdoor or otherwise. You may wish to peruse my new book from St. Martin's Press, Danger Stalks the Land.

Rating:
Summary: It's an OK read, but not spectacular
Review: This isn't a bad book, but there are better ones of this genre. Some of the stories are quite interesting; others, less so. Some could use more detail, more background research. According to the book, the author has taken up writing full time. You could have fooled me. This book appears to be written as a hobby, by someone who has occupational interests other than writing. But, some of the book is well documented, and overall the book is OK.