Hunted: A True Story of Survival

Rating:
Summary: Not bloody likely
Review: Fletcher knows that anyone with any knowledge about bears will see he's pulling their leg. He also knows that a lot of people will believe his story. But let's get serious. A 1200 pound female grizzly found in the interior of Alaska in May, after a long winter's fast? Not bloody likely. And verification of his story? If I had the adventure he describes with a 1200 pound grizzly, male or female, I would have someone fly me back to the scene for verification. Very easy to do. Fletcher, of course, did not do this. No pictures, no nothing.

Fletcher wrote the book tongue in cheek to make money, and I hope it does make money, because it is a real page-turner. I couldn't put it down. It's a great tall tale, and like the best tall tales, it will fool a lot of people.

Rating:
Summary: Not bloody likely
Review: Fletcher knows that anyone with any knowledge about bears will see he's pulling their leg. He also knows that a lot of people will believe his story. But let's get serious. A 1200 pound female grizzly found in the interior of Alaska in May, after a long winter's fast? Not bloody likely. And verification of his story? If I had the adventure he describes with a 1200 pound grizzly, male or female, I would have someone fly me back to the scene for verification. Very easy to do. Fletcher, of course, did not do this. No pictures, no nothing.

Fletcher wrote the book tongue in cheek to make money, and I hope it does make money, because it is a real page-turner. I couldn't put it down. It's a great tall tale, and like the best tall tales, it will fool a lot of people.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable!
Review: I don't buy the story. The author may have done this climb, but the bear story is a classic tall tale. There is just too much happening that can't happen. Mr. Fletcher knows climbing, but for someone who supposedly has climbed in Alaska before, he doesn't know much about bears. The most hilarious scene (after the one where he supposedly kills a grizzly cub by throwing his ice hammer at it)occurs when the bear rears up on its hind legs, jumps across a creek and charges him RUNNING ON TWO LEGS! Enough said. The most amazing thing is that he was able to sell this to a publisher here in the US. Revealingly, Amazon UK is selling the book in the "fiction" category, where it belongs. Accepting it as such, it does get quite suspenseful at the end.

Rating:
Summary: unbelievable
Review: I love true stories, especially man vs nature true stories. However, I found this one flat out unbelievable. I felt let down and tricked. My intuition tells me this story is a tall tale. There is nothing concrete to justify my doubt just an overall feeling you get when someone is putting you on. That in itself would be okay if the tale was soooo good that it wasn't a waste of your time but unfortunately it is not. Luckily it is short.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping, but real?
Review: I've been to Alaska a number of times, dropped off, almost everytime, just me and one other person, in the absolute wilderness. So the tale was gripping. I've always been fascinated by these big bears, coupled with a huge dose of respect.

I eagerly read every page--was totally enthralled. And I was impressed with certain aspects of the author's wilderness and mountaineering skills. But on a whole different level, I just had to wonder if it was real. He's such an outdoorsman, but makes such blundering errors.

Everyone knows, even if they've never ventured into the wilderness, that a she bear grizzly is ferocious when it comes to her cubs. Imagine killing a cub and surviving the fist 15 minutes. And instead of skidadling, you hike up a ridge, and the next morning roll boulders down the slope and announce to the world where you are. And imagine not looking over your shoulder every fifteen minutes. And imagine camping at the end of a box canyon, with not much escape. And imagine hearing a bear on the glacier and not putting two and two together. And imagine crawling down into a crevasse where you've made your base camp, smelling a bear, seeing that she's strewn the rock slide everywhere in her rage. Imagine slinking down into that hole. Oh, and by the way, you really don't starve in several days, so any degree of hunger would not drive me down that hole.

So, I did really, really, enjoy it. But there's alot that just doesn't make sense to me. I'd like to see a picture of the author, before and after, without and then with white hair.

Rating:
Summary: I could not put the book down.
Review: The book is a suspense thriller between the author and his encounter with a mother grizzly bear seeking revenge for the life of her only offspring of the year. I found I could not put the book down. I was kept glued to my seat wanting to find out what next occurs. I cannot say whether the account is entirely truthful or not, but I would recommend the book to fellow outdoor enthusiasts.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: This (supposedly) true book deals with one of the classic story lines in literature: man versus nature. When man has all the technology and gadgets at his disposal, he can usually do okay. When it's just him, with no weapons, up against a ticked off grizzly bear, well, man is toast.
Since Fletcher wrote about his own experience with a bear, I'm giving nothing away by saying he survived. But did the bear? Ah, that you'll have to discover yourself.
David Fletcher is a British mountain climber. Bored with the same-old same-old mountains of Europe, he heads to Alaska to hike a mountain, Mount Hess, that he hopes no one else has conquered. He's going solo, with only seven days' worth of food, and some climbing equipment, everything he can fit into a bag. He has no radio, no laptop computer, no way of communicating with the outside world. If anything goes wrong, he's got to fix it himself.
While I think that's crazy, I can understand the appeal. He wishes to experience nature at its purest, alone, with few trappings and conveniences. It's a test of survival, and he has no doubt he'll pass it with flying colors.
But then, within a day or two of his journey, in a moment of panic, he kills a cute little grizzly bear cub. He didn't mean to, of course. He didn't know exactly what was running straight at him, and that old human survival instinct kicked in, and he threw his ice axe and split the skull of Smokey the Bear.
Feeling horrible for what he's done, and quite scared because he knows Mama Bear has to be somewhere close, Fletcher puts some miles (or kilometers) between him and the scene of the crime. But that only buys him some time as he faces his first encounter with a fully-grown, mad as you-know-what grizzly bear.
Fletcher escapes a harrowing battle and thinks he's lost the bear. He has, until the end of the book, on his way back down the mountain. Between the two encounters, he climbs up a glacier on his way to Mount Hess while overcoming fragile ice, storms, and unstable snow.
The two bear encounters are riveting, but unless you have an interest in mountain climbing (which I do), you won't get much from the rest of the book. Fletcher is not a great writer but decent enough, so the book is readable.
One interesting side note. I usually talk to my wife about the books I read, and when she heard about this one, her response was automatic: she was rooting for the bear.

Rating:
Summary: unbelievable
Review: This book leaves me with mixed emotions.

First off, it's an amazing story. The last 60 pages, especially, are a gripping page-turner as author David Fletcher battles for his life against a grizzly bear. (True, you might find the story dragging a bit midway through, but just hold on -- it gets better). .

Still, two issues put some shadows over this book. First, Fletcher was at least partly to blame for his troubles. He ventured off on his climb of Alaska's Mt. Hess alone, by itself a risky move. Further, he had purposely avoided learning much about the climbing route beforehand so he could have a "pure" climbing experience. And he seemed to have little awareness going in about the possibility of a bear encounter. When you combine these elements with the natural perils of the Alaska wilderness you have a recipe for things going wrong.

Second, a voice in the back of my mind is saying that Fletcher's story is just TOO amazing to be true. The escalating battles with the bear grow in intensity and build to a big climax -- just like in a movie. I can't help but wonder if parts of this story are made up, or at least exaggerated. The fact that he waited 22 years to put this story to paper also make you wonder about how much can be accurately remembered. And where are the pictures? There are no photos in the book and Fletcher makes no mention of a taking a camera. But wouldn't you think that someone who had long planned this kind of trip would have brought one, if only to record the view from the summit?

It's impossible, really, to know if this is fact or fiction. Fletcher was alone, so we have to go by his word. In his defense, I would point out that he includes a lot of odd details in the story -- random changes in the weather, quirky equipment problems, even litter in a glacier lake -- that you wouldn't think would just be made up.

I wish Fletcher had put in more personal background. The book gives no clue how old he was when he did this climb. He gives no information about his family or loved ones. Those sort of details would have helped round out a fuller picture of him and why he was undertaking this adventure.

Readers should also be aware that while the bear encounters dominate the title and cover descriptions of this book, at least half of the book is about mountain climbing. Climbers may enjoy these parts; others may wish to skim through.

I want to believe this story is true. Perhaps it's best to just suspend disbelief and go along for the thrill ride. I just wish I could know for sure.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing story -- perhaps TOO amazing?
Review: This book leaves me with mixed emotions.

First off, it's an amazing story. The last 60 pages, especially, are a gripping page-turner as author David Fletcher battles for his life against a grizzly bear. (True, you might find the story dragging a bit midway through, but just hold on -- it gets better). .

Still, two issues put some shadows over this book. First, Fletcher was at least partly to blame for his troubles. He ventured off on his climb of Alaska's Mt. Hess alone, by itself a risky move. Further, he had purposely avoided learning much about the climbing route beforehand so he could have a "pure" climbing experience. And he seemed to have little awareness going in about the possibility of a bear encounter. When you combine these elements with the natural perils of the Alaska wilderness you have a recipe for things going wrong.

Second, a voice in the back of my mind is saying that Fletcher's story is just TOO amazing to be true. The escalating battles with the bear grow in intensity and build to a big climax -- just like in a movie. I can't help but wonder if parts of this story are made up, or at least exaggerated. The fact that he waited 22 years to put this story to paper also make you wonder about how much can be accurately remembered. And where are the pictures? There are no photos in the book and Fletcher makes no mention of a taking a camera. But wouldn't you think that someone who had long planned this kind of trip would have brought one, if only to record the view from the summit?

It's impossible, really, to know if this is fact or fiction. Fletcher was alone, so we have to go by his word. In his defense, I would point out that he includes a lot of odd details in the story -- random changes in the weather, quirky equipment problems, even litter in a glacier lake -- that you wouldn't think would just be made up.

I wish Fletcher had put in more personal background. The book gives no clue how old he was when he did this climb. He gives no information about his family or loved ones. Those sort of details would have helped round out a fuller picture of him and why he was undertaking this adventure.

Readers should also be aware that while the bear encounters dominate the title and cover descriptions of this book, at least half of the book is about mountain climbing. Climbers may enjoy these parts; others may wish to skim through.

I want to believe this story is true. Perhaps it's best to just suspend disbelief and go along for the thrill ride. I just wish I could know for sure.

Rating:
Summary: A True Story?
Review: This is not so much a review as a comment/question.

I have, indeed, read the book, and I am troubled by some of the events and details described.

Fletcher describes the damage done to his backpack by the bear, and this, alone, is enough to make me doubt the non-fiction status of this book. A grizzly does, indeed, have large claws, but they are not particularly sharp, and would not leave five clean rips in the material as described. Nor would one of the claws puncture his boot unless the boot were pinned against some object.

I am very skeptical of the "facts" as recounted in this book.