Publisher's Weekly Review
Underwood (On Dangerous Ground), a noted outdoorsman and the editorial director of the Outdoor Magazine Group of Harris Publications, has compiled 17 adventure pieces that pit humans against nature. The collection mixes fiction and nonfiction, and features excerpts from well-known works as well as reprints of magazine articles. All the tales are wonderfully written by such well-known authors as Rudyard Kipling, Jon Krakauer, Jack London, Farley Mowat and Sir Ernest Shackleton. While the fiction chosen by Underwood is imaginative and entertaining, the most compelling selections are among the nonfiction, for in these true stories, the choices and chances that determine life and death occur. Three excerpts in particular stand out as graphic, moving testimony to the human will to survive: an account from Piers Paul Read's book Alive, about the famous Andes plane crash; a section from Slavomir Rawicz's The Long Walk, which describes Soviet labor camp escapees' first few days traversing the Gobi Desert, having already walked across Siberia and China during WWII; and a couple of chapters from Shackleton's South, concerning his 800-mile trip in a lifeboat to get help for his stranded crew. Whether these are the greatest survival stories ever told, Underwood's collection makes for a brisk read and a great introduction to adventure writing. Most readers will be anxious to move on to the original materials. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
Given the general public's interest in war and survival tales, these two collections of fiction and nonfiction excerpts should jump off the shelves of public libraries this summer. Underwood, a former editor of Outdoor Life and Sports Afield, caters to popular taste with the enthusiastic comments he offers as introduction to each selection. In defining the "greatest" tales, he looked beyond literary merit for prose that is engaging and illuminating and serves as a tribute to the participants. In The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told, the reader will be struck by how fate, foul-ups, or bad luck often caused the adventures to end in tragedy, whether it involved the loss of limbs or of life. Many of the survival tales are classics, such as Jack London's "To Build a Fire," Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat," and Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi." The Greatest War Stories Ever Told relies on excerpts from the works of authors like Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Michael Shaara, and Erich Maria Remarque. In the introduction, Underwood explains his fascination with the symbolism of soldiers' boots. His goal is to capture how these boots traveled over beaches, jungles, and deserts, giving the reader a new way of appreciating these courageous soldiers. The sea tales of Irwin Shaw and C.S. Forester round out this anthology. Both are recommended for popular reading collections, including YA. Joyce Sparrow, Juvenile Welfare Board Lib. of Pinellas Cty., FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.