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that are the stock of any wilderness survival book. Four and a half pages for Navigation, four for making a shelter - truly just the basics.You may also be disappointed in the amount of text devoted, strictly speaking, to evasion. This book covers a lot of subject areas in only about 150 pages. Consequently while it provides a good overview of topics for evasion and short-term wilderness living, it fails to give sufficient information to be very useful to anyone who does not already have the skills. The bulk covers basics of medicine, food, shelter, etc.
The best things about this book are the low price, and the title, which sucks you in to buying it. are just re-hashes of the same old stuff that every survival book author since Lofty Wiseman has been spewing and re-spewing over many decades. There is some useful stuff in here though(such as the method for mailing a letter and making it seem that it originated in a totally different city - simple and effective).The sections on navigation, food, shelter, etc. The author has only skimmed the surface of this potentially fascinating subject, and the result is a lightweight effort. Perhaps my expectations of this book were too high, but as a survival book author and experienced wilderness explorer myself I found it mostly disappointing. Aside from the communication section, I found most chapters to display an ample talent for generalization and/or stating the obvious. The old " telling direction using your watch and the sun" (inaccurate most of the time as a reliable method), and the old "creating a makeshift compass from magnetised silk (which nobody ever carrries in a pack), a blade of grass and a piece of thread is here too (and is even less reliable than the watch trick).I would have preferred a more detailed variety of long-term shelter options than what was provided - such as scout pits, etc.
It's not really any new information or presentation techniques. If you've read a handful of other US Military manuals you'll recognize this book as being heavily influenced and derived from the same sources. It's not a bad book, it's just nothing special.
So I can't vouch for the expertise of the writer. Even for the lay reader there is valuable info. I'm not a wilderness or survivalist enthusiast; I'm doing research for a novel that I'm working on. But the information is clear, reasonably well written and interesting.
Thanks for making this info available. No filler pages whatsoever. This is a must have for any survivalist. I give it a 6 out of 5 stars. Every word found in this book is useful.
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