Rating: 
Summary: Excellent light and educational reading
Review: "Last Breath" makes for a very good educational read on many different ways of dying. The information in the book ties together the psychological and physiologcal factors of people in extreme conditions, and also provides some helpful information on how to increase your chances of survival.Other reviewers have commented negatively on the characters being fictional. I felt that had you not been told by Peter Stark to begin with, it would have been difficult to know that they weren't real stories. Furthermore, the use of fictional characters allowed the author to include all of the important details and circumstances that can occur during a given struggle, in just one story.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent light and educational reading
Review: "Last Breath" makes for a very good educational read on many different ways of dying. The information in the book ties together the psychological and physiologcal factors of people in extreme conditions, and also provides some helpful information on how to increase your chances of survival. Other reviewers have commented negatively on the characters being fictional. I felt that had you not been told by Peter Stark to begin with, it would have been difficult to know that they weren't real stories. Furthermore, the use of fictional characters allowed the author to include all of the important details and circumstances that can occur during a given struggle, in just one story.
Rating:
Summary: Good winter read
Review: A good read. Anyone who likes their fiction served with a good portion of interesting arcana on different subjects(like Dying) will find this book a fun, easy read, chock full of a lot of gripping details. Each chapter is a fictitious account of someone near death from hypothermia, avalanche, predator, etc. All fun and involving -- except for the scurvy chapter which is really pointless and uninvolving.
Rating: 
Summary: Fictional characters didnt work for me
Review: Fictional characters didnt work for me. I wanted to hear some real stories. I just couldnt get that worked up by a fictional story of death. I think it would make a great book if the stories were non-fiction. Like "Into Thin Air" but a dozen short stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Great storytelling - but it's different from what you think
Review: First the good news. The author obviously knows what he's writing about, and this gives the stories lots of energy and impact. Also, he's a very good writer, setting up great situations and characters - you'll want to know what happens to them and keep reading.
Finally, the medical facts are very well researched - somewhat morbidly so, but that's the nature of this topic, so be it. The bad news is that this is not, as you might be thinking by reading the blurbs, a book about survivors' stories. It might have been very interesting to hear the stories from the words of real survivors... but the blunt reality is that often there are no survivors at all. In fact, the general pattern (with a couple of exceptions) of each story goes like: "X did this very foolish thing because X was an imbecile full of itself, so a condition arose... and then X died". Surely an interesting read, especially if your interest in tanathology is not as deep as the one in good stories. And I'd make this book mandatory reading for anyone into extreme sports. Just to get them scared. Naughty, ain't it?
Rating: 
Summary: Required reading for outdoor adventure types
Review: Have you ever rockclimbed? If so, make your first read the short story on "Falling".
You will find yourself reaching for the chalkbag as perspiration flows from your
fingertips. If you've never rockclimbed, read it anyway, Oh, and the answer to the
non-climbers first question is "Yes, there are people who attempt (and even achieve)
what this climber set out to do."
Rating:
Summary: IF I COULD LEAVE SIX STARS...
Review: I am disappointed, but of course not surprised that some people did not enjoy this book--those who did not enjoy it either did not understand what they were buying or do not have the imagination it takes to be affected by this incredible piece of work. They need REAL cases, where they can't see past the fictionalized format of each of these circumstances. Peter Stark is the MICHAEL CRICHTON of outdoor adventure and all its dangers, where he provides the medical/biological condition of the victim that he or she, if writing his own tale would never have known about. Don't get me wrong, first-hand accounts are great, but the objectivity in these tales really makes them easier to "experience," and the use of second person in the opening and closing chapters is the crowning touch. You aren't "listening to someone else's story", you are completely drawn in with the victim, as long as you have an active imagination. If you don't feel affected after the last chapter then I just don't know what to say--talk about a grand finale for a book--I've never been so freaked out in all of my life! GET READY! Overall, I will never view being underwater or forgetting my water bottle the same way after reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Uniquely Frightening and Unexpectedly Good
Review: I could not put this book down without finishing it. Stark's characters, though fictious, are brought to life so vividly that it is difficult not to imagine yourself in the same situations. I found myself grimacing at times and pulling for them at others. A great read. If this book does not make you think twice about Kayaking or force you to pay a little extra attention to your Vitamin C intake, I would be very surprised.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Non-Fiction
Review: I first read a chapter of this book in paddler magazine and the way Peter Stark described the drowning of a kayaker (Chapter 2: A River of One's Own) in detail right down to the amounts of oxygen remaining in his lungs at various periods of time. The entire book is written as en ewcellent blend of fact and fiction and while the scenarios are not true they are composites of true stories, and some of Stark's imagination, which gives them a realism that pure fiction can't match. The facts Stark gives are sound, he obviously did his homework and he even gives a bibliography so you can check out some of his sources. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get outside.
Rating:
Summary: Great, Fascinating Read
Review: I loved this book and could not put it down. Although I read it several weeks ago, I still think of it often. A series of short stories, each with a different perspective and outcome, depict human struggle in the face of potentially fatal situations. Each story is a wonderful journey into the powerful will-to-live we are all born with. Excellent.
| 
