Rating: 
Summary: Amazingly interesting
Review: I read this book months ago, and it has really stayed with me, to the point where I was considering buying another copy because the person I loaned it to had not yet given it back! Although the topic sounds morbid, it is an extremely interesting examination of the phenomenons that cause death, from heatstroke to hypothermia, falling to drowning. Stark's examinations of the processes is thorough, entirely readable, and surprisingly enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly interesting
Review: I read this book months ago, and it has really stayed with me, to the point where I was considering buying another copy because the person I loaned it to had not yet given it back! Although the topic sounds morbid, it is an extremely interesting examination of the phenomenons that cause death, from heatstroke to hypothermia, falling to drowning. Stark's examinations of the processes is thorough, entirely readable, and surprisingly enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fascinating Read for the Morbid Couch Potato.
Review: My chances of suffering any of the fates of the adventurers in Peter Stark's book are as remote as the locations of his short stories. Nonetheless, I must admit that he puts you in scary places and confronts you with your own mortality. Last Breath is a great read for the beach or for the suspicious reader who believes that his terrible demise awaits him at every turnout on life's otherwise prosaic road. The tales are horrifying and yet fascinating. Stark's medical details provide the gravity and realism. They lend weighty balance for the morbid voyeurism that infects anyone who reads his book. It's great. Avalanches, killer jellyfish, jungle fever, hallucinatory scurvy, raging rapids and more. It's enough to cause any couch potato to settle back and bask in the glorious safety of his Lazy Boy, content in the superior wisdom of his sedentary life.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Read for the Morbid Couch Potato.
Review: My chances of suffering any of the fates of the adventurers in Peter Stark's book are as remote as the locations of his short stories. Nonetheless, I must admit that he puts you in scary places and confronts you with your own mortality. Last Breath is a great read for the beach or for the suspicious reader who believes that his terrible demise awaits him at every turnout on life's otherwise prosaic road. The tales are horrifying and yet fascinating. Stark's medical details provide the gravity and realism. They lend weighty balance for the morbid voyeurism that infects anyone who reads his book. It's great. Avalanches, killer jellyfish, jungle fever, hallucinatory scurvy, raging rapids and more. It's enough to cause any couch potato to settle back and bask in the glorious safety of his Lazy Boy, content in the superior wisdom of his sedentary life.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling and thought provoking.....
Review: Peter Stark deserves acknowledgment for his writing of this book. Truly a different and creative way of looking at adventure writing. As a teacher, I enjoyed the science behind the mishaps of would be adventures. Often in outdoorsy books the author embellishes the facts to fit his character and plot. Using factual science, Stark weaves his tails with accuracy as much as possible. In the end the stories are chilling, exciting, and relevent to a young and active generation of adventurers.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling and thought provoking.....
Review: Peter Stark deserves acknowledgment for his writing of this book. Truly a different and creative way of looking at adventure writing. As a teacher, I enjoyed the science behind the mishaps of would be adventures. Often in outdoorsy books the author embellishes the facts to fit his character and plot. Using factual science, Stark weaves his tails with accuracy as much as possible. In the end the stories are chilling, exciting, and relevent to a young and active generation of adventurers.
Rating:
Summary: What a way to go!
Review: Peter Stark has done a great job of detailing the clinical as well as the emotional side of death. As someone who spends a great deal of time playing outside, I found his stories both cautionary and motivational. That is to say, he bases his fictitious deaths on real, concrete science, and knowing more about the science will help recognize and avoid the situations he has created. A finely-written book that I'll pull down from time to time for reference as well as recreation.
Rating:
Summary: What a way to go!
Review: Peter Stark has done a great job of detailing the clinical as well as the emotional side of death. As someone who spends a great deal of time playing outside, I found his stories both cautionary and motivational. That is to say, he bases his fictitious deaths on real, concrete science, and knowing more about the science will help recognize and avoid the situations he has created. A finely-written book that I'll pull down from time to time for reference as well as recreation.
Rating:
Summary: Life on the Edge
Review: The author places his characters in a variety of outdoor adventures -- rock climbing, kayaking, snowboarding, etc. -- each which poses some risk of injury or death. In each situation the worst does occur and the author then describes how the human body reacts, consciously or unconsciously, to life-threatening forces.The bibliography, arranged by topic, provides many additional resources. Highly recommended for health care professionals and those who love outdoor adventures.
Rating: 
Summary: A Misleading Title and a Mediocre Book
Review: The subtitle of "Last Breath" calls it "Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance." This would lead one to believe that it is a series of factual stories about people who either died or had near death experiences. Alas, it is nothing of the sort. It is instead a series of "essays" in which the author merely imagines what it would be like to drown, fall from a great height, suffer heat stroke or hypothermia, etc. He liberally sprinkles each essay with medical data and historical anecdotes, but these hardly obscure the fact that there is no actual reporting going on here. The chapter on scurvey, for example, is particularly ludicrous. The author imagines a pleasure sailor who fears coming down with the disease because he forgot to pack any fruits or vegtables for a long distance voyage. Say what??? There are dozens of excellent books out there that feature real life survival (and failure to survive) tales. "Eiger Dreams" by John Krakauer is one of the best that immediately comes to mind. Any of them would be preferable to this peculiar effort.
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