Rating: 
Summary: A what-to-do book
Review: Most survival manuals are how-to-do books, even I have written one. What was missing was a collection of scenarios, how to identify them and what to do day-by-day (or phase-by-phase). I have attempted to fill this need. This a basic book (Survival 101 if you like) and is intended to complement your survival library.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book Suggest people ignore review by canagy@usa.net -
Review: The complete Book of Survial is just that. No serious survialist should be without this book. canagy@usa.net says he has hundreds of other books that cover similar material. Well good for him! Maybe he should have bought this one instead. It seem to have all the useful information in one well-written, throughly-researched resource.As for pilfering, how does canagy@usa.net know who's work draws from who? Besides that, the subject matter is such that there is bound to be some consistency from one resource to the next (how many different ways are there to decontaminate NBC-exposed equipment?). Duh! IMO canagy@usa.net is just a small-minded wantabe, who presumably is using his criticisms to compensate for the fact that, while he may have read many survial manuals, he can't right one himself that anyone would bother to publish.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book Suggest people ignore review by canagy@usa.net -
Review: The complete Book of Survial is just that. No serious survialist should be without this book. canagy@usa.net says he has hundreds of other books that cover similar material. Well good for him! Maybe he should have bought this one instead. It seem to have all the useful information in one well-written, throughly-researched resource. As for pilfering, how does canagy@usa.net know who's work draws from who? Besides that, the subject matter is such that there is bound to be some consistency from one resource to the next (how many different ways are there to decontaminate NBC-exposed equipment?). Duh! IMO canagy@usa.net is just a small-minded wantabe, who presumably is using his criticisms to compensate for the fact that, while he may have read many survial manuals, he can't right one himself that anyone would bother to publish.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT !!!
Review: The Complete Book of Survival will be an important addition to the Fringe Lunacy section of any paranoid's personal library. Prepare yourself for the collapse of the American dollar, invasion by mars men, the tilting of the earth on it's axis, the impending race wars, and foreign nations controlling our weather. This book will help you to "recognize the signs of impending doom." (from the back cover - to be read with a scary voice) With an uncertain future, we could all end up enslaved by invading space aliens or dead at the hands of marauding stockbrokers tomorrow. Or, as the author says so eloquently in the forward to the book, "There is another future - a future in which people reading this book will live longer, and in style too."(p. 8) This book included useful, commonsense suggestions such as: "You're of no use dead."(repeated throughout the book and not necessarily true if those with you are hungry) and "If you are trapped in your car: stay in your car. (p.121); well thought out observations, ie."...the circus elephant dying a week after you shoot him is little comfort if he tramples you to death." (p. 54); and startling truisms like "One minute you're sipping a lemonade in your backyard, and the next you're looking at a wall of water ten stories high coming straight at you."(p. 279) or "Clothing fires are a sure way to get hurt." (p. 230) Valuable checklists of necessary survival items seem to be a complete inventory of whatever the author had lying around his house at the time. Remember that when there is a disaster, you will be glad you brought along your flour sifter (p.24) and liquor (p. 32). Sure, you laugh now. But forget this not: the cities will be destroyed, the countryside will be a nuclear wasteland, aliens will take our valuable deuterium crystals, and your children will be made to survive on whatever they can catch and kill themselves. Then we'll see who's laughing. Probably the best advice given in this entire book is found on page 9 where the author tells us to buy a copy of the Encyclopedia of Survival. (Instead of this book I assume.)
Rating: 
Summary: Unimpressive, even for a fringe lunacy book.
Review: The Complete Book of Survival will be an important addition to the Fringe Lunacy section of any paranoid's personal library. Prepare yourself for the collapse of the American dollar, invasion by mars men, the tilting of the earth on it's axis, the impending race wars, and foreign nations controlling our weather. This book will help you to "recognize the signs of impending doom." (from the back cover - to be read with a scary voice) With an uncertain future, we could all end up enslaved by invading space aliens or dead at the hands of marauding stockbrokers tomorrow. Or, as the author says so eloquently in the forward to the book, "There is another future - a future in which people reading this book will live longer, and in style too."(p. 8) This book included useful, commonsense suggestions such as: "You're of no use dead."(repeated throughout the book and not necessarily true if those with you are hungry) and "If you are trapped in your car: stay in your car. (p.121); well thought out observations, ie."...the circus elephant dying a week after you shoot him is little comfort if he tramples you to death." (p. 54); and startling truisms like "One minute you're sipping a lemonade in your backyard, and the next you're looking at a wall of water ten stories high coming straight at you."(p. 279) or "Clothing fires are a sure way to get hurt." (p. 230) Valuable checklists of necessary survival items seem to be a complete inventory of whatever the author had lying around his house at the time. Remember that when there is a disaster, you will be glad you brought along your flour sifter (p.24) and liquor (p. 32). Sure, you laugh now. But forget this not: the cities will be destroyed, the countryside will be a nuclear wasteland, aliens will take our valuable deuterium crystals, and your children will be made to survive on whatever they can catch and kill themselves. Then we'll see who's laughing. Probably the best advice given in this entire book is found on page 9 where the author tells us to buy a copy of the Encyclopedia of Survival. (Instead of this book I assume.)
Rating: 
Summary: More of a what if book than a what to do type
Review: This book covers "what if this happened?" type senarios. After a while the senarios start to sound the same. The book is very light on how to prepair for the upcoming emergencies, he tells you what to do with out giving you addresses and information needed to get the material things you need to survive. This book needs to be paired with other physical survival books!
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking but lacking any practical applicability
Review: While the book was thought provoking at times it quickly became very predictable in its senario approach. Forwarned is forarmed and preparedness is a good message, however, this book is virtually devoid of any useful how-to information. If you need help in thinking about possible disaster senarios this is the book for you. If you need practical knowledge in survival techniques and skills this isn't it.
Rating: 
Summary: buy a Boy Scout Fieldbook instead
Review: While this book sounds useful and interesting, it quickly departs the realm of practical advice and enters the world of fear and paranoia. While some of the basic advice is worthy (stock a 2 week food supply and plenty of water, keep cash on hand), most of the advice is given from a paranoid survivalist point of view with an amazing lack of good common sense. The advice for alien invasions is particularly entertaining. For those who still believe that the key to survival is to go native, a much more informative read is the Boy Scout Fieldbook.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a book that is easy to understand
Review: With flash freeze warnings on the weather. I'm glad to have the book. In these days of climate change it is a must have.
Rating:
Summary: Genius or madman?
Review: You have to love this book. I know I do. My favorite parts are the fore-mentioned alien-attacks and the gang-wars that take over your city. The author suggests that the gangs will completely outnumber your police/army/navy/special-ops/national-guard completely and that you should find a safe place to hide while they over-run your city. I'm sure. He later suggests that you attempt to create an uprising by gathering munitions and what-not to do so, but BEFORE all that, try to gain money by selling food to the gangs that have infected the inside of your city limits...HUH?!?! And just so you know...there is NO way to survive completely after a nuclear-strike! Not unless you have building beneath the Earth, perfecting a culture that can survive without the sun or fresh water and been building it all underground for years just in case something like this happens! If any of THAT sounds insane, then you're game for this joke of a "survival-guide". --Matt
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