Sas Encyclopedia of Survival

Rating:
Summary: One of the best survival manuals available!
Review: The SAS Encyclopedia of Survival is one of the best in its' class! I fully recommend it to anyone seriously interested in valid survival techniques. I spent several years living in the Andes and remote jungle areas of South America and I believe that I can recognize a decent survival manual when I see one. Many survival books being sold are worthless in the field, as their content depends on items that need to be packed in. Barry Davies's book is not one of those. The book covers the topics most often discussed in other books such as shelter, fire and food, but the outstanding thing about the book is that it also has specific chapters on survival in Arctic, desert, and jungle areas. The pictures found throughout the book are great although some like the ones showing snares could be supported with illustrations as the photos are too vague to show any details. An interesting chapter in evading capture is the frosting on the cake for the book. This book is easy to read, not being dry like so many military manuals. The advice is sound and practical, and can be applied easily using common sense. I would reccomend it for anyone traveling to the wild areas of South America because it teaches you what to do to save yourself when working or traveling in an area where there are no ranger stations or local search and rescue teams. The chapter on survival medicine is also superior to that found in most other books. A great reference in any outdoorsman's library!

([e-mail]) Please don't publish my email with this review unless it is required to enter the Book Review Contest.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best survival manuals available!
Review: The SAS Encyclopedia of Survival is one of the best in its' class! I fully recommend it to anyone seriously interested in valid survival techniques. I spent several years living in the Andes and remote jungle areas of South America and I believe that I can recognize a decent survival manual when I see one. Many survival books being sold are worthless in the field, as their content depends on items that need to be packed in. Barry Davies's book is not one of those. The book covers the topics most often discussed in other books such as shelter, fire and food, but the outstanding thing about the book is that it also has specific chapters on survival in Arctic, desert, and jungle areas. The pictures found throughout the book are great although some like the ones showing snares could be supported with illustrations as the photos are too vague to show any details. An interesting chapter in evading capture is the frosting on the cake for the book. This book is easy to read, not being dry like so many military manuals. The advice is sound and practical, and can be applied easily using common sense. I would reccomend it for anyone traveling to the wild areas of South America because it teaches you what to do to save yourself when working or traveling in an area where there are no ranger stations or local search and rescue teams. The chapter on survival medicine is also superior to that found in most other books. A great reference in any outdoorsman's library!

([e-mail]) Please don't publish my email with this review unless it is required to enter the Book Review Contest.

Rating:
Summary: No much new
Review: Well, this is not a BAD book about survival. But the information is very little, could do with a lot more background info.
The price is way to hight, probably because it is full of full-color photographs, unfortunally not contibuting at all to the understanding of what is being said in the text.
For example the section about medical plants contains only a handfull plants, of which you just have to hope to find them, no information where to find them, and only two photographs, not very clear, which pretty much throws away your chance to realy use them when you need it.

For a good survival manual, buy Wiseman's "SAS survival manual", which contail all the information in this one, and A LOT MORE, including USEFULL drawings. Even if learning to survive from a book is impossible, it may give you an edge. But don't waste your money on this one.