Interesting and insightful

Honestly struggling to review this book as the narrator's voice is distinctly female, so my enjoyment was more because I thought I was listening to a hardcore middle aged/ageing woman take on the elements and wild Alaska.

Upon searching for more it turns out this is not so.

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primarily a list of items to bring along

At least the first 50% of the books consists of a reading out of which items to bring along and why when moving to Alaska. I soon started finding that tedious.

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I loved this book

Great listening on my way to & from work. The narrator has a fantastic story telling voice. Great tails with the animals.
I would listen to it again.

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if you like Alaska the Final frontier try this

really enjoyable, I preferred the journal information but the survival tips were good too. I found the stories about his pet critters very sweet

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2 people found this helpful

Weird little book, still fun

What a weird little book this is. I enjoyed it a lot in some parts, was raising my eyebrows in others. All in all it was a fun listen, though.

Some words of caution/praise:

Caution: This is NOT an actual book to get if you want to move to Alaska. It touts itself as a practical journal, but the events described happened 20 to 40 years ago so the info is not relevant anymore at all. For instance he squats on a partially abandoned military base for a while which to me does not seem like a well thought-out plan nowadays. No use of internet, no relevant laws, nothing. Some portions also describe his life just living in cities going from odd job to odd job and those parts are not really interesting at all. Some portions are weirdly boastful about having 'a young girlfriend' and hanging out with rich directors of oil companies. A little tone deaf and not in touch with the theme of the book. He is also a self-proclaimed gun nut and writes articles for gun magazines for a living, so there is a LOT of gun-talk. Depending on your own interests, this may either be a plus or a negative.

Praise:
Large portions of the book do describe his life in Alaska and those are pretty fun to listen to. Mind you, he's not deep in the wilderness Dick Proenneke - style, just in a remote area. I liked hearing his somewhat eccentric tales. At one point he tries to shoot a hole in the ice to create a fishing spot and the way this obviously ridiculous action is described had me laughing out loud. His concerns and love for animals/nature/wildlife are also pretty touching and told in an engaging way.

What helps to sell all this is the top notch narration. Davies does not have the type of voice that I would normally enjoy, but it suits the material SO well here. I was honestly surprised that it wasn't the author narrating it, because he sounded exactly like I imagined a guy like Ordorica would sound. Due to this narration this book is like listening to a guy sitting next to you in a bar telling you interesting tales about his previous life. Nothing life-shattering, but fun for an evening.

This title is free on plus now and it is worth trying out in terms of time investment. if I had gotten it for a full credit I would have been a bit 'meh'. but if I had gotten it in a 2 for 1 sale I would have considered it a good deal.

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2 people found this helpful

Pretty Good......

Pretty good tail of going off grid in the Alaskan bush. There was plenty of interesting detail into how to survive in those conditions and the narration helped me to picture the scenes being described. The author clearly has a love of guns which took up too much time for my liking. There was some repetition but all in all I enjoyed this audiobook.

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Good Listen

Very interesting listen, well worth the time. Would love to have the bottle to live in this way

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Brilliant ! Very inspiring read. Very inspiring.

love this book. a real dead honest insight to living in a harsh environment.

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Exiting and Adventurous

Loved every minute of it. Great insight and knowledge of Alaska. The narrator was flawless.

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Thoroughly enjoyable

It's informative, entertaining, funny and towards the end even quite moving. It's also read very well.

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