Fire and Ice - Part I

Many moons ago, I mooched two books from Becky, Sebastian Junger's Fire and Dr. Jerri Nielsen's Ice Bound. Becky thought they made a nice mooch pair and so did I. They were also excellent books.

I've noticed some Amazon reviewers who were disappointed by Fire. I wasn't disappointed, but it did come as a surprise that the book is a collection of pieces written for various magazines, not a full-length narrative.

The first two pieces are on wildfires and the men and women who fight them. It is very much in the vein of The Perfect Storm, except that Junger was there with the firefighters and most of them are still alive. It is an exciting story, presenting the techniques and dangers of fighting wild fires and recording the successes and failures of the 20th century. Oddly, one of the great successes, the ability to attack and control small fires before they get out of hand, has been a major factor in the increase in the number of fires. I leave it to you to find out why.

The remaining pieces were written as Junger moved from one war zone to another. Again, very well-written and interesting articles, but it does get depressing to realise how many zones there are and how long Junger and others could go on writing about them.