Gabe Rogers is a 16-year-old Texan boy who goes to boarding school in Yellowknife, Canada, so he can be closer to his father, who works at an offshore or oil rig. At boarding school, he befriends Raymond Providence, a Dene boy from a tiny, remote village.
When Raymond decides to drop out and go home, along with his great uncle, Johnny Raven, who had been in a hospital in Yellowknife, the bush pilot offers to take Gabe along for some sightseeing. Things go wrong, mostly because the pilot exemplifies the saying "there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots" and there are particularly no old stupid and careless pilots. Raymond, Johnny Raven, and Gabe end up alone in the absolute middle of nowhere, Northwest Territories, with winter about to come down like a hammer.
This is an extremely enjoyable and pretty epic wilderness survival story in which every possible wilderness survival incident happens, but in a plausible manner.
The most unexpected part for me was the prominence of Johnny Raven. I had assumed that he would die almost immediately, so the boys could do everything themselves, but that's not what happens. He's an elder and knows a whole lot about wilderness survival, because when he was young, he actually lived it. There is a significant language barrier between him and the boys, as Johnny Raven speaks very little English and Raymond speaks very little Slavey. But we do learn that while Johnny Raven preferred life as he knew it when he was younger, that life was neither easy nor perfect, and in fact his own father starved to death. So while he can help and provide to a large degree, that's no guarantee that any of them will make it out of the wilderness alive.
So there's three major stories going on in this book, though in plot terms, there's only one. There's the wilderness survival part. There's Johnny Raven's own story, in which he gets to have a last hurrah, bond with his nephew, and teach Raymond a lot of the old ways that Raymond never would have learned in the ordinary course of things. And there's the story of the friendship between Gabe and Raymond, which was real but somewhat superficial at the start, and ends up ride or die by the end of the book.
Surprisingly, my favorite character was Johnny Raven, and his story was actually my favorite part of the book. There's a scene in which, of all things, he teaches Raymond and Gabe how to hunt beaver, which was unexpectedly beautiful and moving. I didn't know when I started this book that he would be a character at all, and it turned out that in this book about two teenage boys lost in the wilderness, there's also this great story about an old man who gets an unexpected chance to do what he loves and pass on what's meaningful to him at the end of his life.
It was definitely an excellent book to read during the snowpocalypse. At least I haven't crawled across an ice bridge over a frigid river, fallen into freezing water fully clothed, almost starved to death, gotten chased by bears and wolverines, and almost gotten killed by a reckless pilot.
Thank you very much to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mildred_of_midgard for recommending this book! Has anyone else read anything by Will Hobbs? Is there anything else you would recommend?
When Raymond decides to drop out and go home, along with his great uncle, Johnny Raven, who had been in a hospital in Yellowknife, the bush pilot offers to take Gabe along for some sightseeing. Things go wrong, mostly because the pilot exemplifies the saying "there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots" and there are particularly no old stupid and careless pilots. Raymond, Johnny Raven, and Gabe end up alone in the absolute middle of nowhere, Northwest Territories, with winter about to come down like a hammer.
This is an extremely enjoyable and pretty epic wilderness survival story in which every possible wilderness survival incident happens, but in a plausible manner.
The most unexpected part for me was the prominence of Johnny Raven. I had assumed that he would die almost immediately, so the boys could do everything themselves, but that's not what happens. He's an elder and knows a whole lot about wilderness survival, because when he was young, he actually lived it. There is a significant language barrier between him and the boys, as Johnny Raven speaks very little English and Raymond speaks very little Slavey. But we do learn that while Johnny Raven preferred life as he knew it when he was younger, that life was neither easy nor perfect, and in fact his own father starved to death. So while he can help and provide to a large degree, that's no guarantee that any of them will make it out of the wilderness alive.
So there's three major stories going on in this book, though in plot terms, there's only one. There's the wilderness survival part. There's Johnny Raven's own story, in which he gets to have a last hurrah, bond with his nephew, and teach Raymond a lot of the old ways that Raymond never would have learned in the ordinary course of things. And there's the story of the friendship between Gabe and Raymond, which was real but somewhat superficial at the start, and ends up ride or die by the end of the book.
Surprisingly, my favorite character was Johnny Raven, and his story was actually my favorite part of the book. There's a scene in which, of all things, he teaches Raymond and Gabe how to hunt beaver, which was unexpectedly beautiful and moving. I didn't know when I started this book that he would be a character at all, and it turned out that in this book about two teenage boys lost in the wilderness, there's also this great story about an old man who gets an unexpected chance to do what he loves and pass on what's meaningful to him at the end of his life.
It was definitely an excellent book to read during the snowpocalypse. At least I haven't crawled across an ice bridge over a frigid river, fallen into freezing water fully clothed, almost starved to death, gotten chased by bears and wolverines, and almost gotten killed by a reckless pilot.
Thank you very much to
mildred_of_midgard for recommending this book! Has anyone else read anything by Will Hobbs? Is there anything else you would recommend?