Desert Survival Skills

By: David Alloway

Narrated by: James Killavey

Remote desert locations, including the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico, southern Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, draw adventurers of all kinds, from the highly skilled and well prepared to urban cowboys who couldn't lead themselves (much less a horse!) to water. David Alloway's goal in this book is to help all of them survive when circumstances beyond their control strand them in the desert environment. In simple, friendly language, enlivened with humor and stories from his own extensive experience, Alloway here offers a practical, comprehensive handbook for both short-term and long-term survival in the Chihuahuan and other North American deserts.

The book is published by University of Texas Press.

©2000 David Alloway (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks

Informative and fun

This is a no-nonsense primer on desert survival that manages to keep itself interesting and even entertaining while giving some really good advice.

Unlike most of the "survival" stuff you find on the market, this was written by someone with actual experience in the field. It contains a lot of the same information you'll find in other survival guides, plus some extra insight than only an experienced expert can provide.

Having been a full-time US Army solder at age 17, I am very appreciative of training materials that were born out on the range rather than in a classroom or worse, some random dudes' laptop. It is clear from the details and anecdotes that this guy has the kind of wisdom that takes more than a few years to acquire.

I saw one reviewer give negative marks for the narrator's accent. Aside from that being an immature reason for giving a negative mark on a spoken work, it's far from valid. He speaks very clearly, articulates well, and doesn't shove his culture down your throat. Perhaps some people need to learn that tolerance of other's way of speaking is also an essential skill when venturing into deserts where Euro-centric attitudes can get you killed really fast.

I have a number of survival guides that I read and re-read regularly, and this one is probably my favorite of them all, because it has much more to offer than a traditional textbook and much of the knowledge is helpful in non-desert situations as well.