Awakening Fire

NetGalley Review: 4 stars

Updated 04 Feb 2021

“Geared more toward learning to start and maintain fires in the great outdoors than in a conventional fireplace, it’s an intuitive, well-edited, and educational guide with considerably good presentation.

“To judge the book purely on its own goals (Summers states early on that he just wanted to issue a worthwhile guide that would allow people to gain and retain some knowledge about fire), it’s a success. it knows what it is, and gives you more resources should you be further interested. In this day and age where obtaining a free instructional video is only a few clicks away, Summers intelligently makes a good case for his book being equally valuable to have on-hand.

“It’s established early on that to author a book about building fires out and about is practically impossible due to regional variances, and in that might lie a shortcoming of this work for some as it might make this feel incomplete, but, truthfully, there’s only so much that Summers can do to help a reader ready to light a fire. You gotta get out there, link up with someone familiar with your local area, etc. in order to get that experience.

“It’s a good introduction, and especially so if you’re rolling on through to any of the listed resources (i.e. the “further reading”).

“Many thanks to NetGalley, Rowman & Littlefield, and Falcon Guides for the advance read.”

– Nathan Helton, Consumer Reviewer

Nate Summers, author of Primal: Why We Long to be Wild and Free, has been a survival skills instructor for over 20 years with a background in anthropology, Asian studies, and natural medicine. He taught and directed at the Wilderness Awareness School for over 15 years, and has served as faculty for the Desert Institute of Healing Arts, the Asian Institute of Medical Studies, and as adjunct faculty for Prescott College. Nate’s passions include ethnobotany, natural mentoring, hunter-gatherer childhoods, natural movement, herbal medicine, internal martial arts, mentoring, and leadership. Nate likes to fish, practice internal martial arts, go on adventures with his children, and gather wild foods and medicine.Check out his blog and website at primalnate.com or catch his latest adventures on Instagram at @primalnate.