Review: Civilzation Bad, Wilderness Good!
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 08 19, 2013
Fred Hernandez' adventure story "Yukon Tenderfoot" has the premise for a good story: a quartet of politicians are stranded in the northern wilderness after their plane crashes and a local mountain man take them under his wing to help them survive and return home, all the while changing and growing into different men. That would make a good story...unfortunately, this one's more talk than action. Talk that's rather preachy at that.If the story was more about survival and change it would be a lot better. But most of the time it goes "Civilization BAD, Wilderness GOOD!", and beats you over the head with it. It wouldn't be so bad if weren't so one-sided, but nope, the city slickers are ALWAYS wrong and the locals right until the politicians embrace their inner outdoorsmen. Until then, they are depicted as whiny, selfish, and ridiculously sheltered while their guide and those like him are applicable for sainthood (despite being rough and somewhat violent). And we know they're changing for the better because someone keeps saying "We're not the same as we used to be" or "We're different men now" or something similar annoyingly often.The sad thing is that it could've been more tolerable. Hernandez has a good sense of imagery that puts you right in the story as if you were watching a movie and the characters play off the each other rather well when they're not being clichés.This could've been a riveting survival story about weak, petty men becoming stronger and better through their ordeals. However, it's too heavy handed for it's own good...