Rough Water

Clint Willis has created a fascinating series of books with Epic, Climb, High, Wild, Ice, Rough Water, and The War. Each of these volumes presents the best literature about their respective subjects in a powerful cohesive manner. These books are a quick read, but intricate and spellbinding. I have given many of them to friends and family as gifts.

I have never known much about life at sea. I got this book because it was in the series of good collections by Clint Willis. I figured it would probably not be as good as his others, but I was pleasantly surprised. I liked as much if not more. Stories ranging between the plights of sea-men caught in huge storms to single individuals trapped in the solitude of an open sea. These stories are from today as well as from the distant past. If you're intrigued by the sea but don't have much knowledge of the world it creates, take a look at this book. It's wonderfully diverse and highly adventurous.

These accounts by sailors captured in truly overwhelming situations form a microcosm of humanity in extremis--the reader can't help but compare his or her notions of his/her bravery, cowardice, fortitude, skill, intelligence, and sanity to those of the real-life characters in the anthology. Though the book is awash in humbling, awe-inspiring accounts of the almost mythic power of the ocean, its storms and waves and wind and rain are secondary to the humanity of the people in its grasp. The most compelling element of these stories is the will to survive of their characters, and the craftiness and real bravery employed in doing so (with a couple notable and harrowing exceptions). There isn't a weak selection here.