The Last Season

Name: The Last Season
SKU: 7896
Availability: InStock

4.6 | 1,418 ratings

Price: 21.83

Last update: 06-05-2024

Top reviews from the United States

Burnt

good read. informative and suspenseful.

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2024

good read

Michael Nolan

A true story about one of the people called the backbone of the National Park Service

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2024

This is the story of the disappearance of Randy Morgenson, one of the "back country" park rangers who live and work in the high Sierras. It is also a story of what they do and how they have earned the great respect and gratitude of the people who explore the high mountains. It is a real page turner. The author keeps the reader's attention while knowing the ultimate outcome is not a happy ending. Not an easy thing to do, but Blehm does it well and has made a very interesting and enjoyable account of this true life adventure.

Kathryn Papillon

Good mystery

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2023

Good Sierra - JMT area mystery. I could really visualize trails and empathize with Rangers trying to locate one of their own.

Frank Conner

A compelling mystery

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2024

The book is a great story about Sierra seasonal rangers and what happens when one goes missing. Well written and a good story for those who love the Sierra.

Mark Stevens

Life On The Edge

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2011

Eric Blehm's "The Last Season" is a contemplation of legendary national park ranger Randy Morgenson, who yearned to "live by whim," as he put it -- no borders, no boundaries, no trails, no rules. This is a book about the space, if the space exists, where man begins and nature begins. This non-fiction account of Morgenson's fascinating life is deftly told and deeply intriguing. If Morgenson hadn't died and if he hadn't left behind a giant puzzle about how he died, I'd like to think Blehm would have been equally compelled to write the story (but that's probably a dream).

Morgenson's death--and the conjecture about his state of mind at the time--are what make the last section of "The Last Season" such a page-turner. By that point, we have grown to know Morgenson so well that the massive search for his body is equal parts pounding and breaking hearts. The analysis of how he died requires some clever sleuth work and imagination.

Blehm's book covers so much territory--Morgenson's family, his upbringing, his spirit guides, his relationships, his marriage, his stellar record and his unique view of the world. His mother, for instance, said Randy could make a swarm of mosquitoes "seem like the most romantic thing in the world."

Blehm's account neatly inter-cuts the search for Morgenson (he disappeared in 1996) with background about Morgenson's family and his relationship with his wife, Judi. The storytelling is brisk, straightforward and as good as anything Jon Krakauer or Timothy Egan have written. Blehm draws heavily from Morgenson's own writings. You will feel like Randy Morgenson was an old (if a bit unusual) friend by the time he goes missing. If you liked "Into the Wild," you'll enjoy this one, too. In some ways, I liked this one better. Like Christopher McCandless, Randy Morgenson isn't always likable or approachable. He's an enigma, at times, too.

Read "The Last Season" for a deep glimpse into the people who relish the outdoors, who need it to survive. A friend loaned me a hardback to read. I'm ordering a paperback to keep on my shelf.

Anne Rahilly

The book grabbed my attention from the first page!

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024

wonderful book, Randy was a distant cousin that I never met. This book is a window into the life of a fantastic backcountry ranger. I really enjoyed this book.

Hayley

TMI!!

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2018

I saw the segment about this on TLC's Disappeared and found it fascinating so I thought it would be an interesting book to read. Wrong! The author includes every nit picky detail about the main character including quoting 30+ year old letters in detail that have no real bearing on the story. It's hardy an edge of your seat thriller as it's made out to be. Rather, it's a chronicle of everything known about the man that has little or no bearing on the story. I gave up on it as it's just too much needless information that slows the flow of the story down.

Norcalsurf

A Tragic Love Story of Man and Nature

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2020

I first read this book when it was released in 2007, and it coincided with the start of a my own love affair with the Eastern Sierras earlier that same year with a week backpacking trip through some of the exact areas in Randy Morgenson's patrol area. I was barely touched by the beauty of the mountains when I was introduced to Morgenson's life through the pen of Eric Blehm, and what an impact this book had on me. So much so that, over the last 13 years since I first read it, its content has dominated my consciousness while on dozens of long trips through the high country of Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.

After I read it the first time, I lent it out to several of my hiking and outdoor friends, and along the way the book never found its way back to me. So last week I ordered another one, and the next three days I poured over the pages once again with the same interest and intrigue as I had years ago. I knew the end of the story before I re-read the first page, but Blehm's extensive research and storytelling made it every bit as fascinating as the first time I read it.

The world is overdue for a major motion picture with the Sierra Nevada Mountains as its backdrop, and this would be the perfect story for such a biopic. The irony is that what it would take to film such a movie in the fragility of the natural world would be vehemently opposed by the Morgenson himself. But his philosophy, his photography, and his writings are deserving of a world currently starved for peace and tranquility.

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