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.