Fergus covers more ground in this journey than many bird-hunting addicts would care to admit to themselves. He not only scours the country for the finest coveys, but along the way he also flushes up the issues and lifestyles that upland bird hunters across the U.S. know all too well.

But when these issues and lifestyles see the light of day, he often misses them with both barrels (as he humbly admits is his luck with birds), because his words don't fire out as cleanly as his readers might have hoped. Some sentences seem to go on forever, and the "nearly"s and "somewhat"s are the briars and sinkholes on an otherwise clear path.

What Fergus missed in editing, he more than made up for in content. The book is well researched, the character portraits are courageously honest, and his self-inspection even moreso. There are emotional moments and passages which will make you laugh so loud you'll wake up the dog. The game recipes he collects from each companion are a clever idea, and they add a unique flavor to this traveller's log.

It's the kind of journey you wish you had time to take, and it's the kind of book you wish you had written. Only if you had, you might have cleaned it up just a little better.

He details a trip across the United States and all the interesting people and places he visited and came to know as intimately as only a hunter or nature lover could. This book was like a long daydream that I didn't want to end, and I'm greatful he invited me along. I have met so many hunters of the type he writes about - some good, some bad and some who just "are."

He at times reports objectively about their attitudes and other times makes judgements that I may or may not agree with, but it was always entertaining and was food for thought.

This is not a book that will teach you where or how to hunt, but it will teach you about why you hunt and what is happening to the hunt. We would do well to think about his words as we enter the 21st Century.

The tone is devastating. There seems little hope in Percival's world. There had been hope recently -- the evidence is all around, but it has passed. This is a tale of a quest incomplete, of a searcher thwarted. It is a sad tale, sad to the core, as blasted as the Wastelands.

Read it if you have a love for these tales, but keep a happier book nearby for afters...

It is this fact that saddens me in his counter-attack upon anybody and everybody who is not a Word of Faith Christian. Spencer's experiential Christianity is every bit as bad as his previous experience with Mormonism.

I want to keep it clean, but Spencer's book is typically spineless. He has NO problem lambasting the ministry of John MacArthur (whose cessationism Spencer despises; Spencer devoted an entire chapter to MacArthur), but he doesn't want teachers who are DEMONSTRABLY lying (like Paul Crouch, Mike Warnke, and Benny Hinn) to be called to account for their lies.

Heresy hunting is a new inflammatory term that was invented to dismiss any honest inquiry. Spencer defends this position immaculately, but his entire book misses the point. Paul Crouch, who wrote the foreward, states that "one theologian's heresy is another theologian's orthodoxy." He further claims that contending for the faith (mentioned in Jude 3) refers to Christ, the virgin birth, crucifixion, resurrection, forgiveness by cleansing blood, and future judgment are the only "essentials." Crouch concludes by writing, "beyond these absolute essentials...there is infinite room for honest men and women to disagree..." Thus, according to Paul Crouch - who, again, wrote the foreward - the authority and infallibility of Scripture, the Trinity, salvation by grace ALONE are NOT essential to saving faith. It is for this reason that both Crouch and his hired defender, Spencer, completely miss the mark.

I will agree that critics of some Faith teachers have overstated their case (Hanegraaff in particular). However, Spencer uses the overstatement as a carte blanche for those who are teaching heresy to demonize people like Hanegraaff and Mac Arthur. He excuses retaliatory remarks made by Crouch and Hinn while condemning "heresy hunters."

If only James Spencer was as concerned about doctrinal purity and truth - i.e. "the faith" of Jude 3 - as he is about a straw man called heresy hunting, he might have written an interesting book. Sadly, his only means of defense is to demonize the demonizers. You would be much better off saving money or buying a fair and balanced book, "The Word-Faith Controversy" by now fired Hanegraaff employee, Dr. Robert Bowman.