Brian's Saga Series - 5 books (1987-2003)

[Simon]

   

Brian Robeson: Hatchet
Brian Robeson is a 13 year-old boy, whose parents are divorced, who travels on a Cessna 406 bush plane to visit his father in the oil fields in northern Canada for the summer. During the flight, the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies; Brian tries to land the plane, but ends up crash-landing into a lake in the forest, saving nothing but his hatchet and his own life.

Throughout the summer, Brian attempts to survive in the endless wilderness with only his hatchet, which was a gift his mother gave him shortly before his plane departed. He figures out how to make fire with the hatchet and makes himself eat whatever food he can find, such as snapping turtle eggs, fish, berries, fruit, rabbits, and birds. He deals with threats from animals such as a porcupine, bear, skunk, moose, wolves and eventually becomes a fine woodsman, crafting a bow, arrows, and a fishing spear. He also fashions a shelter out of the underside of a rock overhang. During his time alone, Brian struggles with memories of home, and the bittersweet memory of his mother, whom Brian had caught cheating on his father with somebody else.

When a sudden tornado hits the area, it draws the tail of the plane toward the shore of the lake. Brian makes a raft from a few broken off tree tops to get to the plane. When Brian is cutting his way into the tail of the plane, he drops his hatchet in the lake and dives in to get it. Once inside the plane, Brian finds a survival pack with an emergency transmitter, many packs of food, a first aid kit, some cooking utensils, and a .22 rifle. Back on shore, Brian activates the transmitter, but he does not know how to use it, he thinks it is broken and throws it aside. Later, when Brian is cooking the food packs, a fur buyer arrives in a float plane some time after because he caught the transmitter's signal. He rescues Brian, who returns home after 54 days in the wilderness a different person. Brian later finds himself marveling at all the food, quantities and variety, at the grocery store. He finally reaches his father at the oil fields, yet he is still unable to discuss his mother's affair with another man to his father.

Brian Robeson: The River
Brian Robeson, a 15-year-old boy who spent 54 days surviving alone in the Canadian wilderness the previous summer, is hired by the government to repeat his actions again by living in the woods with only a knife and surviving only by his wits, so the military can learn his survival techniques. Though reluctant at first, Brian eventually agrees. This time, instead of being alone, Brian is accompanied by Derek Holtzer, a government psychologist, as the two set off for a remote Canadian location.

Though the government insisted the duo take emergency supplies, Brian insists they abandon everything but a knife and an emergency radio, saying that it would be impossible to eat bugs and sleep in the rain if a tent and prepared food is within reach. During their stay, things take a grim turn when their camp is struck by lightning, which knocks Derek into a coma and destroys the radio. Knowing that Derek will die of dehydration long before anyone finds them, Brian builds a raft in a desperate bid to bring Derek down the river to Brannock's Trading Post for emergency aid. After Derek is brought back, Brian goes home, and his mother is overjoyed.

Brian Robeson: Brian's Winter
At the end of Hatchet, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, who has been trapped in the Canadian wilderness after a plane accident, decides to dive for a "survival pack" from the submerged aircraft. He almost drowns trying to tear the plane open. He recovers, among other things, and an emergency transmitter. Within hours, a pilot receives the beacon and rescues him. The book ends with a note that Brian, who learns wilderness survival through trial and error, probably would not have survived the upcoming harsh winter himself.

The story deals with Brian, still stranded at the L-shaped lake during the fall and winter, constructing a winter shelter, building snow shoes, being attacked by a bear, and learning how to make a bow more powerful. Eventually, Brian meets a family of Cree trappers, the Smallhorns, who help him return home. Brian also learned that he should "always pay attention to what's happening around him."

Brian Robeson: Brian's Return
The story is about Brian's return to the forest because he can not fit in back home. He keeps diary entries of which he shares with Celeb, a psychiatrist who truly believes in Brian's calling to the woods.

Brian Robeson: Brian's Hunt
Brian, who is now sixteen years old, is canoeing through the Canadian wilderness. He realizes that the woods are now his home and he will never be happy in modern society, with its noise, pollution, and fake people. He now spends his time in the wild, hunting, fishing, and home schooling himself. While Brian does not miss human contact, he finds his thoughts frequently turning to Kay-gwa-daush (also known as Susan), the teenage daughter of the Cree family who rescued him at the end of Brian's Winter. Though he has only seen her photograph, her family has described her as an adventurous, self-reliant young woman, and Brian wonders if she might be a kindred spirit.

While canoeing, Brian finds a seriously wounded Malamute dog, which he nurses back to health. The dog is clearly domesticated, and Brian begins to worry that whatever maimed the dog may have done the same to her owners. He remembers his Cree friends and decides to go check on them.

When Brian reaches their cabin, he finds that it was a bear that had killed the parents and apparently chased Susan into hiding. Brian returns her to her home, radios for help, and buries the family. The authorities arrive to take Susan to relatives in Winnipeg. Brian, along with the dog, stays behind in order to hunt down and kill the bear, knowing very well that the hunt could cost him his life.

Brian, using skills he had learned in past books like Hatchet and Brian's Winter, searches for the bear that killed his friends. But soon, the hunter becomes the hunted. Brian finds bear tracks on an island and begins to follow them. He later realizes that he was walking in a circle. The bear is actually hunting Brian. The next day, instead of moving on, he waits for the bear, and after a hard fought battle with the bear, Brian is triumphant.