A review by ronald_schoedel
The Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the Last Frontier & the Yukon Gold Rush by Howard Blum

5.0

This is a good read for anyone interested in the Last Frontier of Alaska and the Yukon, and the characters who shaped its early, formative culture. I had heard of all of the main figures in this book prior to reading it, but was unaware of how connected they were in their histories and fates. It does not read like a dry historical account, which makes it a comfortable read (but not unintellectual). It's more of a 4.5 star than 5 (I wondered sometimes, how much some of the dialogue has been enhanced, but the author does describe in an appendix the various source materials he used, so probably most of the dialogue is reasonably authentic, even if some of it came off sounding a bit contrived.)