Rating: 
Summary: A Research Tale Interspersed with an Adventure Tale
Review: As others have reviewed, this book is really two chronicles -- a chronicle of four Russian men stranded in a remote, forsaken location for six years; and a chronicle of the author's pursuit for more understanding of exactly what happened to these four Russian men. In his research, Roberts brings light to this intruiging, almost unbelievable story of survival. Roberts does a good job (not great, only good) of taking the reader along on his own personal trail of discovery. The reader is acquainted with the basics of the story of these remarkable Russian (Pomori) men. Then the reader has the same questions as Roberts, and gets to follow Roberts on his quest to arrive at further information. This is, first and foremost, a tale of researching a little-known survival story. If you're looking for a strict exploration/adventure story, you may want to look elsewhere. But if you fancy detective stories and enjoy adventure tales, then Roberts' tome may be just what you're looking for.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Not a Survival Story
Review: I hate to write this, but I don't want others to make the mistake I did and pay $20 or more for this book. If you expect this to be a riveting survival story, as I did, you would be wrong. The book is about David Roberts and his research into a survival story. Details about the libraries he visited, the books he read, how he found various documents, his correspondence, his disdain for all previous efforts to document this story, his ability to read various languages, even friends of his family, etc. I only made it through 1/3 of the book. The rest of the book appears to be more about David Roberts and his trip to the arctic. I wanted to learn about the "Four Against the Arctic", instead I learned all I'll ever need to know about David Roberts.
Rating: 
Summary: Survival in the Arctic
Review: I have greatly enjoyed this tale of survival in the North. My one complaint - not enough detailed maps! I had to wrestle a huge world atlas to find Mezen and to get a better overall understanding of the distances involved. I hate to say, but this is a common complaint of mine when reading such books. But otherwise, a gripping read.
Rating:
Summary: Four Against the Arctic
Review: I kept reading, and reading, in anticipation of learning the story of 4 Russian sailors shipwrecked on an arctic island for 6 years, because that's why I bought the book. It wasn't until near the end that I realized that this book was really about the author and his 3 cronies hanging out in a cabin on an arctic island for two weeks, drinking fine French wine. From this book I also learned that the author reads French, is a Harvard grad, has a very large vocabulary, and a pathology regarding polar bears. None of this sheds light on the topic given in the title, thus a disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I received this book as a Christmas present from my sister who knows that I love reading about polar adventures. DO NOT buy this book if you are wanting another exciting read along the lines of the Endurance or Karluk. DO buy this book if you like to read about what doctoral students do to earn extra money while working on their dissertations. (I'll save you the money and tell you here -- they do tedious research looking through the internet and databases and libraries for people who have the money and who then use their hard work to write boring books.)
Rating:
Summary: Title Misleading
Review: I was hoping for a detailed description of this incredible story of survival, such as has been written in "The Land of the White Death" or "South" by Shackleton (both excellent and richly detailed books). In author Robert's defense, it is quite apparent that there is little information available - what is could have been covered in a magazine article. While the book is interesting in its own right, my criticism lies in that the Title is misleading - it is more about his reseach on this subject than the actual historical record.
Rating:
Summary: Title Misleading
Review: I was hoping for a detailed description of this incredible story of survival, such as has been written in "The Land of the White Death" or "South" by Shackleton (both excellent and richly detailed books). In author Robert's defense, it is quite apparent that there is little information available - what is could have been covered in a magazine article. While the book is interesting in its own right, my criticism lies in that the Title is misleading - it is more about his reseach on this subject than the actual historical record.
Rating:
Summary: Surviving the first 79 pages is a book in itself
Review: I was looking forward to reading about the harrowing adventures of these men, but can't get past page 79. This book was more about a writer doing research rather than the survivor's tale. I often found myself reading a paragraph, taking a bite of lunch, only to bring my eyes back to the page and reading the same paragraph again. Hence, 79 pages read after having the book for 3 weeks. I guess I'll put this book up for adoption now.
Rating:
Summary: The Title Is Misleading
Review: I'm glad I was able to borrow this book from the library because if I had bought the book I would have demanded a refund. The author devotes very little space covering the trials of the four survivors and devotes page after page discussing how he researched the book. Here is an example of what you must plow through:
"Through the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department at Harvard, I contacted a graduate student named Julia Beakman Chadaga, whose area of specialization as she pusrsued her PH.D happened to be the eighteenth century. ... Short with staight brown hair, parted in the middle, hanging loose about her face, Julia had brown eyes and delicate features. Though she looked twenty-two, she was about to turn thirty,... Julia had been born in Minsk, so her first language was Russian. After her parents moved to New York when she was eight, she learned English like every other kid in public school." WHO CARES? I suspect most readers, like me, wanted to read how the four survived for six years in the arctic.
The author also devotes much too much space criticizing those who researched this sory of survival before him. I found this annoying and very unprofessional. In short, don't buy this book unless you're interested in reading about how he did his research. I gave up after page 75 which was about one-third of the way through. A more appropriate title would have been "How I Researched the Story of Four Men Stranded for Six Years In the Arctic."
Rating:
Summary: Pompous Author - and boring
Review: I'm sure the tale of survival is interesting, but I'll find another book to tell me that story. David Roberts is more interested in telling you what a great researcher he is. He repeatedly tells you how "poor" his foreign language skills are (German, Norwegian, Russian) and yet he then proceeds to tell you how, with his meager knowledge, he managed to translate just as well as his professionally translated text. I've read probably 40 or 50 Arctic/Antarctic books filled with daily trivial entries, minute details, weather and longitude/lattitude readings - and I'll read thru days of that before I pick this book up again. Couldn't get past page 97. Then I skimmed through to find where he gets off his soapbox about his skills, and gets back to the story - but it was too carefully hidden. I understand that he was trying to weave in how the mystery was uncovered, and that can be fascinating too - I thank God for historians and authors who do and have done that - but Roberts just doesn't have the skill to do that without coming off as arrogant.
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