Rating: 
Summary: Short story
Review: If you read the "Editorial Review" for this book, you've read the story. The rest of this 288 page book is about how the author researched the story.
If you want a good research story, get this book. If you want (like me) a Jack London/Shackleton story, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Surviving the first 79 pages is a book in itself
Review: It could have been a great book, in fact that is what you would gather by reading the editorial reviews. However it deals more with the research the author went through to write the book rather than the actual hardships these people went through. All the people he contacts, it's kind of hard to follow and not all that interesting anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: ---
Review: It could have been a great book, in fact that is what you would gather by reading the editorial reviews. However it deals more with the research the author went through to write the book rather than the actual hardships these people went through. All the people he contacts, it's kind of hard to follow and not all that interesting anyway.
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Summary: Not enough info for a book
Review: It's amazing the story of four Russian sailors' survival on the sub-arctic island of Svalbard for six years isn't better known, considering it's probably the most amazing feat of arctic survival in the long and checkered history of arctic and antarctic exploration. Unfortunately, I have to agree with many of the other reviewers here that the "signal to noise ratio" of the book is pretty low; there really isn't that much information about the sailors' story, and most of the book is really about the extensive research the author did and his own personal journey to discover the facts of the story. Unfortunately, very little real information seems to be available and the result shows in the final book. There is no doubt that the author went to considerable trouble and did very thorough and extensive research to glean what little information was available, and the author certainly deserves credit for that. As a former researcher myself I understand the fascination of doing research and the thrill of discovery in ferreting out all the facts, but the end result here unfortunately is still pretty thin. The author also spends too much time finding fault with the French academic's style who originally interviewed the sailors, considering that Roberts's style itself is a little too ponderous and grandiloquent at times, especially about pretty trivial matters. On the positive side, however, I did learn a few interesting details of how the sailors managed to survive for the time they did, and I enjoyed that. For example, they were able to build a wooden hut from the driftwood that floats up on Svalbard's rocky shores. Svalbard itself has no trees, but what it does have is literally tons of driftwood. This is due to the prevailing currents which cause the logs that float out to the sea from Russian rivers to end up on the coast of the island. The sailors also had to kill several polar bears. That's probably the most exciting fact in the book although nothing else is known about it. If you do decide to buy the book the best way to read it would be to skip over the sections about the author, the French professor, and most of the details of the research and just read the passages about the sailors, because there is some interesting information and material there. This would have made a fine magazine article but there just isn't enough information to justify a book-length treatment as the author has done here.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing account of man against the elements
Review: Svalbard island is about as far north as you can get and still be on land in the arctic. Its a barren wasteland, a treeless landscape festooned with Polar bears and Reindeer(how exactly did the reindeer get to the island?). In the mid 1700s a Russian ship, blown off course, found itself stuck in the ice near the island. 4 men went ashore and when they returned to the boat it had disappeared. These 4 men would spend the next 6 years in this wasteland trying top survive against the elements. This epic adventure story is told very well by the author, who journeyed to the island to understand the struggle himself. The author tried to understand how these men made the most rudimentary tools, like a bow and arrow from driftwood. These 4 men had many run ins with Polar Bears and somehow survived.
An extraordinary adventure tale. An easy informative read. Half the book details the travels of the 4 men on the island while the other half is an investigative report by the author, exploring the village where the men came from and the relics that still exist of their journey and their life on the island.
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Summary: Astounding Survival Epic Finally Revealed
Review: Thank you NPR for featuring David Roberts and his latest book"Four Against the Arctic" which is the Epic tale of high Arctic survival by four shipwrecked russian sailors on a small island in the Spitzbergen Archipelago in the eighteenth century.
If you are an adventure junkie, the sort of person who reads OUTSIDE magazine, who sails or dreams of sailing to distant lands, who climbs or hikes far from the madding crowd, then you will find this book an absorbing read.
This 291 page book chronicles the breathtaking story of four Pomori Walrus hunters from the the village of Mezen on the NW coast of Russia who depart in the spring of 1743 in their kotch, a type of square rigged sailboat tovoyage to Spitzbergen 1100 miles to the Northwest across the Barents Sea. Nearing their destination, they are caught in a storm that drives them into the pack ice. Four members finally reach an island with little more than their shirts on their backs and a musket with twelve bullets. With no way to escape their exile after the vessel with the remaining 14 members disappear and perish, the four Pomori men were able to not only survive but even prevail in one of the harshest places on the planet by fashioning crude and not so crude weapons from driftwood and polar bear tendon!! Somehow they managed to kill one of the most dangerous predators on earth with homemade lances. They remained there more than 6 years until they were fortuitously rescued by another Russian vessel also driven off course by a storm in 1749.
The story was almost lost even to Russians when a friend of Roberts stumbled on a reference to it in an old out of print book.
The book tells the story through the writings of Pierre Louis Le Roy who interviewed the survivors in 1750. A large part of the book is David Roberts attempt to flesh out the details by an exhaustive search of Western and Russian Archives culminating is a 2 week voyage to the supposed island where the Pomoris landed.Their story probably rivals the current grand champion of Survival Epics, that of Ernest Shackelton who escaped from the pack ice in Antarctica to rescue his mates back on Elephant Island in that greatest of Survival books "Endurance," by Alfred Lansing. But sadly, little remains of the Pomori's story. David Roberts is to be congratulated for rescuing this amazing adventure and in the process the reader will learn much of Spitzbergen or Svalbard as it is now known including the mammals. The sections on the Polar bear are chilling.. It is well ilustrated with sketches and maps and photographs and is well edited and at times erudite and elegant, but in the end it is a fascinating story almost lost in the Byzantine mists of Russian antiquity.
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Summary: A breath of fresh air, without the dramatics
Review: this book is so much more than the usual survival story one finds on the shelves these days. it is not only about how men made it through through many harsh months, it is also about the story behind the story. it delves into the inner phsyche of the survivors, and their families expond on what was passed down through the generations. no blood and guts here, simply a good read that once started will be like a race to the finish. SR
Rating: 
Summary: Should be Titled: Find the Hidden Story
Review: This narrative is an excellent account of how people can survive in the face of a challange. Unfortunately, the author details the actual writing of the tale much more effectively than dramatizing the task of wintering the arctic. The actual story, (which is hard to find in the book), and the photography would have made a very interesting cover story of a National Geographic. What is ultimately presented turns out to be a mediocre story of how the auther did toil to research the information in his book. But that was not about what I had wanted to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything you ever wanted to know about Svalbard but...
Review: Well told history of survival in one of the most inhospitable arctic climates that was still killing Norwegians in the 20th Century! Roberts not only relates their story, but fully investigates the history of the subject of arctic survival and then he goes there with an amusingly inept guide. I think these men were-by surviving six years in the arctic-the only successful inhabitants of the high arctic who were not in some way connected to Inuit culture.
This book dovetails perfectly with "In the Land of White Death" by Valarian Albanov, only recently translated into English with an intro by Roberts. These are exciting accounts of arctic survival.
Rating:
Summary: Look for adventure elsewhere
Review: While there are some interesting aspects of the story of Russian Pomori and the world in which they lived and worked, I felt my time committed to reading this was not well spent. I did however, learn something about polar bears, walrus hunting and Svalbard.
The book had more to do with the author and his investigation, than the Pomori (seacoast dwellers) sailors. Perhaps this book should be in the "How To" section of the bookstore.
If you are looking for an interesting Arctic adventure, check out "The Ghosts of Cape Sabine." This is by far a much better book; well documented and exciting to read!
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