Rating: 
Summary: buy this book
Review: Jon Waterman is a writer who belongs between the hardcovers. His explorations and introspection make for compelling reading.
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Summary: beautiful arctic adventure
Review: Jon Waterman's latest book combines all of the best features of his earlier work: true path-breaking adventure narrated with exceptional candor within a cultural and natural context. More than a superficial adventurer's diary, the author reveals his hopes and fears, successes and defeats, ambtion and doubts.Although my interests run to mountaineering, this book captured my attention, and made me want to visit the arctic to experience first-hand this incredible place.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful arctic adventure
Review: Jon Waterman's latest book combines all of the best features of his earlier work: true path-breaking adventure narrated with exceptional candor within a cultural and natural context. More than a superficial adventurer's diary, the author reveals his hopes and fears, successes and defeats, ambtion and doubts. Although my interests run to mountaineering, this book captured my attention, and made me want to visit the arctic to experience first-hand this incredible place.
Rating:
Summary: Multi-level Success
Review: Jonathan Waterman's book succeeds on several levels. The most important is the treatment the author gives of the Inuit and Inuvialuit communities, their history, and his own interactions with them. The presentation is unsentimental and the reader is rewarded with a view of things as they are. The book presents the historical and present situations in a way that enhances our understanding, though it is by no means clear what exactly should be done by Canada or Nunavut to alleviate the problems. One can only wish the best for this amazing far-north culture. From the point of view of adventure, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in solo exploration. Waterman is as experienced as they come in the realm of long, strenuous adventures in arduous conditions. He takes on this multi-year kayaking trek without a radio, even though he knows he is not an expert kayaker. While he deals with various problems and incidents, the most intriguing problem seems to be that of simply being alone for long stretches. He survives it, but it was apparently not easy. Finally, the book succeeds in conveying the beauty of nature (landscape, seascape, birds, and animals) in this shoreline environment. For the author, and probably for most who have visited it, the Arctic is a very special place, and the book, in its prose, general spirit, and photographs conveys that. Regarding the pictures, I appreciated the fact that in addition to the standard color insert, which has excellent photos, the author and publisher have decided to include many black-and-white pictures in the text. These enhance the presentation a lot, especially compared to many adventure books that get published quickly and without real thought to the inclusion of the best photos.
Rating: 
Summary: Arctic Realities
Review: Northern lights, icebergs shaped like polar bears, a silence so still you can hear a human whisper at 100 yards, teen suicides, unthinkable wealth, and cultural disintegration. The Arctic is a complex and beguilling part of the world. Too few writers have looked beyond the simple black and white of the Arctic to deal with the colorful truth underneath. Jonanthan Waterman does just that in his book ARCTIC CROSSING. Although the book is about one man's journey, it is not a typical ego-centric travelogue. Waterman turns his eyes and his heart outward showing us the raw edges and the complex truths of this amazing place. This is a wise and exciting book because it is truthful, for better or worse, about a part of our world too often glossed over or worse yet ignored all together. Books like this one open the eyes and the heart. If you care about the Arctic, or the world, let it open your eyes and heart.
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Summary: Interesting, informative, -perhaps a few problems.
Review: The videographer of The Logan Challenge (PBS) and Surviving Denali (ESPN), writes about his two-year journey from Alavik to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, USA, then on to Taloyoak and the Gulf of Bothia, Nunavut, Canada, in a well written, but at times dark and distressing book. In a Klepper folding kayak, at times outfitted with outriggers and a sail rig, he takes us on a 2,200-mile journey through the history and culture of the Inuit North. Some of the historical information dovetails well with the Frinklin expedition stuff and similar historical treatments that are listed elsewhere in this bibliography. An impressive journey, but the author's mindset seems to indicate that his intention is less to describe what he sees than to expound upon the negative aspects of modern Inuit lifestyle or the pillaging robber-barons of modern society. For instance, he does little to conceal his contempt for hunters and hunting in general, an aspect of subsistence culture that must be accepted and understood if you want to appreciate the people and their lifestyle (it is not sport hunting, it is shooting meat on the hoof, seldom "sporting" and never pretty). Perhaps if he had left some of his attitude behind before he started the trip he wouldn't continually catch himself in hippocritical rhetoric-- like being disgusted by an Inuit eating "eskimo sushi" raw char (similar to trout/salmon) eggs or warble fly larvae (actually a very rich and pure protein source), or desparingly talking of another individual comming back from "down south" clutching a greasy McDonald's bag, all the while, the author has a boat-load of gourmet freeze-dried space-food vittles from back home in the "Lower-48" in his $5000+ highest-of-tech watercraft. By not surviving like an Inuit he remains a high-tech tourist sailing through inhospitable waters. Some of these instances call into question what are otherwise enthralling and seemingly accurate descriptions... for instance, as he describes how a kabloona grizzly hunter potted a bear with his .30-30 from the sled of a snowmobile, it calls into question the entire account... no avid bear hunter, as the hunter was described, would tackle a barren ground grizzly with a .30-.30, this is akin to taking on a wild boar with a bb-gun. Probably the hunter had a .300-win magnum or similar caliber, but this little detail hardly interested Waterman... theses are the types of little things that continued to catch me as I read the book. Also, I had a few problems with his brief overview of the Franklin Expedition. With respect to hunting and the Inuit, it seems that with modern tools they harvest more than they need, do not respect the harvested meat and show both disrespect to the animals and their hunting heritage... so half-assed guiding of wealthy Kabloona at exorbitant prices hardly bothers them. A good friend of mine that has hunted all over North America, recently went on a Musk Ox hunt in Nunavut... he described it as the most expensive, filthy, unethical and terrible experience he has ever had in the outdoors. In many ways, perhaps Watermans descriptions of similar experiences are more kind. Waterman had the best intentions making this journey and writing this book. I admire the physical accomplishment of his journey, but at their worst, his negative ramblings remind me of some of the elitist "ugly American" tourists that I've bumped into while traveling in Europe. When the author cooly delves into Inuit social history and ancedotes on the explorative history of the region, the book really shines. The vast majority of his observations on modern Inuit lifestyle are an insightful and dark passage in themselves. In spite of my problems with (a very few) sections of the writting, I have to recommend this book. It is mostly an outstanding treatment that called into question many of my own romantic notions of the Great North.
Rating:
Summary: An Essential Adventure Read
Review: This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the Arctic, Alaska--or simply a good adventure tale. Jon Waterman is a veteran of a quarter century's worth of outdoor epics worldwide. ARCTIC CROSSING documents the biggest epic of them all, his solo, muscle-powered odyssey through the Northwest Passage. Yet ARCTIC CROSSING isn't just a travel narrative. It yields a treasure trove of carefully researched detail about everything from polar bears and seals to Inuit politics and the latest in survival and wilderness travel technique. Read it.
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Summary: Live the adventure in the the Arctic
Review: This book is beautifully written! Unlike most adventure books, Waterman's account of his 3-year Arctic adventure, leaves behind the hero perspective and sincerely tells a story about the Inuit culture, the Arctic landscape and its amazing wildlife, and how he travels solo through it all. Find out what it would be like to journey alone without seeing another person (or signs of another person) for weeks at a time...how many of us have been completely alone, even for a day? His details of the people once called Eskimos are thoughtful and compassionate. The Inuit are faced with modern day assimilation while desperately trying to hold on to their 1,000 year old traditions. This struggle is carefully outlined, as he was able to get close to "The People". His encounters with wildlife, especially bears, made me wish I were there, but at the same time thankful to be reading about it in the comforts of home. This book is for anyone wanting to know the meaning of true exploration and wanting to learn more about the beuaty and mystery of the Arctic and Inuit.
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Summary: The island within us
Review: This is a "must read" for anyone in four categories; the traveler (as opposed to the tourist), the kayaker, an anthropologist or one interested in hunter-gatherer types of peoples, and the armchair traveller who enjoys a good read. I fall into all groups, but essentially the first three, and for this reason I thourougly enjoyed practically every page. As I plan to be in the northern isles of Japan for a month and half, alone with my kayak, in part for the physical challenge and in part to take a contemporary look at the Ainu, the indigenous peoples of Hokkaido, the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin, I can fully appreciate the difficulties Mr. Waterman went through in a predominently harsh climate, turbulent seas, dealing with wild and unpredicable creatures, and finding a people who once had a "noble" way of life (or at least very close to nature) now enjoying motorized transportation, over-heated houses, at violent videos (the author mentions that Claude Van Damme seems to be especially popular). I will likely face the same challengess and disappointments. The only criticism I have lies in the writing style. If I had been Mr. Waterman's editor, I would have told him to keep in mind that those subjective references - "me,my,mine & I" distance the reader. I realise it is difficult being isolated and writing the narrative about your own journey not to include those words, but my advise would have been to try not to "own" too much. One doesn't want to appear ego-centric or repetitive. I was previously aware of Mr. Waterman's endeavors from his 1996 book, "Kayaking the Vermilion Sea" (Touchstone), and had noticed those writing traits then, though his present book is tenfold better. However that said, just the mere difficulty of what this author undertook, his sentivities towards nature in general, the peoples of the Artic (well-researched as can be seen in the bibliography), his subjectiveness, and his enduring love of his lady friend, June, will earn this book a well-deserved place of honor in my library.
Rating:
Summary: A Zen experience
Review: This is a wonderful book. Experiential and tangible. The author does a very good job of watching without judgment when describing his experiences with the inuit, but falters every now and then when it comes to the Kabloona (Bushy Eye-brow). This is but a very slight and eminently forgivable flaw, especially when the gentle reader reads without judgment. The pregnant gaps in the narrative challenges the reader to a highly individual experience, both intuitive and intellectual. Like every good travel/adventure book ought to. This book makes me want to walk the Arctic, at the same time am afraid to blotch the land with my footprints.
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