Rating: 
Summary: Life and Death on the Southern Ocean
Review: "Below forty degrees south there is no law; below fifty degrees south there is no God." This quote begins the tenth chapter of Derek Lundy's Godforsaken Sea. With heart-racing action right from the start, Mr. Lundy explores various issues related to what seems like a foolish act: racing a sailboat solo, without stopping, through the vicious conditions of the Southern Ocean. Yet it is the stark and simple rules of the Vendee Globe race, the subject of this book, that make it so compelling: sail around the world without help and without assistance. The course of the race is equally simple: Atlantic Ocean - Southern Ocean - Atlantic Ocean. In an age where "extreme" sports are becoming commonplace, Lundy makes a compelling case for calling this sporting event the most extreme sport of all. In fact, dealing with the moral implications of people subjecting themselves to such a dangerous event is one of the challenges the reader of this book will face. Yet the sailors of the Vendee Globe, as presented in the Godforsaken Sea, are real, genuine human beings. They are people who, while in the near hurricane force conditions, cannot wait to get home, yet, when they do arrive back in France, cannot wait to get back to the sea. The reader is left with the clear idea that the Vendee Globe is an event where a competitor has a fairly good chance of not coming back alive.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully written
Review: This is the best book I have read about long-distance solo racing. It's the first book on the Vendee Globe in English, and it's incredibly well-done. Lundy does a great job of moving the book along with the race, while addressing some of the larger, equally interesting issues about this sort of sailing: what drives these men and women to risk life and limb, what is the role of the sea in the collective human experience. Its structure is sophisticated, and not for the reader he needs to be held by the hand and spoon fed. The introduction of Gerry Roufs at the beginning, with his fate unresolved, was a masterful touch -- it leaves a pall of dread over the book that kept me reading, mesmerized. Lundy never talks down to the reader or over-simplifies; one of the most audacious and courageous points he makes is that this sort of racing, while mind-bogglingly exciting at times, can also be mind-numbingly boring for long stretches. Readers who can't acknowledge this and who need to be constantly dazzled by fireworks and disasters, are advised to go see Star Wars. This is a classic.
Rating:
Summary: difficult but worth it
Review: This book is so full of information it is difficult to get into, but all of the narrative is well worth the effort. It covers so many of the important aspects related to sailing in very difficult conditions. It also relates aspects of sailboat design associated with sailing in dangerous seas.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent book
Review: This a truly excellent book about sailing. Lundy knows his trade and seems to be able to sail, too. He's candid when he's got to describe his own experiences at sea, and got all my sympathy through his confessions about the old fear of capsizing and the open ocean. He wrote a detailed book about a race, probably the craziest in the world, only for people willing to risk their lives against the icebergs, but plays it all down and doesn't make you feel like you're an inferior idiot wasting your time right now, on your chair. In a very careful crescendo, he tells about the people and the ships, about designs and expectations, some technical and some poetic stuff, and you're suddenly into the South Seas, together with the mad skippers. The book reaches its highest points of drama and emotion in succession, one desaster after another, until it reaches the puzzling disappearance of Gerry Roufs, the only tragedy without redemption. Once there, Lundy doesn't stay away from the worst edges of real stories, as opposed to most novels, and deals with the sour accusations against those who maybe, only maybe could have done a little bit more for finding Roufs, instead of keep racing back to Europe. All in all, it's real good reading.
Rating:
Summary: A sailing book readers
Review: I read many, many books on sailing. Don't bother to read many others. Only Derek Lundy's book and Moitissier's own book 'The Long Way' are truly above the rest. This book got me also got interested in other aspects of the outdoors and mans place in nature.
Rating:
Summary: Good book if you're into sailing.
Review: If you like sailing get the book. The things they do are truly amazing.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping descriptions of extreme sailing
Review: This is a great book, hard to put down.
Since the author is an amateur yachtsman, he brings an interesting perspective to the writing, and he talks about crusing to and in the Virgin Islands with his wife.
I would reccomend it to anyone who enjoys amateur sailing, and wants to get a better picture of amazingly "out there" sailing. It's pretty gripping, and manages to impart some of the actualities of sailing in the Southern Ocean to the casual sailor - (5-8 story waves as regular happenings??).
My only fuss was that his writing style was a bit chopping in going back and forth between describing events, and background. But you got used to it after awhile, and the info he provided as counterpoint to the actual events of that Vendee Globe was very helpful in setting comparisons.
Well worth reading though.
Rating:
Summary: God Forsaken Sea
Review: A most satisfying read. It combines the excitement and terror of single handed racing in the Southern Ocean with insight into the people who did it in the 1996 Vendee Globe. It reflects their thinking and attitudes in the light of Montessier, Slochum and Saint-Exupery. I agree with the Time assessment that it ranks with the best of books on sailing.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much explanation - too little story
Review: Lundy constantly interrupts a gripping narrative with dry explanations. Some of the explanation is justified, like the construction of Vendee Globe racers, and some is interesting, like the history of circumnavigation, but it was a mistake to disrupt the story, which becomes hard to follow. If you are looking for another Into Thin Air to vicariously battle the South Seas from the safety and comfort of your armchair, it would be best to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting peak into solo racing, but hard to follow
Review: I think if you have done a good bit of sailing or spent a lot of time in the ocean, this book would be riveting. But for the average landlubber, I felt it was long and a bit disorganized. Some of the analyses Lundy made, for example the one about what drives people to extreme sports, were interesting but out of place here - I wanted him to just get on with it. To me this book is another "Into Thin Air" clone applied to a different sport.
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