Rating: 
Summary: Unable to put this book down...
Review: From the beginning sentence, I was unable to put this book down. Lundy describes the terror and excitement of the Southern Ocean race so that you are right there experiencing the event with the sailors themselves. The first chapters introduces some of the sailors and describes in detail the capsizing of their ships - then he leaves you there with them at the brink of death or rescue. You don't know the outcome until you've read further and get to know all the players and events that took place in the race. This book was fascinating from page one.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book that could have been great...
Review: Reading "The Godforsaken Sea" is an experience in frustration. The events recounted, the Vendee Globe race of 1996, has all the requisite features to make an exciting page-turner. Instead, thanks to Derek Lundy's strange choices in narrative, we know the ending from the time we finish the first chapter! The rest of the book is an exercise in filling in the blanks interspersed with philosophical quotes cribbed from more metaphysical authors.Equally frustrating is the complete absence of photos. Altho the book has 2 maps & a diagram of a typical Vendee Globe 60' sailboat, there are no photos at all (except 2 on the back cover)! Considering the amount of media coverage generated by this event in France, this lack is strange, to say the least. Photos are absolutely necessary in cases such as when Lundy describes his subjective reaction to viewing the latest design in racing 60' boats from the Groupe Finot workshop as compared to more traditional designs in the race. Why isn't the reader allowed to view the boats in question? He describes the way various sailors in the race appear to him; why can't we see them too? Considering the large number of sailors involved, photos of the most prominent would be a great help to the reader! Despite these caveats, "The Godforsaken Sea" still manages to enthrall as we experience capsizes beyond the reach of land-rescue efforts, incredible heroism in the face of seemingly impossible odds, self-surgery, physical deprivations & hardships...If only a little suspense had been added to the mix, Derek Lundy would have had a best-seller!
Rating:
Summary: adventure on the high seas
Review: Derek Lundy has done a fantastic job of bringing the excitment and danger of racing solo sailboats to vivid life. The book kept me on the edge of my seat ,the descriptions of the seas, the interviews with the sailors and family members combine to give the reader a very good image of what it must be like to spend three or four months alone in the "roaring forties". If you are at all interested in sailboat racing or just like books about sailing than this book is a must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Drown Me Now!
Review: If Derek Lundy were attacked by robotic space baboons and whisked away to their fantastic-yet-deadly planet...he'd still tell an incredibly boring story about it. Good god, was this book boring! I mean, what an incredible story, and he just sucked the life out of it like a vampire. Did anyone edit this thing? It would've made a fine magazine article, but as a book, it held WAY too much filler. And Derek, OK. We get it. You like French people. Whatever. Gah. I wanted to throw this thing out the window, but I was trapped with it on a plane. Two thumbs down.
Rating:
Summary: Force 10 hurricane winds followed by doldrums
Review: The topic of covering the Globe Vendee race, the knockdowns, triumphs,rescues and death at sea is a formidable one and Derek Lundy to a degree succeeds in presenting the reader with a respectable portrayal of solo sail racing around the world's most dangerous ocean waters in the southern Antarctic seas. The book, however, moves from fantastic suspenseful portrayal of danger and rescue to the more mundane trivialities of "who's out in the lead...who's bringing up the rear...who's moving ahead" as if the reader had no idea of the outcome of the 1996-1997 Vendee-Globe race. (Maybe there are a great many readers who do not have any knowledge of the outcome of the event...but it's certainly not necessary to present this book in an anticipatory 'present tense' as if there was to be a surprise outcome). But do not despair as there is much to enjoy and learn in this book. One competitor takes up self-surgery to cut out infected parts of his arm and another competitor lashes himself to his inverted boat to await rescue in the cold Antarctic seas. The author's strongest presentation is when he delves into the minds of these solo around the world sailors. Why do they do this? And the very best story of all might have been missed by the author as the first woman to successfully complete the Globe-Vendee (Chabaud)slowly and steadily succeeds at the end of the pack. Her story needed to be told...at best she is followed by the author as he is obliged to keep the reader informed about all the boats in the race. I say read the book..but borrow it as it isn't a keeper in my library.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tough Read
Review: This book was a tough read. Not in the sense that it was technically overbearing, the challenge came in the form of continuing with this style of writing. The ingredients were there but the author made little use of them, often grasping for content. The script is tedious and often tangential. The writing fails to present the reader with the true essence and magnificence of the Vendee Globe.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books
Review: Godforsaken Sea is written so well that the reader is swept aboard one of the magnificent boats battling Southern Ocean storms. In the first few chapters, I dreaded and desperately wanted to read, scared for the lives of the sailors and the boats and thinking 'Wow this could happen to me.' You can't think, 'This is because they were not prepared," because the competitors were, but this shows that in some places, no matter what, you are left in the hands of the sea. As for not wanting to sail anymore, it is quite the contrary. I deeply admire those who have the strength to complete this race and survive in the icy conditions of the Southern Ocean. Not only that, but to sail in such horrible conditions to save a dying comptetitor is extrodinary. This is a horrific tale that everyone should read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most captivating Sea stories.
Review: I couldn't stop reading it. I even made a pilgrimage to Sables Des Olones, where the race start and finish. Seeing and touching one of these sleds was an amazing experience for me. The story helped me to gain even more respect (awe perhaps) of the Sea, of resilience and grandeur of human spirit, ... and inspired me to sail farther than ever before.
Rating:
Summary: one of the strongest of the adventure/disaster books
Review: Lundy writes one of the most literary and most spellbinding adventure accounts of all the action books out there. I'm a big fan of almost all these books, but this one will rivet you like no other. Lundy takes the time to interview all the sailors to the point that we feel that we know them personally. He also analyzes the kind of personal profile that would lead someone to sled down a 7 story wave at 30 knots in a 60 foot boat. For those who find oceans and currents interesting, Lundy gives quite a lot of descriptions of the roaring 40's, screaming 60's, the types of waves and currents at those latitudes, the various pressure systems, and how weather whips around the globe with no land to stop it. The Southern Ocean is in a category by itself and it seems almost crazy to try to tame it solo with sailboats, no matter how modern. Lundy does use a good deal of technical jargon, but I found it easy enough to follow as a non-sailor since he does explain all the special vocabulary. Rather than follow the gimicky technique of some adventure books that leave you hanging at every minute, he delves into some more philosophical areas, history and background and provides a meatier book than most. Anyone who likes sailing, insane risks, wild action, and stories of courage and adventure will love this book. It was one of my favorites overall, even stacked against Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm. I can't get the image out of my mind of the sailor that came back and could not let go of his small son's head -- which made altogether more poignant the case of the sailor who died, leaving behind his 8 year old girl and wife.
Rating:
Summary: Death Sled through the Southern Ocean
Review: While we all tempt fate at some time in our lives, but these sailors do it everyday for 4 months straight in what has got to be the most dangerous race in existence. We vicariously live through Lundy's words as these boatbound adventurers pass the point on this planet where only astronauts have been farther from land. As they speed their way to the vast Southern Ocean we cross our fingers hoping they elude the growler bergs or the 80ft wave with their name on it. Running with the wind on a 60ft sled of a boat at 26 knots with the spinnaker up in 60 knot gusts surrounded by 3 story waves these racers set the autopilot and go below for nap! Sleep would be the last thing on my mind but alas I am only reading about it in the comfort of my own bed. Sailors will appreciate this book the most. The structure of the book is a bit circuitous and Lundy has a penchant for waxing philosophically about call of the water and each racers internal sirens that lure them to enter the race. But I loved the book. Read it now, just in time for Vendee Globe 2000 which starts in November.
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