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Summary: Karluk or Endurance ?
Review: Great read for any artic Exploration or adventure reader. Comparison to Endurance and the Shackleton story are incredibly interesting. They ocurred at the same time frame, at opposite ends of the Globe. The contrast in leadership between the 2 leaders, or lack there of, is gripping.
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Summary: Awe inspiring!!!
Review: This book was absolutely fabulous!!! Ms. Niven is truly an incredible writer. Her descriptions of the men, the families and the conditions tugged at my heart like no other story I've come across. This must become a movie!!!!
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Summary: Couldn't put the book down.
Review: Really well written book. Even though it is non-fictional, it reads as good as any novel.
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Summary: Simply unforgettable
Review: This book tells the amazing true story of a doomed expedition to the Arctic.
There is much to recommend about this book, throughout you wonder why anyone would ever venture north again after all the suffering that the crew of this ship endured.
There are a number of different stories being told in this book, including a murder mystery, a missing crew and a harrowing journey to rescue.
The ending actually left me tingling!
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Summary: The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk
Review: Ms. Niven did an excellent job compiling the historical data and pulling all the pieces together to formulate a very well written non-fictional account of this incredible expedition. There is nothing better than history that is presented in a detailed, accurate and interesting manner as Ms. Niven has done in this book.
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Summary: Gripping Tale Of Stranded Arctic Explorers
Review: It amazes me how ignorant and unprepared some of the early artic explorers were.The 1913 voyage of the Karluk north fits that mold. Many of the crew were not trained and had never been in harsh winter conditions. Supplies were bought and stowed haphazardly. The very ship worried the captain as being unworthy and not suited to travel in the ice. The leader bought second hand winter gear at rummage sale prices to save money and cheap pemmican that was not tested for purity. After the ship stuck fast in the ice north of Alaska, the leader, a shameless man named Steffansson, abandoned the crew to head over the ice toward land. He did not go for help, but left so that he could continue to pursue his own egotistical goal of finding new lands above the Arctic Circle. That left the men (and one woman and two children who were part of an Eskimo family) at the fate of Captain Bartlett. Fortunately, the Captain was a man of courage and character. His one great flaw happened early on, but was fatal. He knows his ship was not up to the journey north. Why an experienced captain like himself agreed to proceed is a mystery, but it was fortunate for the eventual survivors that he did. (Had he chosen not to captain the ship, Steffanson would have found another captain, probably made of lesser stuff than Bartlett.)
Bartlett would provide the authority, example and leadership that allowed half the crew to survive a winter on the ice and many months camped out on the most god-forsaken island in the world, Wrangle Island. This fine book includes descriptions of life aboard the Karluk, life aboard an ice floe after the ship was crushed, a trek across miles of arctic ice to a godforsaken island that offered little in the way of improvement save its fixed location, a final two hundred mile hike by the Captain and his Eskimo from the island, across more frozen ocean, and across northern Siberia in order to mount a relief effort. This tale is gripping. What these people endured, particularly the party that waited months on Wrangle Island not even knowing if Captain Bartlett had even reached Siberia is fascinating. This is a tale of grit, determination, strong characters and weak. It is a fine tale of arctic survival, well worth the read.
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Summary: Man - What They Had to Eat
Review: Books like this make me wonder what is in the head of some people. To leave your perfectly warm and comfortable house and job to spend two years tromping around the arctic in a cramped old boat, eating food that mostly resembles dog food, and being permanently cold - are you kidding me? I must just be a wimp, because this is exactly what this group does and of course the plan goes sour about as soon as they are out of reach of any help. I guess the book would not be that interesting if everything worked. So the boat is stuck and then crushed and these guys all build little icehouses and hope to tough out the winter eating this horrible meat cake stuff they brought with them. Well you guessed it, about a day into this situation they start to fight, separate into different groups and finally just head off in different directions. What surprised me is that so many of them lived to tell about it thus the documents the author used for the book. The book really moves along very well. She describes the cold so well you get chills just reading about it. The richness of her descriptions lets you really understand what happened, but the detail does not slow the book down at all. It moves fast right up to the end. This is an interesting book that any adventure reader will enjoy.
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Summary: Gripping tale of survival
Review: Those TV "survivors" have nothing on these guys! An amazing true story, "The Ice Master" details the misadventures of the ill-fated Karluk and her hapless crew on an early 20th century scientific research expedition gone awry. Searching the Arctic for a phantom continent, the expedition leader abandons his entire company when their ship becomes icebound off the Alaskan coast. Left to fend for themselves with limited supplies, few resources and not quite sure where they are, the crew quickly reduce to their true natures. Some are gallant, some are less so and some are downright nefarious. How each man plays a part in his own fate, as well as the fate of others, is the most captivating part of the story. It is unimaginable to me that men, women and children could be stranded on an ocean of ice with limited resources and yet still survive. This is an incredible story of human ingenuity and pure force of will defeating circumstance and nature. Niven takes care with her documentation and cites books, diaries and personal interviews in her notes. A well-written and compelling read.
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Summary: Excellent tale of human endurance
Review: Author Jennifer Niven's first non-fiction work is a welcome and worthy addition to the library of polar expeditions and tragedies. Niven managed to bring to life a doomed expedition that occured almost nine decades ago, based on various different sources well-documented in the bibliography at the end of the book. The brief yet informative backgrounds of the characters provide much insight to the reader as to their individual personalities. This in turn led to a greater understanding of how these personalities clashed later on as the hope of rescue got dimmer. This book will be enjoyed by all those who are into accounts of polar adventures and survival. To me, this book was as good as Alfred Lansing's ENDURANCE. At least Shackleton's men had the good-fortune of a relatively close crew plus a strong leadership to hold them together. The survivors of the Karluk had neither. This book was enlightening as to the worst things that adversity can bring out in man, as well as the instinct for self-preservation. Reading of all the personality clashes evident, it was amazing that any of them survived at all. If this account of the Karluk tragedy is to be believed, then its importance cannot be stressed enough. Blame needs to be laid upon Steffanson for his wanton disregard of the welfare of those who set out on this expedition with him. Captain Bartlett should be absolved of Steffanson's accusations and lies. Ultimately, ICE MASTER is worth its weight in gold if only to illustrate human endurance at its highest level. Highly recommended!
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Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I am usually unable to finish a book. I get bored and lose interest very easily. The story itself is enough to captivate me and the style it is written in made this book extremely difficult to put down. I am now looking for more books on exploration tragedies and stories of amazing human endurance. Thank you for bringing this story to life. Jerry
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