Points Unknown: A Century of Great Exploration (Outside Books)

Rating:
Summary: Too many stories
Review: As a lover of true adventure stories, I looked forward to the compilation of the great epics of the last 100 years. The brief accounts are, for the most part, lifted from the journals and stories written by the person involved. While it opened the door to many names and perilous tales I had never before read about, the book was somewhat of a disappointment. I found many of the narratives too short and clipped to really give a good picture of what was involved. Several of the stories were about similar incidents (mountain climbing, sailing, etc.) and I think it would have been more effective to have limited the number and expand a bit on the remaining ones. What this book will do, I believe, is to give the reader the incentive to pursue those epics which are of special interest to him or her, and seek to obtain the full account. If this book succeeds in doing that, then it's well worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing the Unknown
Review: If adventurers, and what motivates them, fascinate you, then this book must be added to your reading list. In it, some of the 20th. century's finest explorers and wanderers take you with them on their journeys.

As might be expected, there is drama. The opening piece is taken from the diary of Robert Falcon Scott, written as he literally froze to death on his final trek back from the South Pole. However, there is also tongue in cheek humor from the likes of Laurens Van Der Post and Eric Hansen, and superb, on-the-edge-of-your-chair excitement in pieces by Edward Abbey, Jon Krakauer and Joe Kane.

Here too, tucked into the corners of the collection are pieces one might not expect to find in an anthology of adventure writing. There is Freya Stark's touching piece on Ishi, the last of a tribe of Northern California Indians, Clyde Kluckhohn's climb to Wild Horese Mesa, and Edward Hoagland's piece on a day spent trapsing over the Alberta Rockies that ends with the sighting of a lion.

Editor Dave Roberts and his team have done a marvelous job of pulling together some exceptionally fine writing that reveals the many sides of adventure. I had only three small complaints (not complaints really, just disgruntled comments). First, none of Roberts' writing was included, which was disappointing considering that he is one of our finest adventure writers working today. Second, there was an over emphasis on mountain pieces, which meant that some other equally fine writing had to be excluded. And third, there was a marked lack of works by women adventurers. Roberts claims that he and his team hunted for women authors who met their criteria, but they were not to be found in the 20th. century. Since I can think of 4 off the top of my head, I can only conclude that they didn't look very hard. As I say, small bones of contention in an otherwise outstanding book.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing the Unknown
Review: If adventurers, and what motivates them, fascinate you, then this book must be added to your reading list. In it, some of the 20th. century's finest explorers and wanderers take you with them on their journeys.

As might be expected, there is drama. The opening piece is taken from the diary of Robert Falcon Scott, written as he literally froze to death on his final trek back from the South Pole. However, there is also tongue in cheek humor from the likes of Laurens Van Der Post and Eric Hansen, and superb, on-the-edge-of-your-chair excitement in pieces by Edward Abbey, Jon Krakauer and Joe Kane.

Here too, tucked into the corners of the collection are pieces one might not expect to find in an anthology of adventure writing. There is Freya Stark's touching piece on Ishi, the last of a tribe of Northern California Indians, Clyde Kluckhohn's climb to Wild Horese Mesa, and Edward Hoagland's piece on a day spent trapsing over the Alberta Rockies that ends with the sighting of a lion.

Editor Dave Roberts and his team have done a marvelous job of pulling together some exceptionally fine writing that reveals the many sides of adventure. I had only three small complaints (not complaints really, just disgruntled comments). First, none of Roberts' writing was included, which was disappointing considering that he is one of our finest adventure writers working today. Second, there was an over emphasis on mountain pieces, which meant that some other equally fine writing had to be excluded. And third, there was a marked lack of works by women adventurers. Roberts claims that he and his team hunted for women authors who met their criteria, but they were not to be found in the 20th. century. Since I can think of 4 off the top of my head, I can only conclude that they didn't look very hard. As I say, small bones of contention in an otherwise outstanding book.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid excerpts from over forty great adventure stories
Review: Points Unknown gathers moving, vivid excerpts from over forty of the greatest first-person adventure stories in English, covering all terrains and encounters and including works by Colin Fletcher, Edward Hoagland, Laurens van der Post and other notables. Any with an armchair passion for adventure travel will find this an exceptional presentation of a century of exploration drama.

Rating:
Summary: Great Points to Read About
Review: Points Unknown is a great anthology of great non-fiction adventure stories. Each story in the anthology is

1. Written in the first person; those who lived the adventures wrote their own stories, 2. Written in the 20th century, and 3. Originally written in English.

A collection of forty-one excerpts of great adventure writing, it includes Scott's Last Expedition by Robert Falcon Scott; The Fight for Everest by Noel Odell; The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe; Alive: The Story of Andres Survivors by Piers Paul Read; Running the Amazon by Joe Kane; and The Devil's Thumb by Jon Krakauer. Because "originally written in English" is a criteria for stories included in the anthology, it means that great stories and great adventures from great writers are absent and it serves almost as a documentation of English and American adventurers in the twentieth century. I would have preferred a broader focus.

While many of the stories focus on Alpine Exploration, it is certainly not the only genre. The book includes stories from exploration of the poles, the deserts, the oceans, and the underworld or caves. The book provides a great way to explore new types of adventure writing. Some types of adventures were of no interest to me and I liked being able to sample a number of stories without investing too much time and energy into them. At the same time, I was able to discover other types of adventures that were very exciting too me though I would not have expected them to be.

The book's virtue is also the quality I liked least about the book. On many stories the excerpt ended leaving me hungry for more. As it is a collection of excerpts, it means that the entire story is not included. I have since purchased the full versions of a number of the stories so that I could read the entire story and find out "what happened."

All in all a great book and highly recommended to anyone who has interest in exploring different types of non-fiction adventure stories.

Rating:
Summary: Points Unknown: A Century of Great Exploration
Review: This book is a wonderfull compilation of enduring adventures gathered in one volume. Writing that keeps you on the edge of your seat and wondering how these explorers will survive and how they could have possibly survived these hardships. Unbelievable courage, determination, and the desire to survive are written about in this book.

Rating:
Summary: an interesting collection
Review: This book is an interesting concept; a collection of excerpts from explorer's accounts of their journeys. The categories of adventure that fit within these 607 pages are almost as numerous as the 43 different excerpts. Mountain climbing seems to be the most prevelent form of exploring but there is also (Ant)Arctic treks, desert journeys, jungle adventures, white water canoeing, solo sea voyages, wilderness explorations, hunting, aviation, cave exploration, surviving a plain crash in the mountains, etc.. The editors confined their anthology to 20th Century accounts and quality of writing was an obvious consideration in their choices. They also did a good job of excerpting some very exciting moments in the chronicles of man versus nature. This is a good introduction of some great accounts of true adventure. Many a reader will want to go out and read some of the books these excerpts come from.

I felt this book was more a 4.5 than a 4 but I didn't want to give it too high of a rating. I felt the shortcoming was that there was a fair amount of technical jargon to weed through(especially in the area of mountain-climbimg). The editors did do a decent job of footnoting the more technical items but I would have preferred less mountain-climbing and more "in search of lost civilizations". However, that is MY preference and I could easily be in the minority. I was a little surprized at the quality of the hardbound edition. The paper used was the same as that used in magazines which gave it a somewhat "cheap" appearance. There is nothing "cheap", however, in its' content. Whether you read it cover to cover or savor each adventure in its' own time, you will find a lot of excitement and enjoyment in this book.

Rating:
Summary: an interesting collection
Review: This book is an interesting concept; a collection of excerpts from explorer's accounts of their journeys. The categories of adventure that fit within these 607 pages are almost as numerous as the 43 different excerpts. Mountain climbing seems to be the most prevelent form of exploring but there is also (Ant)Arctic treks, desert journeys, jungle adventures, white water canoeing, solo sea voyages, wilderness explorations, hunting, aviation, cave exploration, surviving a plain crash in the mountains, etc.. The editors confined their anthology to 20th Century accounts and quality of writing was an obvious consideration in their choices. They also did a good job of excerpting some very exciting moments in the chronicles of man versus nature. This is a good introduction of some great accounts of true adventure. Many a reader will want to go out and read some of the books these excerpts come from.

I felt this book was more a 4.5 than a 4 but I didn't want to give it too high of a rating. I felt the shortcoming was that there was a fair amount of technical jargon to weed through(especially in the area of mountain-climbimg). The editors did do a decent job of footnoting the more technical items but I would have preferred less mountain-climbing and more "in search of lost civilizations". However, that is MY preference and I could easily be in the minority. I was a little surprized at the quality of the hardbound edition. The paper used was the same as that used in magazines which gave it a somewhat "cheap" appearance. There is nothing "cheap", however, in its' content. Whether you read it cover to cover or savor each adventure in its' own time, you will find a lot of excitement and enjoyment in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good stories, but where are the maps?
Review: This is a collection of adventure and survival writing by twentieth century authors, chosen by one of the editors of Outside magazine. Some of the selections are well known, such as those from Shackleton's Antarctic expedition and Odell's description of his search for Mallory and Irvine on Everest. Others, e.g. about spelunking and cave diving, will be new to most readers. Most of these pieces are well written. But not one of them is illustrated with either a map or a picture. It is astonishing that a book so heavily focused on geography would confine itself to words. Is it really that expensive to include maps?

Rating:
Summary: Good stories, but where are the maps?
Review: This is a collection of adventure and survival writing by twentieth century authors, chosen by one of the editors of Outside magazine. Some of the selections are well known, such as those from Shackleton's Antarctic expedition and Odell's description of his search for Mallory and Irvine on Everest. Others, e.g. about spelunking and cave diving, will be new to most readers. Most of these pieces are well written. But not one of them is illustrated with either a map or a picture. It is astonishing that a book so heavily focused on geography would confine itself to words. Is it really that expensive to include maps?