4 comments about Antarctica: The Blue Continent.

1. Great book including history, geology and fauna of antarctica. Excellent photographs. Very recommendable book for a cheap price for everyone who is interested in the blue continent.



2. A beautiful book that arrived in excellent condition...well packaged and in a very timely manner! Excellent service! Thank you! MW



3. This large format style book has excellent photographs, illustrations, and maps on virtually every page in addition to text and related detailed captions.
   
   It is broken down into four parts - the Antarctic environment, regions, wildlife, and exploration history. Each of these four main parts are broken down further into smaller topics. For instance the wildlife section has several pages detailed to each animal type (whales, seals, penguins, seabirds, etc) and then broken down further into each specific species of them by seperate text section with stats and a map showing that specific animal location around Antarctica. The exploration section similiarly is broken down into smaller timeframes (three timeframes) of discovery and expeditions.
   
   Ovearall a great overview of everything Antarctica. Great book for reading and also for just for browsing through.



4. This book is full of gorgeous pictures and well-written segments that provide information in easily digested and very informative pieces. It covers topics like geology, ancient and present day ecology, geography, flora and fauna, really everything you could ask for. It would make a good reference for schoolwork that doesn't need to be highly scientific or extremely detailed. If it had that kind of additional detail, I'd give it the last star, but then it would likely be twice as thick and much more difficult to read. For the person who just wants to learn more about antarctica, this is the book for you and probably a five star purchase!

4 comments about Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition: The Voyage of the Nimrod.

1. Everyone has heard about Ernest Shackleton's remarkable Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, when his ship Endurance was crushed in the ice and Shackleton made his epic open-boat journey to South Georgia to help rescue his men. What most people don't know was that the first expedition Shackleton led to the Antarctic was every bit as full of derring-do and death-defying moments as his later one. Moreover, historically it was much more significant than his other ventures.
   
   "Nimrod" is the story of that first expedition, when Shackleton, with no official support and pulling everything together on a wing and a prayer, led a small group of inexperienced men to the Antarctic. This party overcame numerous challenges to accomplish remarkable achievements, including making the first ascent of the great volcano Mount Erebus, being the first men to reach the South Magnetic Pole, discovering and ascending what was the largest known glacier in the world, being the first to reach the heart of the Antarctic plateau, and shattering the record for the farthest south ever reached, by coming to within 97 miles of the South Pole. But each sledging party that went out from base camp almost ended in death and disaster, and it is part of the enthralling telling of this tale that trouble builds upon trouble until only hardihood, courage, and a great deal of luck could pull Shackleton and his comrades out of the fire.
   
   This book is a model of what history can be at its best: a masterful combination of scholarly research and compelling dramatic narrative that keeps one desperately reading throughout the night in order to find out what happens next. Riffenburgh has an obvious delight in the delicious details and inter-connections of history, and he knows how to mix a bizarre collection of eccentric characters and curious settings with lavishly descriptive accounts enriched by a healthy dose of suspense, humor, pathos, and gossip.
   
   One of the major weaknesses of virtually all of the accounts of polar exploration published in recent years is that they have made no effort to put the myriad of ventures to the snow and ice into their place in history. Why were people so interested in the Antarctic as to be willing to put their lives on the line to explore it? What relation did it have to the imperial mindset dominant a century ago. How was it related to the exploration of Africa or the mountainous centre of Asia? This is the first tale of an expedition to look beyond the events of one trip and to answer all of these questions. It gives the rare but incredibly valuable insight into not only what happened by why, and it allows one to see polar exploration finally put into its historical context. One finishes "Nimrod" having been not only immensely entertained, but enlightened.
   
   This is a book that, in its vivid detail, the energetic manner of its telling, and its insights into history, brings scholarship and engrossing writing into one. It is easy to suspect that Alan Moorehead, Peter Hopkirk, or Simon Winchester would be proud to have written it.



2. Today you can look at what's going on at the South Pole by simply pointing your browser at: www.phys.unsw.edu.au/southpolediaries/webcam.html. It's hard to imagine that in 1908 Shackleton went through so much trouble trying to get there and not making it. I look at the pictures of him using pony's to pull sledges. And his boat, the Nimrod, with her sails set; you almost want to say, "are you kidding."
   
   There is a lot of discussion in this book about the conflict between Shackleton and Scott. It has been said that if you really wanted to get somewhere on an expedition, you should go with Scott. But if you're priority was more on getting home alive, go with Shackleton. This was, I think never so evident as in Shackleton's next voyage in the Endurance.
   
   This book focuses on the voyage of the Nimrod, as it says in the sub-title, but it is more than that. The insight Mr. Rifenburgh shown in his understanding of the people, the way he brings them to life with good story telling and his grasp of the overall view of the explorations make this book an absolute delight.



3. After reading this book I unexpectedbly became an Ernest Shackleton and Antarctic exploration fan. Next I read The Lost Men and am reading Endurance. This is a thorough history that reads like an adventure novel. Highly recommended!



4. I have a bookshelf that groans under the weight of tomes about Antarctica. No one has forgotten the Nimrod Expedition that knows anything about the "Heroic Era", so I found the title to be at least presumptuous. So let's get to the critique: Riffenburgh at first concentrates on the historical context, the post-Victorian Edwardian Era of the UK, which was gratifying. I didn't know that the Presbyterian elite that ruled Ireland were called "the Pale". From that I assumed the origin of the expression "beyond the pale". Purely a synthesis on my part. After that, I was happy to hear about the comparatively numerous encounters with orcas on the sea ice. Previously I'd only heard about photographer Ponting's "close call" on the ice floes. I submit that they were only curious, having never seen humans before. It was clear from the narrative the killer's engaged in much "periscoping", hauling their upper bodies out of the water and "scoping out" these weird new things. Since there has never been a documented account of killer whales - in the wild -attacking a human being, I prefer to believe these early 20th century types assumed a nefarious motive on the whales' part where perhaps none existed. Now that we know far more about them I suspect the explorer's worries were overblown. In an orca's case, I'm pretty sure they didn't think these guys were seals. In other news, killer whales exist in Antarctica. That would make them pole-to-pole mammalian predators. If I was them, maybe I'd want to knock one of these boys into the water so I could echo-sound 'em with my primary sensor. Just my theory. The author addresses, but doesn't dwell on, the misery that is man-hauling. That was fine with me, I'd already been through it in previous books. For all that, caloric requirements, cold's effect on the human body, read "Race for the Pole" by Ranulph Fiennes. To really wallow in it, read Roland Huntford's stuff. When I started reading on this subject the pickings were pretty thin (early 90's). Now, I can't keep up with the books being written. Perhaps that's the Discovery Channel, and Nature Channel, March of the Penguins, etc ad infinitum. Now, what I want to see is an effort to recover the tracked vehicle that sank through the ice in the bay - it's only 600 feet deep. Bring that thing up. It seems that the Scott and Shackleton expeditions resulted in the first caterpillar-tracked vehicle ever invented. The author adds a few bits of new knowledge while thankfully avoiding as much as possible well-trodden ground. I was primed for more Scott-bashing; he avoids it though I sensed he wanted to. Read this simply to add to your knowledge, if such is your bent, about Antarctic exploration. To know everything that's been written about it requires this; synthesize your own opinions only after your own bookshelf is filled with this research, done for you at minimal cost, and for that, my hat is off to this author and the rest. BTW, if melting icecaps drowns our coastal cities, perhaps an ameliorating factor would be that Antarctica would become the most beautiful place in the world, like Alaska's inside passage, only a lot more of it. Nature always balances the books.

No comments about A Fabulous Kingdom: The Exploration of the Arctic.

5 comments about Bold Endeavors : Lessons from Polar and Space Exploration.

1. Bold Endeavors by Jack Stuster proved to be a real page-turner! Since childhood reading about adventures and explorers had been my favorite literature. In this book the persons behind these endeavors came to life. They were of flesh and blood and you as a reader took part of their everyday life, their hardships and personal problems. A thrilling experience. A lesson in the importance of relationships not only among people in isolation A lesson of use at job interviews, schools and even in families. I am thankful for an added knowledge and understanding of the many problems associated with these Endeavors. This book should be a "must" to all young people.



2. A very important contribution to our understanding of human behavior and to the advancement of space travel.



3. Dr Stuster has scored! He has captured the essence of a major field in human factors research....and made it pleasant and entertaining. Much like reading a great historical novel and learning history, except this is no novel! It is a welcome addition to my library.



4. Dr. Jack Stuster's "Bold Endeavors" distills a considerable amount of careful research into a book that is much more interesting than the usual dry study of this nature. By collecting data from a number of disparate sources, including Shackleton's 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Thor Heyerdahl's "Ra" voyage, years of military experience at bases in the Antarctic, and even undersea habitat experiments, Dr. Stuster has produced an exceptionally well thought out series of suggestions applicable not only to expeditions on Earth, but to future Moon settlements and Mars expeditions as well, assuming these ever happen (I would prefer to be more optimistic and I know Dr. Stuster is, but the current trend is not promising). In fact, this book has become required reading among the astronauts, who have recognized its value.

   The book is organized into chapters that deal with a particular facet of human behavior as it applies to expedition settings, such as personnel selection, personal space, group interaction and the like. Dr. Stuster carefully illustrates each chapter's point with well-selected vignettes from previous expedition experience. For example, he discusses in-depth the importance of leadership by comparing and contrasting the successes of Shackleton, Admiral Byrd, Thor Heyerdahl and others to a particularly good example of a poor leader, Lt. Charles Wilkes, the commander of the somewhat fraught 1838-1842 US Navy expedition, noted only for discovering imaginary territory and the endless conflicts between Wilkes and the unfortunate men under his command. It is worth noting that while Wilkes' first reaction to leadership was to hoist a distinguishing pennant and basically promote himself to acting Commodore as soon as he was out of sight of land, Shackleton, Byrd, and Heyerdahl, though obviously in charge, led their men in as egalitarian and considerate a manner as possible. Stuster also points out the importance of little things in keeping an expedition's morale high - shared meals, opportunities for privacy, a good viewing window on a space station.

   By including and discussing negative as well as positive expedition experiences Dr. Stuster has produced a very valuable book that will not only be of interest to our astronauts and persons planning expeditions here on Earth (read Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" for a recent example of bad expedition planning and personnel selection), but also to the general reader and even writers of fiction and science fiction dealing with small groups in dangerous situations.




5. This is an excellent book to understand the historic human challenges associated with histroic human polar exploration and what will be confronted by future humans bases on the Moon and Mars. The analogs of the past have much to teach us for the future if we take the time to understand the past experience and relate it to what humanity is now seeking to do with a lunar base in the next two decades. The book is exciting, entertaining, and insightful. For any person thinking about the challenges that will confront humans associated with the first permanent human lunar base, this is a must read.

No comments about Race to the South Pole (The Great Adventures).

1 comments about Hooray For Antarctica! (Our Amazing Continents).

1. This book is available as paperback, and I like that in a book! The photos are engaging and large, can do a walkthrough (talk about the photos) with toddler to 1st grade, but the text is more for ... grade 2 and up?
   
   I bought the whole series (all the continents) and I like them all - mostly for the photos and limited text. They'll be part of my 3 - 1/2 year-old's library for some time.

No comments about You Wouldn't Want to Be a Polar Explorer! (You Wouldn't Want To¿).

5 comments about Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica.

1. As a lover of all things glacial (with Antarctica holding a particularly special place in my heart), I was thrilled to come across this book in my local library. The book promised to deliver an enjoyable blend of history, science and culture in an entertaining travelogue format. Sadly, I soon found myself disappointed. By the time I was halfway through, I was struggling to make progress through what should have been an engaging read.
   
   Wheeler suffers for the most part from a lack of direction. Her "travels" consist of spur-of-the-moment helicopter rides to various locations on the ice that fail to be distinguishable after the fourth or fifth trip. Indeed, at times the book reads more like segments of a blog interspersed haphazardly with snippets of polar exploration history or the odd fact about glacial ice or penguins. This is further muddled with somewhat contrived musings on American culture (they're all depicted like they're ex-cowboys from Texas), or anomalous personal asides that try to be meaningful but come across as undeveloped filler material.
   
   Individual chapters have no particular structure or purpose, and so the finished product feels a bit like slogging along through the variations of the same thing: funny anecdote, helicopter ride, historical bit, description of another station's toilet facilities or the food they eat, personal aside. After several chapters of this jumpy, disjointed writing style, following the narrative stops being fun and feels more like work. This is unfortunate; Wheeler's writing isn't necessarily poor, but seems to suffer from a bad editing job and a lack of planning.
   
   The anecdotes are amusing, the history fascinating, but when it comes to the science and the researchers themselves Wheeler largely fails to make a case for their relevance. Instead, they come across as slightly eccentric guinea pigs with odd-but-quaint obsessions. Still, perhaps the book's greatest crime is that she largely fails to capture the beauty and utter wildness of this last frontier on Earth, and in the end I felt no closer to Antarctica than when I first picked up the book.
   
   ~ Jacquelyn Gill



2. This is a wonderful, beautiful book that takes you to a place that most of us can only dream of. The author has an intelligent and witty voice and can tell a good story well - there are some really memorable passages that stay with you long after you've put the book down.
   
   This is one of those rare travel books that make you feel like you've been there yourself, so much so that I'll never have to pollute Antarctica with my presence, at least...



3. After reading the thoroughly enjoyable Travels in a Thin Country, I figured on some entertaining travelogue action in Terra Incognita.
   
   Didn't happen.
   
   What ever happened to the adventurous Sara Wheeler of the Travels book? After slogging my way up to the middle of the book, my level of interest experienced a whiteout worthy of winter in Antarctica. I realized, as I laid the book momentarily aside, that the reading was getting pretty tedious. A bad sign, usually meaning a book is targeted for the pile heading for the used book store.
   
   Most of this book comes across as journalizing that never got the attention of a re-write before heading off to the publisher. The lack of cohesion that should be glueing this narrative together is palpable; this is a narrative devoid of any sustaining "pull". Terra Incognita is a muddle through a pastiche of the historical events of Antarctica although it is interspersed with some pretty decent reportage of current life at the bottom of the world.
   
   Still, there ain't much to redeem the tediousness of this book except Wheeler's wry British humour. But even that's not enough to keep one's attention from freezing to death. Wheeler is encamped with predomitably groups of scientists; as such, this isn't much of a travelogue but rather a logbook of how to hang out with the transients.
   
   I think Sara Wheeler is worthy of producing some real decent travel writing; Travels in a Thin Country bears testimony to this. Terra Incognita, however, is a big hiccup; hopefully she will produce a better read the next book that comes our way.
   
   
   Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts
   
   The Cloud Reckoner
   
   
   



4. Sara Wheeler relates her months in Antarctica with vivid discription that as an artist I can "see" her experience. Any one who loves to travel will take this trip with her.



5. I once had a discussion with a colleague who said, "I've never read a book that actually changed my life. I don't think books can do that." At the time, I disagreed, but couldn't articulate why.
   
   Well, this book has been the one that changed my life. It was the first book I read about Antarctica, and it immediately peaked my interest in traveling there. I didn't want to go as a tourist (which is possible, by the way, if you can afford a $6000 cruise....) I wanted to see a science station for myself.
   
   Well, it wasn't easy, but three years and SEVERAL job applications later, I've got a job at McMurdo Station (the US's main research station, and the largest one on the continent), and I leave for "the Ice" in two weeks. So "Thanks" Sara Wheeler! I owe you one!
   
   This book was a pleasure to read because the author so effortlessly blends her experience with the stories of the early explorers. As a fellow, modern, female traveler I could empathize with her desire to get away to an empty, vast place. And her social descriptions are just as interesting. Funny that she is well received everywhere except by her own countrymen at the British base.
   
   I definitely recommend it for anyone interested in Antarctica's past or present.

5 comments about Life on the Ice: No One Goes to Antarctica Alone.

1. I've been fascinated with Antarctica since hearing Vaughan Williams' Sympony No. 7 "Antarctica." This is the first book about the area that I've read. I found it fascinating right from page one. The author wastes no time getting to the ship and the voyage, and does a tremendous job describing the landscape.
   
   However, for a book about a personal journey to a place 99.9% of the readers will never visit, I found it downright stupid (sorry) that there are NO photographs of this foreign landscape! One of the very first scenes described by the author is how a group of penguins poked around his camera bag, so we know the author took many, many pictures...how about sharing a few of them?
   
   That's my only complaint, and the reason for 4 instead of 5 stars.



2. I've been looking for a book on Antarctica as I will soon be going there in a research support capacity. I was anxious to get an account of "what it is really like" being down there. Smith's accounts of dealing with the US program were especially interesting to me. His writing is humerous, insightful and thoroughly enjoyable to read. After reading this book, I think I have a decent sense of what to expect (his description of the pre-trip paperwork has already proven to be dead-on).
   
   For my purposes, this is by far the best book I've read on this subject.



3. Roff Smith writes in this book about more than one trip to Antarctica, and in each trip he moves around from base to base to explore the place. For this reason, the book feels a bit disjointed, but it is a great portrait of the place and the people who live and work there today and the support systems that help them from the outside. Smith is often funny, as well as awestruck. That seems to be the effect the place has on people.



4. How can you do a National Geographic book that covers multiple trips to Antarctica with no photographs and no maps? I also found Smith's condescending comments about the United States to be annoying. Yes, I can imagine the beaurocracy seemed pointless and tedious, but still. Not to acknowledge in the list of acknowledgments anything of value provided to him by the U.S. Antarticic Program seems petty. To read between the lines, I felt that Smith was saying that an Antarctica with no U.S. presence would be superior to any value that the U.S. has provided there.



5. I really enjoyed this book! What makes a book good for me is when I want to run out and read more about that particular subject. The author made it interesting for the lay person since he is not a scientist himself. I have to agree about the pictures though. I was so fascinated by what the author was describing but couldnt really visualize such a landscape. I found myself googling Antarctica pictures to get more of an idea.

No comments about Antarctica: Beyond The Southern Ocean.