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eljaspero's review
3.0
An okay, but not quite even good, polar history. Because the evidence on Barents and his voyages is so very fragmentary, the author pads the narrative with innumerable tangents on things that are also cold, or dangerous, or also happened really far north. A leaner, more focused, work would have been a more honest, and more satisfying, read.
flholst's review
3.0
A potentially great story not very well told. I was particularly puzzled by the choice of consistently using the name Nova Zembla, rather than what I thought was the much more established Novaya Zemlya. An explanation of the choice would at least be helpful.
boggremlin's review
4.0
Excellent narrative nonfiction of Danish explorer William Barents’ three voyages attempting to discover an Arctic route to China (in the 1500s, there was a theory that the Arctic was a warm, open sea), culminating in a winter iced in off the coast of Nova Zembla. Includes really interesting contextual notes about how this voyage/disaster differed from other notable polar expeditions and trials.
bupdaddy's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't know anything about Willem Barentsz before reading this book, including that his name is spelled differently than the sea named for him.
The book takes a while to get going, and often fills in the paucity of the historical record by talking about different expeditions in different centuries instead.
But man, when they get stuck in polar night for several months, with polar bears a real and curious threat, who sometimes don't even back down when they get shot, you got yourself a barn burner. Can they get their ship out in the spring, or will the ice crush the hull? Where are they going to find wood to burn to keep their shelter a livable frigid temperature? If they can't free the ship, are they going to be crazy enough to try to return in open boats? Will the polar bears ever relent?
I added this to my 'our dying planet' bookshelf because it has the obligatory downer at the end reminding us that Barentsz' quixotic (and I realize that quixotic is anachronistic for a set of voyages in the 1590's) pursuit of a fabled warm polar sea is headed toward reality.
I learned a lot.
The book takes a while to get going, and often fills in the paucity of the historical record by talking about different expeditions in different centuries instead.
But man, when they get stuck in polar night for several months, with polar bears a real and curious threat, who sometimes don't even back down when they get shot, you got yourself a barn burner. Can they get their ship out in the spring, or will the ice crush the hull? Where are they going to find wood to burn to keep their shelter a livable frigid temperature? If they can't free the ship, are they going to be crazy enough to try to return in open boats? Will the polar bears ever relent?
I added this to my 'our dying planet' bookshelf because it has the obligatory downer at the end reminding us that Barentsz' quixotic (and I realize that quixotic is anachronistic for a set of voyages in the 1590's) pursuit of a fabled warm polar sea is headed toward reality.
I learned a lot.
colorfulleo92's review
4.0
A book about a Polar explorer at its best. I'm not in good place to write a better review at the moment
lukejkelly's review against another edition
4.0
A very intriguing tale with lots of meaty historical detail. Would have loved a bit more characterisation around our central protagonists, but understandably difficult given the time period. Definitely a worthwhile read for any arctic nut.
jo_kershaw's review
3.75
This is an engaging and at times harrowing story of exploration and survival - or failure to survive in the 16th Century High Arctic.
I would have liked a bit more clarity about what's drawn directly from first hand sources, and what's the author's slightly novelistic imagining (she does this well, plausibly and vividly - but it would be nice to know what the basis for it is). Also, the references to the harm of colonialism didn't feel well embedded in the narrative. Clearly there is a strong link between the age of exploration and colonisation - and the Dutch were certainly colonisers elsewhere - but given Barents was looking for a trade route, not to find colonies, the Dutch didn't in fact colonise the High Arctic, and Barents and co ended up spending most of their time trying not to starve to death or get eaten by polar bears, if either felt like it should have been a lot bigger and more in depth, or left out. Similarly, yes, Western sailors and explorers had a terrible impact on the animal and bird population, for no strong reason, but aside from a couple of early and misguided attempts to catch polar bears, they mostly seem to have been killing for food (which as the author rightly noted was all that stopped all of them dying of scurvy), or trying to stop the polar bears eating them.
I would have liked a bit more clarity about what's drawn directly from first hand sources, and what's the author's slightly novelistic imagining (she does this well, plausibly and vividly - but it would be nice to know what the basis for it is). Also, the references to the harm of colonialism didn't feel well embedded in the narrative. Clearly there is a strong link between the age of exploration and colonisation - and the Dutch were certainly colonisers elsewhere - but given Barents was looking for a trade route, not to find colonies, the Dutch didn't in fact colonise the High Arctic, and Barents and co ended up spending most of their time trying not to starve to death or get eaten by polar bears, if either felt like it should have been a lot bigger and more in depth, or left out. Similarly, yes, Western sailors and explorers had a terrible impact on the animal and bird population, for no strong reason, but aside from a couple of early and misguided attempts to catch polar bears, they mostly seem to have been killing for food (which as the author rightly noted was all that stopped all of them dying of scurvy), or trying to stop the polar bears eating them.