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A review by bupdaddy
Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Andrea Pitzer
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.