the_lirazel reviewed Icebound by Andrea Pitzer
Review of 'Icebound' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I received a free copy in a giveaway this book!
A meticulously researched if somewhat dry account of one of the earliest experiences of sub-arctic Europeans trying to explore--and survive--in polar regions. If you want a blow-by-blow of sea voyages and days trying to survive in extreme conditions, this book is exactly what you're looking for.. If you're looking for something psychologically rich, this isn't the book for you.
The first third of the book was the background of the original voyages and as such wasn't of much interest to me. I don't really care to read day-by-day accounts of setting up and then going on a sea voyage. Pitzer did do a good job of grounding the entire expedition in the context of the emergence of the Dutch Republic, but I found the first third slow going.
Finally in the second third we reached the actually ship-getting-bound-in-the-ice of the …
I received a free copy in a giveaway this book!
A meticulously researched if somewhat dry account of one of the earliest experiences of sub-arctic Europeans trying to explore--and survive--in polar regions. If you want a blow-by-blow of sea voyages and days trying to survive in extreme conditions, this book is exactly what you're looking for.. If you're looking for something psychologically rich, this isn't the book for you.
The first third of the book was the background of the original voyages and as such wasn't of much interest to me. I don't really care to read day-by-day accounts of setting up and then going on a sea voyage. Pitzer did do a good job of grounding the entire expedition in the context of the emergence of the Dutch Republic, but I found the first third slow going.
Finally in the second third we reached the actually ship-getting-bound-in-the-ice of the title and the ensuing survivalist stuff and things picked up. We had the usual suspects threatening the survival of the crew (extreme temperatures, scurvy, polar bears--so many polar bears!--malnutrition, the crew's total and complete lack of understanding of polar conditions). The last third was about the journey in two small rowboats hundreds of miles through polar seas back to safety. Perilous stuff.
The reason I found the book so dry, though, is because unlike most polar exploration/surviving-in-extreme-temperatures books I've read, this one doesn't even really try to communicate the emotional cost of the adventure. We'll get sentences like, "and then these scurvy-ridden men who hadn't eaten in three days had to drag their whole ship hundreds of yards across ice, and it was harrowing," and...that's it. I'm into this genre for the psychological stuff, and that was almost entirely missing here.
However, I both understand and respect why it wasn't present. Unlike all the Victorian/Edwardian primary sources for most polar exploration books, the sources here were all Renaissance-era and decidedly less emotional. All that "madhouse at the end of the world" stuff just isn't present in the original sources and I respect that Pitzer didn't try to invent it. She kept strictly to what the sources actually told us, so the dryness of the book wasn't Pitzer's fault.
But because this book wasn't what I wanted in a polar exploration story, if the book had been much longer, I might have struggled to finish it. As it was, the book was short enough and readable enough that it was an easy read. And a shout-out to whoever agreed to include so many maps. They were so helpful!
[As an aside, what is it with men and violently reacting to every new thing they encounter? They didn't have to attack every single polar bear they ever saw! They didn't have to try to kill walruses they weren't even going to eat! What is their deal?]
