shaykeretz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
heatherbermingham's review against another edition
4.0
Without getting into spoilers too much, I liked the history more than the present day story, but boy, what an amazing story of survival. Some really incredible stuff.
blevins's review against another edition
4.0
Mitchell Zuckoff's Frozen in Time is often riveting with suspense, tension and brutal descriptions of what it was like to try to survive crash landing in the icy tundra of Greenland during WW2 for some unlucky soldiers. The best parts of the book are the sections set in the past as fellow soldiers desperately try to get food to the men and ultimately rescue them. The less successful sections of the book are the ones set in the current as Zuckoff follows an attempt to get the crashed planes & bodies of the dead airmen out of the 40 foot layer of ice. Some of that is interesting but much of that blends together and becomes repetitive. Four stars for the gripping, hard to believe trauma, resiliency and self-sacrifice of the men. I want no part of being stuck on Greenland's ice cap with little supplies and no shelter.
ganitsirk's review against another edition
5.0
I only write reviews when a book was crazy good or crazy bad, and this one was crazy good! So interesting - I had NO idea we had any sort of Greenland presence during WWII, let alone any of the crashes and rescue attempts. I was initially skeptical about it being in 2 time periods, but Zuckoff blended them together well and didn't bounce back and forth too quickly. It was easy to follow and I never found myself going "Wait, when is this?" Both stories were wonderfully told, going into great detail without getting tedious or esoteric. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone and everyone.
lazygal's review against another edition
5.0
For some reason I'm a sucker for these types of stories: Resolute, The Impossible Rescue and Lost in Shangri-La were all recent great reads. Add to that the fact that Zuckoff wrote Shangri-La and I just knew this would be a 5-star. So happy I wasn't wrong.
The heroism involved in the rescues is only matched by the will-to-live shown by the ones stranded on the ice. Even though you know what's going to happen (much as you do when you read a book about the Titanic or a biography) there's a sense of excitement and nervousness about whether or not it will work. As those stranded wait out their days freezing, with frostbitten toes and limbs, in the dark and diminishing food supplies, readers will wonder whether they, too, could survive (or would they give up early on and wander out into the cold to freeze to death). Interspersing the events with a modern search for the remains of three pilots and the downed planes gives us the opportunity to take a step back before diving back in to the events of World War II.
The heroism involved in the rescues is only matched by the will-to-live shown by the ones stranded on the ice. Even though you know what's going to happen (much as you do when you read a book about the Titanic or a biography) there's a sense of excitement and nervousness about whether or not it will work. As those stranded wait out their days freezing, with frostbitten toes and limbs, in the dark and diminishing food supplies, readers will wonder whether they, too, could survive (or would they give up early on and wander out into the cold to freeze to death). Interspersing the events with a modern search for the remains of three pilots and the downed planes gives us the opportunity to take a step back before diving back in to the events of World War II.
bobf2d33's review against another edition
3.0
This book has two different parts. First, it covers a plane crash in Greenland during WWII and the rescue operation. Second, it moves to recent times as a team explores in Greenland to find the crash wreckage. First part is gripping. Second, not very interesting.
sheltzer's review against another edition
5.0
This book recounted an amazing story of a Cargo plane crash in 1942, the B-17 which crashed while searching for the first wreckage and the heroic efforts of the Coast Guard to save the crew of the C-53 and the B-17. Those efforts were rewarded with the rescue of several of the men... and the crash of a Grumman Duck and 3 heroic men with it. Mitchell Zuckoff took part in a 2012 expedition which located the Duck on the Greenland ice cap.
I thought that the WWII parts were absolutely fantastic recounting what it was like for 9 men to be stuck in the wreckage of the bomber suffering from varying degrees of frostbite and hypothermia. It wasn't known until the end how many of them were saved by the rescuers which made it a gripping tale.
I also found the modern day search fascinating. The raw force of nature in places such as Greenland is awesome. And modern technology does nothing to help it. The expedition was at the mercy of the ice and storms.
I look forward to further updates as (hopefully) the Grumman Duck is recovered and the remains of three brave men are repatriated and laid to rest.
I thought that the WWII parts were absolutely fantastic recounting what it was like for 9 men to be stuck in the wreckage of the bomber suffering from varying degrees of frostbite and hypothermia. It wasn't known until the end how many of them were saved by the rescuers which made it a gripping tale.
I also found the modern day search fascinating. The raw force of nature in places such as Greenland is awesome. And modern technology does nothing to help it. The expedition was at the mercy of the ice and storms.
I look forward to further updates as (hopefully) the Grumman Duck is recovered and the remains of three brave men are repatriated and laid to rest.