meamck's review against another edition
5.0
I read this book on a complete whim. I had never read anything written by Pierre Berton or written about Arctic exploration until I brought this gem home. I could not put it down, once I finished it I turned I went back to Page One and read the whole thing again. I couldn't recommend this more wholeheartedly!
madswag27's review against another edition
5.0
Thanks to my grandparents' neighbour for hearing that I was into the Franklin expedition and derailing the rest of my summer holiday by giving me this book. Best thing I've read all year. This takes a rough century and details every expedition to the arctic, one after another in epic detail, and let me tell you it is sheer gripping madness. I officially feel like I've reached "intermediate" level nerdery in this topic; I now know ALL THE GUYS. It sketches out the character of every explorer in turn, and you get the sense here better than anywhere else how rarely any of all these men learned from their mistakes... 19th century arctic exploration: half tragedy, half shitshow. Berton does an awesome job, however, of putting the Inuit back into the picture and highlighting their extensive role in basically keeping all these expeditions alive. (The ones that, uh, survived.) I will say how greatly I admire what these Victorian men set out to do and their sheer resolution in doing so, but honestly the most memorable, significant, far-reaching character in this whole epic saga has got to be one lone woman, and I think that's very cool. Let me just say, from the bottom of my heart, Lady Jane Franklin, you're a goddamn hero.
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