Rating: 
Summary: Karluk or Endurance ?
Review: Great read for any artic Exploration or adventure reader. Comparison to Endurance and the Shackleton story are incredibly interesting. They ocurred at the same time frame, at opposite ends of the Globe. The contrast in leadership between the 2 leaders, or lack there of, is gripping.
Rating: 
Summary: You gotta read this book!
Review: I cannot think of a better way to survive a summer heat wave than by reading this book. By the time you're halfway through it, you will be pulling a wool blanket over you and having a cup of hot chocolate. It is that good.Like Shackelton's doom voyage at the South Pole, this is a story of courage, survival and leadership as a polar expedition gets trap in the ice of the Artic Sea north of Alaska. It is a story of hero's and villains, of courage and cowardice, but most of all it is a story of leadership. It is the year 1913 and H.M.C.S. Karluk embarks on one of the last voyages of discovery in the Artic Ocean. The ship becomes trapped in the ice and the expedition's leader, Vilhjalmur Stefansson abandons the ship, and it's crew and the members of the expedition. The rest of the story is a tale of survival as the ship's captain Robert Bartlett leads his men against impossible odds to survive the artic winter. In an age when loyalty wanes, and everyone is looking after their own interest, this is a story of how real leaders lead. The contrast between the two leaders could not be more apparent: Stefhansson who can only think of his own fame and Bartlett who thinks of nothing but his crew. You gotta read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Tue Survival Story - well told!
Review: I haven't read a book from cover to cover in years. I picked this one up and could not put it down. The other reviews provide a nice summary of the story, so I won't repeat them, but I just wanted to "vote" here to give this my TOP rating. The haunting, cold, survival story has the added dimension that it is a true story - assembled from the diaries and interviews of the actual people who this happened to. This would make for a wonderful PBS movie, or a mini-series
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Tue Survival Story - well told!
Review: I haven't read a book from cover to cover in years. I picked this one up and could not put it down. The other reviews provide a nice summary of the story, so I won't repeat them, but I just wanted to "vote" here to give this my TOP rating. The haunting, cold, survival story has the added dimension that it is a true story - assembled from the diaries and interviews of the actual people who this happened to. This would make for a wonderful PBS movie, or a mini-series
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Tue Survival Story - well told!
Review: I haven't ready a book from cover to cover in years. I picked this one up and could not put it down. The haunting, cold, survival story has the added dimension that is is a true story - assembled from the diaries and interviews of the actual people who this happened to. This would make for a wonderful PBS movie, or a mini-series
Rating:
Summary: Classic adventure tale!
Review: I just finished reading Jennifer Niven's new book, Ada Blackjack, and loved it so much I had to pick up her first one. I read both books in one week, which is a record for me! But I was absolutely gripped from start to finish of each. Ms. Niven has a way with words-- and with the telling of true-life adventure stories. Inspiring!
Rating: 
Summary: Can't finish it... innacurate information.
Review: I love polar exploration literature. But when I read on page 58 that the men aboard the Karluk were disheartened by the story of George Washington DeLong's expedition in 1879, and how the crew of the Jeannette had all perished (all 13 of them!!!) Anyone who knows their polar exploration literature knows very well that quite a few of the Jeannette's crew actually survived in one of the most amazing "triumph of the human spirit" stories in polar history. The entire world was shocked when they turned up alive in Siberia well after they'd been given up for dead. To misrepresent this story of survival as a doomed expedition from which no one survived as a way to explain the mounting dread in the Karluk's men ruined this book for me. What else escaped the fact-checkers? I am stopping at page 60, and picking up a copy of "The Log of Bob Bartlett" instead. Also, how can you have a book on arctic exploration without a map of the ship's route!???!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! No other Non-Fiction work like it!
Review: I was mesmerized from the first page. Jennifer Niven's narration and superior writing skills have brought this piece of history alive in this fantastic book. I highly recommend it. I am anxiously looking forward to her sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Survival in the arctic - 1914 style.
Review: Jennifer Niven offers an extraordinary, initimate account of this arctic tragedy. It dispels many of the heroic myths surrounding Stefanson and resurrects the battered reputation of Bob Bartlett, skipper of the Karluk, who was given such an impossible task.
Exhaustively researched, using firsthand accounts and memoirs, one is transported to the frosty wilderness of Wrangel Island in a detailed account that will satisfy finicky history buffs.
At times, a little TOO much day-to-day detail for me, it nevertheless delivers a fabulous, engaging read.
Rating:
Summary: An Impressive Story of the Will to Survive
Review: On June 17, 1913, the Canadian Arctic Expedition contingent headed by Vilhajalmur Stefansson on board the ship "Karluk" embarked on its mission to find an unknown continent thought to lie somewhere in the unexplored region between Alaska and the North Pole. In mid-August the "Karluk" amid increasingly worsening weather conditions became trapped in the Arctic ice floe and drifted helplessly with the winds and currents. Eventually Stefansson decided to leave the ship and with part of the crew and Eskimo guides work his way toward land. Under the command of Captain Robert Bartlett, the "Karluk" and her remaining crew continued to drift north and west until becomming hopelessly ice bound near Wangel Island north of Siberia. Here the ship was destroyed and sunk by the crush of ice leaving Bartlett and his crew stranded in the frozen wilderness. While the crew struggled for existence at their base camps, Bartlett, the Ice Master, undertook an incredible 700 mile trek through the icy wilderness of Siberia to seek rescue. Jennifer Niven has used diaries, letters, and interviews with survivors and descendants to construct the remarkable details of the crew's fight to live and Bartlett's amazing journey. The events depicted in this book are all the more remarkable because they are true. The ability to cope with suffering, the perseverance in the face of overwhelming hardship, the manifestations of human strengths and weaknesses under pressure, and the overpowering will to live shown by Bartlett and his crew are almost beyond belief. The story ebbs and flows with the fate of the men. Like their unwanted repetitious and monotonous existence, the narration sometimes tends to become somewhat tedous. However, those who like true stories of exploration, adventure and survival will savor this book.
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