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: Great. Reads like fiction but it happened
Review: In 1913, highly regarded Vilhjalmur Stefansson organizes a trip to the Arctic to prove his theory that a great continent lies beneath the ice. The HMCS Karluck left British Columbia only to be trapped in a monster block of ice. When the ice finally ripped open the hull, a desperate Captain Bartlett trekked across the ice cap seeking help for his endangered crew. Over a year after they left Canada, Bartlett returned with a whaling ship to rescue the few survivors of the ill-fated journey. THE ICE MASTER is an incredible true adventure work that is more exciting than most epic fiction. Jennifer Niven uses accounts and diaries and even an interview of the remaining survivor to draw a vivid picture of what happened. The story almost seems fictional it so well developed although there are moments when it slows down (as real life normally does). This non-fiction book is a great telling of a tragic real life adventure. Harriet Klausner
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.
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