Most accounts of Antarctica focus on the ice-cap that covers two thirds of the continent, the setting for the many heroic expeditions to the South Pole. This book is about the other Antarctica - the peninsula where for three months of the year the sun never sets, and where during the summer there is life in profusion, including many billions of tiny krill (of which there are more in one bay than there are stars in the known universe), penguins and other birds, seals, lichens and simple plants. David Campbell spent three summers in Antarctica, and his book is at once a celebration of the panoply of life during the Antarctic summer and a lament for a place that has already been despoiled by human intruders and is under threat of further depredations. Above all, it is a portrait of a land of extraordinary beauty, alienness and fecundity, and of its wildlife.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By P.Smith
Format:Paperback
I actually read this whilst on an Antarctic cruise which helped me take in the scientific content which contained a lot of terms that were quite unknown to me.However,this is a beautifully written book: poetic and lyrical, that is easy to read once you accept that there's a lot you are going to want to look up afterwards. It gives you loads of fascinating facts about the animals and flora of this amazing continent plus insights on working there. If only all "informative " books could be written so well!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars
10 reviews
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but the author isn't big on introspection
1 Jun 2003
By Scott FS
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Since I've visited Antarctica, and enjoyed its haunting, indifferent beauty as well as the spectacular wildlife, I was interested in reading an account of someone who had lived, studied, and conducted research there.
Campbell's strength is writing about the science, the wildlife, the extremes of weather and of living in a difficult place. His weakness is his utter lack of self-analysis. He berates the tourists who come to this place (does he think he owns the Antarctic area himself?), and laments the loss of microscopic and macroscopic life that is lost when the loutish tourist dares step on the fragile landscape, yet he is blissfully unaware of the far greater damage he does to the ecosystem when he powers up the hills to work on the weatherstation, and when he pulls up marine creatures and watches them burst, dying, under his microscope.
I guess anything is fair game when done under the guise of 'science', but woe be to the ordinary person who dares to learn about one of the farthest reaches of the planet.
39 of 48 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not About Antarctica
1 Oct 2003
By John C. Brewer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This was a disappointing read, mainly because it isn't about Antarctica, but about King George Island. Like writing a book about North America from research conducted on Cuba. Yes, Cuba is part of North America, but... If you want information on Antarctica, look elsewhere. Why he named it "Crystal Desert" is beyond me because there is NOTHING on the ice cap. Secondly, Campbell, who may or may not be a competent biologist, spends far to much time grinding his environmental axe. For some reason, he thinks he and other academicians are the only people with the right to go to Antarctica, making numerous disparaging comments about tourism throughout the text. Moreover, he seems to have a major problem with males - be they human, sperm whale, or elephant seal, espousing traits such as "machismo" and other derogatory human emotions to these animals simply because they are larger than the females. And finally, he spends the entire final third of the book expounding on the horrors of the seal and whale hunts that decimated the populations of these magnificant animals. Unfortunate, definately. But the book is supposed to be about Antarctica - not a treatise on over-sealing and over-whaling by people from another period in time. It does have some good descriptions of Admiralty Bay on King George Island - mainly from a biological perspective, but overall, it was a waste of time.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good (not great) read on Antarctica if you are going there.
18 Nov 2006
By Brian
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
There may be a growing body of literature on Antarctica, but let's face it: about 80% of it is about Amundsen, Scott, or Shackleton. That's fine, but if you're reading in preparation for a trip to Antarctica, you want more. Campbell's book is a very readable albeit superficial overview of the wildlife and physical landscape you're likely to encounter. I agree with other reviewers that Campbell comes across as stuck-up, and I do take exception to his disparaging of tourists, since my experience has been that Antarctic tourists tend to be very environmentally respectful. I recommend the book because its insights and information did enhance my enjoyment of Antarctica and the South Shetlands.
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4.2 out of 5 stars
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