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The Ice Master
 
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The Ice Master (Paperback)

by Jennifer Niven (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 456 pages
  • Publisher: Pan Books; New edition edition (9 Nov 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330391232
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330391238
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 365,015 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #94 in  Books > History > Maritime History > Shipwrecks

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Eighty-five years after a famous, but ill-equipped, Canadian Arctic expedition of 1913 had sacrificed 16 lives, some artefacts appeared on an Internet auction site. They had originated at a "ghost camp" discovered i n 1924 where four of the expedition's 28 men, one woman and two children had perished. Jennifer Niven has completed the unfulfilled mission of survivor William McKinlay to produce a "more honest and revealing account" of the wreck of the Karluk and its aftermath.

The explorers became split into several dispersed groups living "in the shadow of death". Their simultaneous grim and gruesome experiences are interwoven in this minutely detailed and atmospheric retelling, created by combining and comparing separate first-hand accounts and other sources. The characters are vividly recreated, from the expedition's self-interested leader, whom McKinlay named "a consummate liar and cheat", to the heroic ship's master who struggled over 700 miles to organise a rescue. Supplemented by haunting and fascinating photographs, The Ice Master can be harrowing and touching. It makes exciting and compulsive reading. This is a momentous story of the Arctic; of adventure, misadventure and the heights of human endurance. But it is also a story of human failings and the waste of young lives, as poignant now as it was when it was big news in 1914. --Karen Tiley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"For more than 30 years I have been reading polar survival stories, but none so gripping and meticulously based on the written accounts of the survivors as The Ice Master." Ranulph Fiennes. Daily Mail "A powerful narrative" The Independent "Riveting and meticulously researched" Sunday Telegraph "Niven's remarkable epic is something special...an astonishing read." Publishing News "With so much repetitive polar stuff on the market, it is a relief to come across something fresh." Literary Review

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The Ice Master
93% buy the item featured on this page:
The Ice Master 4.3 out of 5 stars (13)
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A story to rival Shackleton's "Endurance" expedition, 3 Feb 2003
By Otto99 "M.A.R.Jones" (Warwickshire) - See all my reviews
  
The story of the "Karluk" expedition of 1913-14 is an undeservedly obscure one, and this book should more than amply serve to make amends.

Becoming marooned in a ship, frozen into the treachorous Arctic icepack, and then winding up on a desolate, wind-beaten island, was at that time the equivalent of being stranded on the Moon. Jennifer Niven has written a wonderfully detailed but emminently readable account, based on the diaries and papers of the expedition members, and following each of them in their quest to return safely to civilisation. Deadly ice conditions, awful weather, grim starvation and devisive in-fighting all do their best to finish them off, making this a remarkable tale of survival against extremes.

I've read a good many accounts of various expeditions, and this has shot to the top of the list with the best of them. I can't wait to read it again.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An unbelievable story, beautifully written., 28 Feb 2002
By A Customer
I was tied to this book from the first word. Unlike other arctic and antarctic accounts, this book get's straignt to the flesh and bones of the matter, quite literally. The characters are beautifully descibed, their plights were emotional to share in.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A harrowing read, 9 Dec 2001
This happened.
Real people, for whatever reason, were put in a position of total dependency on each other and in conditions of appalling cold, wind and sea ice.
For me the most harrowing aspect of the whole, sorry story was not the awful weather that they had to endure - not the outward stresses that they were able to overcome, but the way in which they were not able to live and work together. None of them interacted much after they had returned to 'normal' life -- "they had nothing in common". Let us just think about that: they had just endured months of the most appalling risk, starvation and illness together in an inhospitable environment and yet, truly, they had nothing in common.
A disturbing read, which obsessed me for a long time afterwards.
Extremely competently researched, and, but for a few factual and editing slips, very well written. Anyone who can relate a tale the essence of which is absolute grinding repetitiveness, whether it be travelling across sea-ice, or eating the same meal day in, day out, without boring they reader stiff (and Jennifer Niven achieved this for me), deserves great praise.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A tale of endurance and human fortitude
I read this story and was spellbound as it revealed the tragedy and the triumph of the doomed 1913 expedition. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. D. F. Pearson

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping stuff
I found this book completely compelling - felt I was an eye witness to their daily anguish and trials. Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars There is a way out but how many will make it.
very complicated story with so many personality threads to follow all at the same time. The story is compelling, just when you thought that things could not get worse then... Read more
Published on 17 Jul 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars The true story of a doomed ship's battle with the Arctic
In 1913 the noted explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson led the Canadian Arctic Expedition north in search of a new land. Read more
Published on 7 May 2002 by R. P. Davies

4.0 out of 5 stars Read and shiver!
Forget complaints about the writing this is a brilliant story well told and which gives genuine insights into what sort of hell the members of this expedition went thru... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2002 by steve@callee.freeserve.co.uk

2.0 out of 5 stars well researched, poorly written
This book has all the makings of a fascinating and well researched read. I came away from it, however, feeling that the author had missed an opportunity and certainly had not... Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2002 by J C Nolan

4.0 out of 5 stars Wrap up warm as the frost bite jumps off the pages.
An excellent account of what could have been a long drawn out affair. You are left with real feelings for the men who were left adrift in the polar ice. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2002 by Mr. Kevin W. Boardman

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping read, highly recommended
Gripping account of an Arctic expedition that went wrong. The details of the account are taken from diaries and notes kept by the survivors. Read more
Published on 4 Dec 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Truely inspired, held my attention to the very end
A truely inspired adaptation of the events that occured on the HMCS Karluk,Shipwreck Camp and Wrangel and Herald Islands in 1913-14. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars A harrowing yet uplifting tale of human suffering and braver
The Ice Master is a harrowing tale of a dooomed expedition to the icy wastes of the Arctic Circle. It speaks of a bygone age, but still manages to convey a sense of time and... Read more
Published on 21 Dec 2000 by jmckenna@thb.scot.nhs.uk

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