In the Kingdom of Ice ISBN: 9781780745268
Length: 17 hours and 30 minutes
by Hampton Sides
Format: Audio
Published by Random House Audio on February 5, 2015
Genres: History, Polar Regions
Pages: 999
Beth Fish Reads Source: bought
Goodreads
In 1879 the USS Jeanette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds and a frenzy of publicity. The ship and its crew, captained by the heroic George De Long, were heading for glory and the last unmapped area of the globe: the North Pole. But it was not long before the Jeanette was trapped in crushing pack ice. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew found themselves marooned a thousand miles north of Siberia with only the barest supplies, facing a seemingly impossible trek across the endless ice. Battling everything from snow blindness and polar bears to ferocious storms and frosty labyrinths, the expedition battled madness and starvation as they desperately strove for survival.
With twists and turns worthy of a thriller, In the Kingdom of Ice is a spellbinding tale of heroism and determination in the most unforgiving territory on Earth.
I have only been listening to audiobooks for a little under a year, but my first thought when I finally finished was dammmn this is one long audiobook. I have only listened to audiobooks that were around the 8-hour mark. I thought,t ALL audiobooks was around 8 hours, but I was mistaken.
This tells of a boat and some men trying to get to the North Pole. At that time no one had reached the North Pole, and some people live for extreme adventures. I bet the men who went there didn’t count on getting stuck, but they did. There were some fucked up ideas sus as once they got past the ice, they would reach open polar seas. The did not imagine that it was all ice. They became trapped in the ice for a whopping two years before their boat the Jeanette was crushed and sunk. They then realized that no one was coming from them so they set out on a long ass hike for open water to get to Siberia so they could get help. The map was so wrong that when they DID reach Siberia, they got lost and had to hike a long ass way to get actual help.
I also wish someone had told me not to eat while listening to this. The first time I felt my tummy churn was when it was described in great detail of what happens when one gets syphilis. I was like Ewwww OMG. I was eating a Taco Bell power veggie bowl, and I started gagging, and that was the end of THAT meal. The second time I was eating a veggie burger and the dudes were starving, so they decided to eat…the sled dogs, and I was grossed out for reals after that, so I stopped listening at meal times after that.
As for the narration, it took a while to get used to the narrator’s accent, but after I did, I kinda wish that the narrator had shown some more emotion. Even when he was talking about eating the sled dogs, his voice conveyed no feeling whatsoever. I know In the Kingdom of Ice is a nonfiction book but there could still be some emotion expressed.
Aside from the narrator, this was a fascinating book. We get to see precisely what happened AND the author did a fantastic job of explaining the cultures that the men encountered along the way. I especially liked those parts of the book. I felt as if the customs were explained without TOO much of Western bias. That is important to me as I want to know what the traditions are without the person explaining and hinting that the west is SO much better when it is not. The customs are different is all. And by telling only the FACTS without judgment makes me love this book even more!
