Antarctic Odyssey: In the Footsteps of the South Polar Explorers FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Collier's crystalline account of his several recent trips to the bottom of the world aboard scientific research ships--and once on a converted Russian icebreaker--is a wondrous, serendipitous adventure. A regular contributor to National Geographic, Collier set out to retrace portions of the historic journeys of pioneering polar explorers such as Roald Amundsen, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott and James Ross. He visited remote, gale-racked Elephant Island, where Shackleton, after abandoning his ice-jammed ship Endurance, spent 105 days marooned with his men in 1915. The story of Shackleton's amazing escape in an Antarctic winter, and his return to rescue his crew, as re-created by Collier, is a remarkable odyssey of stamina, courage and faith in the face of hopeless odds. He also follows the tragic journey of Scott, who perished with his men in 1912 on his return from the South Pole after discovering that Amundsen had beaten them there. Collier's wife, Patricia, who accompanied him on his Antarctic treks, took the stunning color photographs, complementing his eloquent narrative with images of the continent's eerie beauty, incandescent blue icebergs and platoons of indomitable penguins. Drawing freely from the polar explorers' diaries to gauge his own adventures against theirs, Collier sees Antarctica as a metaphor for the brevity and frailty of human life on the planet. While David Campbell's The Crystal Desert (1992) offers a more thorough tour of Antarctica's biology and ecosystems, the Colliers' effort provides an eloquently expressed romantic view of the continent and of the human encounter with it. 50,000 first printing. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Collier, a regular contributor to National Geographic, has visited Antarctica seven times on various scientific research vessels. This book is a composite of these trips, beautifully illustrated with color photographs by his wife, Patricia. Even with modern-day equipment, it is extremely difficult to navigate the more remote islands of the Antarctic and even more dangerous to go ashore owing to terrible weather conditions. Collier does a wonderful job of describing the raw beauty of the continent, with its huge glaciers and vast bird populations. Penguins and penguin behavior are explained, as are the mating habits of other wildlife, especially albatrosses, leopard seals, and skua gulls. The author relates his voyage to those made by past polar explorers such as Shackleton, Ross, Scott, Campbell, and Mawson. A beautiful book for public libraries.--John Kenny, San Francisco P.L. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
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