MARCH 2023 - AudioFile
Will Damron sweeps listeners onto the Arctic ice with the shipwrecked crew of the Canadian KARLUK. The beautiful and cruel freezing-cold world has slim margins for survival. The emotional roller-coaster ride that Damron expertly recounts ranges from a joyful Christmas feast and high-spirited Olympic games on the ice to the grueling hardship of sled treks to find land. Starvation is a constant threat. The astonishing fecklessness of expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who abandons the crew early on, is clearly heard. Damron's subtle pacing manages the tension perfectly as toes are lost to frostbite and people die. But the gritty captain, Bob Bartlett, and Inuit hunter Kataktovik travel hundreds of miles to Alaska to orchestrate a rescue. A.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
09/26/2022
Journalist Levy (Labyrinth of Ice) delivers a thrilling account of Canada’s first “foray into Arctic exploration,” the ill-fated voyage of the steam-powered brigantine Karluk in 1913. Under the command of Capt. Bob Bartlett, the Karluk was the principal ship of the 1913–1916 Canadian Arctic Expedition led by explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Shortly after setting sail in June, it became clear to Bartlett that the Karluk had been improperly chosen and outfitted for the journey: the engine periodically gave out and essential supplies had been loaded onto her sister ships. By early August, the Karluk was completely icebound. Soon thereafter, expedition leader Stefansson headed off with five men to hunt caribou and never returned. (He reached safety, but decided to continue the expedition rather than try to rescue the Karluk.) In January, “a great jagged fang of ice” pierced the ship’s hull and it sank. Hoping to find game, driftwood for fuel, and a place to shelter until the summer, the survivors made a dash across the ice pack to Wrangel Island. From there, Bartlett and an Inuit hunter set out on a 700-mile trek seeking help; in September, the remaining 12 survivors (out of 25 crewmembers left behind by Stefansson) were rescued. Full of evocative descriptions, harrowing action scenes, and incisive character sketches, this is a worthy addition to the literature of Arctic exploration. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
"Levy writes beautifully about the cold. His Arctic is fearsome and sublime, his ice a living thing. His passion for this alien landscape is infectious — something to appreciate from underneath a pile of blankets while wearing very warm socks." —New York Times Book Review
“The gripping account of a fatal polar adventure. Hair-raising suffering and heroism in the Arctic.” —Kirkus Reviews
"Full of evocative descriptions, harrowing action scenes, and incisive character sketches, this is a worthy addition to the literature of Arctic exploration." —Publishers Weekly
“[R]eads more intensely than a thriller.” —Library Journal
"Readers who love a well-told Arctic tale of adventure and courage should add Empire of Ice and Stone to their winter reading." —Shelf Awareness
"Levy tells the incredible tale of the genius of Bartlett leading his unseasoned crew over the ice to Wrangel Island in the dead of winter, and then of his own desperate 700-nautical-mile journey over the ice to Siberia to try to find help to rescue the survivors, vividly bringing this harrowing tale to life." —Explorers Journal
"[Levy] is a master storyteller whose latest thoroughly researched, spellbinding narrative is both profoundly horrifying and heroic...His well-paced, captivating writing is chock-full of vivid imagery and description, making a gripping true tale all the more haunting, powerful, and hard to put down...an intense and riveting read." —Washington State Magazine
“Against the backdrop of incomprehensible Arctic Ocean survival at the close of the age of exploration, Buddy Levy contrasts the consequences of men’s motives for leadership in a page-turning life-and-death epic that is so detailed and so well-developed that a reader can feel the frozen brine of an open lead in mid-winter pack ice, the gnawing pit of starvation, and the heart-warming compassion of a ship’s captain who will stop at nothing to save the men, women, children, and animals for whom he is responsible.” —Roman Dial, adventurer and national bestselling author of The Adventurer’s Son
"With a cast of eccentric and fascinating characters on a grand adventure - and misadventure - in one of the most extreme regions of the world, Empire of Ice and Stone ranks with the great exploration and survival epics in history. Hubris, jaw-dropping incompetence, callous self-interest and ultimately heroic determination and sacrifice all grapple for top billing. Buddy Levy’s writing and narrative sense is top notch and really brings this incredible story to life." —Stephen R. Bown, national bestselling author of Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World’s Greatest Scientific Expedition and The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen
"With Empire of Ice and Stone, Buddy Levy once again proves his mastery of historical journalism, spinning exhaustive research into storytelling gold. In vivid details and haunting images that graphically recreate often heroic, often horrifying events, Levy keeps us spellbound, turning page after page, breathless to see who, if anyone, can survive such unimaginable conditions. Whether a fantastic feat of human endeavor or the folly of man’s quest to conquer the final reaches of terra incognito, in Levy’s sure hands, the Canadian Arctic Expedition becomes a life-and-death drama of tragic proportions. Brimming with malevolence and malfeasance but also humble charity and true nobility, Empire of Ice and Stone is a triumphant exploration of the forces that drive the human heart to extremes." —Kim Barnes, Pulitzer finalist and award-winning author of In the Kingdom of Men
"Brace yourself for an edge-of-the-seat excursion not only through one of the more harrowing environments on the planet, but into an utterly vanished era, when exploration of the globe’s farthest reaches seemed to require equal parts bravery and lunacy. Buddy Levy relates the terror, travails, and sheer will to survive when such an expedition went disastrously awry. Expertly documented and beautifully described, Empire of Ice and Stone is a grand testament to the human impulse to risk adventure, seek new shores, and try to return again from the frozen beyond…" —Malcolm Brooks, national bestselling author of Painted Horses and Cloudmaker
"In his profoundly engrossing follow-up to Labyrinth of Ice, Levy brilliantly unveils new, terrifying dimensions of the Arctic’s cruel power, and further outlines the admirable folly of the men who dared to confront it. Like so many explorers of the so-called heroic age, Levy has been pulled back to that deadly landscape as if by magnetism. How fortunate we all are for it." —Julian Sancton, New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth
“With Empire of Ice and Stone, Buddy Levy brings the harrowing story of the Karluk to vivid life. The doomed ship and her crew face catastrophes beyond enduring again and again, and Levy skillfully keeps the reader dreading what will happen next.” —Andrea Pitzer, author of Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
"Levy’s masterful storytelling put a chill in my bones and despair in my heart as the survivors of the Karluk tragedy struggled onward. Empire of Ice and Stone is a wonderful telling of a horrible voyage." —Jim Davidson, high-altitude climber and New York Times bestselling author of The Next Everest
"If it has Buddy Levy’s name on it, I just know it’s going to be a great read, and “Empire of Ice and Stone” does not disappoint! It’s one of my favorites this year." —Marya Johnston, Owner, Out West Books
Library Journal
11/01/2022
Levy (Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition) recounts the harrowing ordeal of the survivors of the Karluk, a ship that was part of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913–16, organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson and captained by Robert Bartlett, who had concerns about the seaworthiness of the vessel. The ship eventually became trapped in ice. The work describes the two divergent paths Stefansson and Bartlett took: the former left the ship and was able to reach land, where he left behind the survivors and focused on continued exploration; the latter endeavored to keep up the morale of the crew and undertook an arduous journey to find help to save the shipwrecked survivors. The bulk of the book recounts the day-to-day terror of the crew as they tried to move from the ice to land, set up camps in unforgiving terrain, and kept from starving or freezing to death. Each new challenge the group faced reads more intensely than a thriller, and it is always unclear who will survive to be rescued, or if a rescue will come. VERDICT For readers who enjoy stories of survival in extreme settings.—Julie Feighery
MARCH 2023 - AudioFile
Will Damron sweeps listeners onto the Arctic ice with the shipwrecked crew of the Canadian KARLUK. The beautiful and cruel freezing-cold world has slim margins for survival. The emotional roller-coaster ride that Damron expertly recounts ranges from a joyful Christmas feast and high-spirited Olympic games on the ice to the grueling hardship of sled treks to find land. Starvation is a constant threat. The astonishing fecklessness of expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who abandons the crew early on, is clearly heard. Damron's subtle pacing manages the tension perfectly as toes are lost to frostbite and people die. But the gritty captain, Bob Bartlett, and Inuit hunter Kataktovik travel hundreds of miles to Alaska to orchestrate a rescue. A.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-09-28
The gripping account of a fatal polar adventure.
Journalist Levy, the author of River of Darkness and Labyrinth of Ice, chronicles the tale of an Arctic expedition that featured a great deal of heroism as well as disaster. Its leader was Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962), an experienced polar explorer who was perhaps better at self-promotion than organization. In 1913, he convinced the Canadian government to finance an expedition to investigate Inuit people on its northern coast and the poorly charted sea and islands beyond. A veteran of the exploration genre, Levy capably describes the backgrounds of a dozen significant figures and the complex job of buying ships and stocking them with supplies sufficient for several years. In a hint of what lay ahead, the author notes that the ships were not designed to break through sea ice and were stocked hastily to meet an obligatory spring departure date. Sailing north during a particularly cold summer, Stefansson’s ship became icebound. After a few weeks, he abandoned it, leaving for a purported hunting trip but then walking to land in an attempt to resume the expedition. Drifting east, the ship was crushed, forcing 25 crew members to survive on the ice and then struggle across 50 miles of frozen sea to a desolate island north of Siberia. Their only advantage was their captain, Bob Bartlett, an Arctic veteran and superb leader who kept them together and, with an Inuit companion, walked 1,000 miles to Alaska to summon ships that rescued 14 survivors. Many fascinating histories of exploration stick to the evidence, but popular writers often novelize their material, inventing dialogues and their subjects’ inner thoughts. Levy belongs to this group, but his tale is entertaining and probably more or less what happened. The author includes maps, a list of characters, and a timeline of “Relevant Arctic Exploration, Expeditions, and Disasters.”
Hair-raising suffering and heroism in the Arctic.
