The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk

I do love stories and historical accounts of the turn-of-the-century adventures and explorers, especially the ones that tackle the Arctic regions. However, many times, books on these topics read more mechanically, as bits and pieces of the stories are stitched together through journals and historical data somewhat mechanically. I still find them riveting and captivating.This book is deeply researched and thoroughly detailed, but it reads more like a novel than a typical historical account of such a tragic event. It is difficult to put this book down as Jennifer does an amazing job of exposing the character flaws and issues that complicated the journey, diluted the decision making, and created the dynamics that make this story so riveting.Throughout the book, I found myself pulling for the team, hoping they could resolve their internal struggles, and longing for a Shackleton-esque conclusion that never quite materializes. I was blown away by the accounts of unbelievable human exploits, while crushed by the pride and greed that nearly tore the expedition to shreds.The conclusion both accentuates the triumph of the power of hope, belief, and community while contrasting it to the grim faces of despair, selfishness, and isolation. I do not believe that you will be disappointed when you have completed reading this book!

I’ve read everything I could find on arctic travel recently. The author’s error about the De Long expedition on the USS Jeanette turned me off to this book. She states that all thirteen of his men and himself were killed. This simply isn’t true. Since this impacted some decisions made in The Icemaster, I don’t care to finish the book.Other than that, the story was great so far.

I had previously read Ada Blackjack and I loved it.I liked the Ice Master too. It was a marathon task to put all that together.Worked well.

"The Ice Master" was a joy to read and this reader was sad to see it end. It is an exciting story, very well-written and told in such a way that this reader was surprised when, at one point in the book, certain crew members did not survive. In 1913, famed explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson took the fishing ship Karluk, captained by Robert Bartlett, an Eskimo family and the largest scientific crew to date on a quest to find an undiscovered continent to the north. Stefansson was impatient to leave and did not worry about The Karluk being ill equipped to handle ice nor did he bother with making sure proper provisions were acquired or that all the pemmican supply was tested. While the Karluk was stuck in the ice, Stefansson took several crew members and abandoned the ship to look for his continent leaving Capt. Bartlett and a crew inexperienced in Arctic conditions on a ship destined to sink. What followed was a story of defiance, perseverance, suffering, death, deception, mystery, and survival.Jennifer Niven did an excellent job with the sources to reveal the personalities of the officers and crew members. Some were painted in a very bad light. Stefansson, in particular, was not respected by Capt. Bartlett and much of the crew and seemed to regard the lives of his party as secondary to his goals. Several scientists had little respect for Bartlett and created their own clique that would eventually leave the rest of the crew and go their own way. When Bartlett left for Siberia to find help, he put in charge an officer described as very lazy with a lack of leadership skills. With the captain gone, discipline sometimes broke down. Some crew members stole food from others--even from the little Eskimo girls. There was even a possible murder. Much was written on scientists Bjarne Mamen and William McKinlay due to their large contribution to the source material. They, along with Capt. Bartlett, were the most likable of the story; however, much of the story was told from their point of view.As another reviewer noted, a factual error is found in this book regarding the lack of survivors on the Jeanette which, in the late 1800s, had taken a similar route as the Karluk. The diary of the Jeanette's captain George Washington De Long was eagerly read by the scientists who decided to break away from Bartlett and his party. An incorrect name is used at the top of page 343--"Maurer, Chafe, and Templeman" should be "Maurer, Munro, and Templeman." One other criticism is the repetition throughout the book in both content and style. Many times Niven used the phrase that a crew member would pray something would happen or would not happen, sometimes in the same paragraph. She sited many times that Mamen did not know how their situation would end and then, on page 250, she wrote "for the first time [Mamen] truly could not imagine how it would all end." Specific hardships of the crew were also repeated many times. The repetition did, however, prolong a book which this reader looked forward to opening from beginning to end, so a star will not be deducted from the score.

Story provides great opportunity for a novel but I found it a very hard slog to read. I put this down to the writing, which was poorly structured and just didn't flow for meCertainly well-researched, but heavily biased pro-Bartlett & critical of Stefansson. I would have preferred a more balanced presentation of the facts and allow the reader to decideDisappointed

This is a fascinating account : less well known than Scott and Shackleton but should be shouted from the rooftops!

this is the second time i have bought this book it is such a good read. my first one had pages falling out because i had loaned it out to everyone.

Once you've read this story you will always have a copy of this book. This was recommended to me and is a well written book.

very good