Daren
My lack of research before I bought this book has come back to bite me. I didn't enjoy this book, and had I understood its premise I would not have bought it... so let me explain...
This is the GR blurb: It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. This book transports us to the last days of those expeditions in the white continent. Sweeping through deaths and disasters, this book lays bare the forces that drove these explorers.
The back of the book however says: It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. Adrian Caesar's stunning stroke of imaginative re-creation transports us to the last days of those perilous expeditions in the heart of the white continent.
And so, there is my problem "imaginative re-creation". In other words this author is fictionalising the known facts and filling in his own gaps.
So both RF Scott and Douglas Mawson were carrying out Antarctic expeditions over the period of 1911 to 1913, independently of each other, although they did have history together. Scott was racing to be first to reach the pole, against yet another expedition - led by Amundsen the Norwegian. Mawson was on an Australian expedition exploring the Antarctic coast closest to Australia.
This book concentrates on the end of both Scott and Mawson's journeys. In each case he has diaries of the men on the expeditions and in Mawson's case various information released after his return - Scott of course dies (not a spoiler to most I expect!).
I found it ironic that Caesar mentions more than once that when carrying out his research at the libraries where the archives of the respective explorers are held, the staff at Scott's said the hoped it wasn't another hatchet-job, and the staff at Mawson's said they hoped it wasn't another hagiography... because that was exactly how this book read.
Nothing about Scott was very upbeat and Caesar was critical of everything. For Mawson it was more that events conspired against his planning. I didn't find the writing very even-handed. But worse that this, there was far too much speculation in this for me - speculation about conversations with the other men, speculation about things the mend did and things they thought. There were even several examples of where the author outlined a dream these men had and what it meant...
This type of speculation just does not appeal to me, and I really should not have started reading this book, let alone finished it... so really my fault...
2 stars
My lack of research before I bought this book has come back to bite me. I didn't enjoy this book, and had I understood its premise I would not have bought it... so let me explain...
This is the GR blurb: It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. This book transports us to the last days of those expeditions in the white continent. Sweeping through deaths and disasters, this book lays bare the forces that drove these explorers.
The back of the book however says: It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. Adrian Caesar's stunning stroke of imaginative re-creation transports us to the last days of those perilous expeditions in the heart of the white continent.
And so, there is my problem "imaginative re-creation". In other words this author is fictionalising the known facts and filling in his own gaps.
So both RF Scott and Douglas Mawson were carrying out Antarctic expeditions over the period of 1911 to 1913, independently of each other, although they did have history together. Scott was racing to be first to reach the pole, against yet another expedition - led by Amundsen the Norwegian. Mawson was on an Australian expedition exploring the Antarctic coast closest to Australia.
This book concentrates on the end of both Scott and Mawson's journeys. In each case he has diaries of the men on the expeditions and in Mawson's case various information released after his return - Scott of course dies (not a spoiler to most I expect!).
I found it ironic that Caesar mentions more than once that when carrying out his research at the libraries where the archives of the respective explorers are held, the staff at Scott's said the hoped it wasn't another hatchet-job, and the staff at Mawson's said they hoped it wasn't another hagiography... because that was exactly how this book read.
Nothing about Scott was very upbeat and Caesar was critical of everything. For Mawson it was more that events conspired against his planning. I didn't find the writing very even-handed. But worse that this, there was far too much speculation in this for me - speculation about conversations with the other men, speculation about things the mend did and things they thought. There were even several examples of where the author outlined a dream these men had and what it meant...
This type of speculation just does not appeal to me, and I really should not have started reading this book, let alone finished it... so really my fault...
2 stars