Good day, dear readers!! I love a good Arctic exploration story, and Realm of Ice and Sky by Buddy Levy kept me on the edge of my seat. I hope that you will love this read as much as I did!
Rating: 5/5
Available: Now
Format: Ebook, Print, Audiobook
Goodreads Blurb:
National Outdoor Book Award-winning author Buddy Levy’s thrilling narrative of polar exploration via airship―and the men who sacrificed everything to make history.
Arctic explorer and American visionary Walter Wellman pioneered both polar and trans-Atlantic airship aviation, making history’s first attempts at each. Wellman has been cast as a self-promoting egomaniac known mostly for his catastrophic failures. Instead he was a courageous innovator who pushed the boundaries of polar exploration and paved the way for the ultimate conquest of the North Pole—which would be achieved not by dogsled or airplane, but by airship.
American explorer Dr. Frederick Cook was the first to claim he made it to the North Pole in 1908. A year later, so did American Robert Peary, but both Cook’s and Peary’s claims had been seriously questioned. There was enough doubt that Norwegian explorer extraordinaire Roald Amundsen—who’d made history and a name for himself by being first to sail through the Northwest Passage and first man to the South Pole—picked up where Walter Wellman left off, attempting to fly to the North Pole by airship. He would go in the Norge, designed by Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile. The 350-foot Norge flew over the North Pole on May 12, 1926, and Amundsen was able to accurately record and verify their exact location.
However, the engineer Nobile felt slighted by Amundsen. Two years later, Nobile returned, this time in the Italia, backed by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. This was an Italian enterprise, and Nobile intended to win back the global accolades and reputation he believed Amundsen had stripped from him. The journey ended in disaster, death, and accusations of cannibalism, launching one of the great rescue operations the world had ever seen.
Realm of Ice and Sky is the thrilling narrative of polar exploration via airship―and the men who sacrificed everything to make history.
My Review:
During the race for the artic, there were many brave men that tried to make the trip. However, one decided to try it with an airship. There was the thought that the airship would make the trip safer, and much faster.
Instead, there were accidents. Lots of accidents. While the ultimate goal was the artic, they met instead with death, starvation, and the brutal cold. There were no guarantees of survival or rescue. As the world waited with baited breath, the men stranded did their best to keep their spirits high, and maintain as much of their physical health as possible.
Oh my goodness, I absolutely LOVED this book. It was so very hard to put down. You could almost feel the bitter cold as the author talks through what the conditions were like. This book was hands down, one of the best that I read this year.
I had both the print and the audio version from the publisher and NetGalley. I enjoyed the print version, but the audio version really brought this one home. Being able to close my eyes, and let my mind play through the series of events that led to the unfortunate events.
Put this book on the list of books to read, because this will not disappoint! Buddy Levy never lets the reader down, and this book was no exception. Prepare for one of the best adventures yet!
