I just realized (by looking over my wins from the Early Reviewer program) that I'd never posted my review of this book. Ice Ship is non-fiction, and I got it through Early Reviewers. I do love me some polar exploration, for some unknown reason. I can't swim, I have no interest in frozen tundra and many animals are always killed on these expeditions, so it seems less than obvious that it'd be a topic I keep returning to. But still, it is. This was a bound hardcover, which was nice because there are a lot of photographs. In fact, it looks more like a coffee-table book than a regular non-fiction read. That made it a little unwieldy for having so much text, but I still think it was the right choice. Anyway, the "hook" is that the book is centered around the ship rather than the crew or expedition leader of a specific journey, which means that we get to talk about Fritdjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen both, since they each took the Fram on different trips. It's a good premise, and there's a lot of interesting information along with the aforementioned photographs, but the writing is not stellar. Still definitely worth checking out if you're interested in the subject matter. ( )

Ice Ship by Charles W Johnson is first of all a beautiful book, well bound and comfortable to read. The story of the ship Fram is just as compelling. The book begins with the need for such a ship and how it was designed and constructed to withstand the crushing power of the artic regions. The story of the trips of this ship are impressive in the courage of the men who traveled on her. They used materials considered up to date at the time, but by today's standard woefully inadequate. This book was worth the effort to get through it, as the narrative was difficult at times. Maps would have been useful to better picture where the ship was at any given time. I give this book 5 stars. ( )

I received Ice Ship through the Library Thing Early reviewers program in exchange for a promised review. I had an existing interest in polar exploration and the ship Fram in particular, and was not disappointed. Johnson tells the stories of Nansen, Sverdrup and Amundsen to Arctic and Antarctic adventures. Though his announced topic is the ship, the stories aldo of course involve the men (and there are only men on the voyages) who sailed on her. Polar exploration was the last great frontier of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the explorers were larger than life characters. Johnson does a good job of making them human without taking away the respect they deserve for their accomplishments. I found the narrative started slow, but picked up after the voyages began. This is an accessible, attractive, wel illustrated book - and would be interesting to both the seasoned follower of polar exploration and the novice . My single major criticism is that I wish there had been more detailed maps of the routes and places visited. The basics are laid out, but I could not follow the detailed travels with the maps provided. ( )

"Ice Ship" uses the story of the ship Fram to retell the various epic voyages of exploration and survival in which it was involved. If you've read accounts of those voyages already, especially Nansen's "Farthest North" then you probably won't learn much from this book. It is well-written though and well-produced with sufficient maps and a firm grasp of the chronology. And you do come away knowing the Fram not just as a truly remarkable vessel but as a character in its own right. The story of the expedition around the Greenland coast and into the Canadian Arctic is less well-known and the book may be worth getting for that narrative alone.

I give this book 5+ stars for content. Incredible detail, clearly presented, fabulous collection of photos. I have a moderately large collection of "polar books" and this is one of the best in terms of research and the volume of photos and illustrations. Where it lacks is in the quality of writing. Here's one sample sentence – "Having been chastened by the incident of the bear coming on board without their awareness, much less their permission, by their ill-preparedness for such a close call, and by what happened to Hendriksen, the men from then on carried their guns, affixed with bayonets, whenever they went outside venturing." How many commas was that? I had a hard time plowing thru the narrative, and that's why I knocked off a star from my review. ( )