The definition of insanity springs to mind when listening to Brandt’s history of the search for the Northwest Passage. Time and time again British explorers set out to find a navigable route through northern Canada, spent a year or two stuck in the ice, then (at best) went home with more detailed maps but without success. Simon Vance gives an impeccable narration, as usual. It’s nothing fancy, but his calm, dignified, and fittingly British tone is perfect for delivering this tale of unceasing optimism, folly, scurvy, race, and empire. The fate of Sir John Franklin is gripping—he ate his boots on his first expedition and disappeared, along with 129 men, on his third. (Bones in the kettle illustrate the depths of despair to which men were driven.) Vance conveys the poignancy of the ensuing searches for survivors.
Pub Date: March 2, 2010
Duration: 15 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780307712295
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Narrator Mark Deakins provides appropriately measured enthusiasm for Mark Synnott's account of sailing his 47-foot boat, POLAR SUN, through the Northwest Passage. Synnott funds his plans by selling the idea of searching for nineteenth-century explorer Sir John Franklin's tomb to National Geographic, among others. The author alternates between his own nautical adventure and the Franklin story. Previously ignored Inuit oral history was critical in locating Franklin's two ships a few years ago, but now Synnott experiences disinterest or suspicion from current Inuit residents who question whether his search is as pointless as Franklin's expedition. When the action flags, Deakins maintains his energy to keep the listener involved, and he sounds distinctly careful in his pronunciations of the multiple Inuit names and places.
Pub Date: April 15, 2025
Duration: 12 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217019915
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This brief but delightful and highly informed audiobook begins and ends with blue spheres. First, listeners learn that the blue marble that astronauts photographed from space actually had the South Pole on top until NASA flipped the image. It ends with the ever-present iPhone blue dot that locates Apple map users. Narrator Liam Garrigan has a natural storytelling style, and his British accent and professional delivery work well in this exploration of geographic direction. He narrates at a good pace and a sensible cadence that make this science-oriented text move almost too quickly. The central idea is how the cardinal directions gave life meaning throughout history but are now being displaced in the digital age, when the ideas of east against west and south versus north have geopolitical, rather than geographical, meanings.
Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668132364
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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