With narrator Vikas Adam at the helm, listeners gain extra appreciation for the wonders, bravery, and horrors of the first Western expedition to winter in Antarctica. Written by a journalist and based on diaries, logs, photographs, and other firsthand accounts, the story of the RV BELGICA and its men laid bare includes an unruly, inexperienced crew; poor provisions; language barriers; deaths; malnutrition; and depression, physical weakness, and even insanity. Yet, despite unimaginable hardship and the dangers of the ever-changing ice, some men, like First Mate Roald Amundsen, continued to see the beauty of the polar landscape. Adam uses a straightforward delivery for the narrative, a more dramatic tone for quotations, and a lowered volume for footnotes as he guides listeners through this harrowing true story.
Pub Date: 2021
Duration: 13 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593340141
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: 2025
Duration: 12 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217019915
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Rick Bass delivers these essays--old and new--at a deliberate pace and a careful tempo. His voice sounds kindly and literary. Reared in Texas, he retains a slight twang and the long vowels of that region ("fi-er", "why l" and "e-quator"). That he is soulful, sincere, and aspirational matters more. A fiction writer and essayist, he is also an environmental activist, and a number of these texts center on the horrific aftermath--asbestosis and mesothelioma--of the mining that took place near his adopted home in the Yak Valley of Montana. His appreciation of friend and fellow environmentalist Barry Lopez, along with Ernest Hemingway and nature itself, plus his decimation of W.R. Grace, the mine owner at the heart of one the biggest lawsuits ever filed, makes this collection memorable.
Pub Date: 2024
Duration: 10 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781696614313
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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