An explorer ignored

Mawson is the least mentioned of Antarctic explorers but his story is no less interesting. The only other story Equally neglected is that of the tragedy of Shackletons support team who so heroically although senselessly lost their lives to set up supply cairns for save those who would never come. This is the second or third saddest story Antarctica has to tell.

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minutes, not feet

excellent story recounting the AAE. however, considering that a journey to the South Pole requires talking about latitude and longitude, it's important to know how to read degrees and minutes. throughout the entirety of the reading, the narrator consistently mistakes an apostrophe mark as a symbol for feet rather than minutes. other than that it was awesome

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Fascinating

It was over 100 years ago and I still get amazed at what explorers were able to do with so little actual technology in those times.
There are scary parts too.

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Not as described

I was very excited to read "the greatest survival story in the history of exploration", except that this book was not that. There is really only about an hour of Mawson's trek and the rest is filler.

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Serviceable Biography of an Antarctic Adventurer

David Roberts leads readers through a description of the early 20th century exploits of legendary Australian explorer Douglas Mawson. From his role in co-discovering the Magnetic South Pole as part of the 1907 'Nimrod' expedition to his near-miraculous survival as a member of an ill-fated 3-man component of the Australasian ('AAE') surveying enterprise, Mawson is a fascinating figure.
Roberts's documentary is well-researched and well-written, but nowhere near as captivating as the subtitle would suggest ("The Greatest Survival Story In The History Of Exploration"). It's interesting.. but not that.

The narration from Matthew Brehner is similarly serviceable yet unspectacular. To be certain, his timbre, cadence, and tone are creditable.. but he's guilty of mispronunciation a number of times, often overenunciates, and reads far too slowly. Setting playback speed at 1.20X corrects for many of these deficiencies, but Blackstone Audio Inc. could surely have cast this project better.

Altogether, I am happy to have spent the time listening to this 6/10-star 'Plus' selection.. but keep browsing should they ask for a Credit ('Endurance' - also available on Audible and discussing Ernest Shackleton's near-disastrous 1914 trans-Antarctic undertaking - is far superior).

[Incidentally: The "Hypervitaminosis A from eating Greenland Husky Liver" hypothesis is genuinely intriguing]

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Misleading

Let me start with this point: "His two companions were dead, his food and supplies had vanished in a crevasse, and Douglas Mawson was still 100 miles from camp.". If that sounds like an amazing story, well get ready to be disappointed. That plot point only comes in around 3 hours from the end of the book, and ends about 2 hours from the end of the book.

Now don't get me wrong. The rest of the book is overall interesting. Exploring and trying to survive Antarctica. Following several different groups who are overcoming their own tribulations. But this book is not about one guy surviving alone in the Antarctic cold. One hour of the eleven hour book, essentially a chapter or two, is about what the title of the book offers.

I have previously read Endurance and it is a great book. One of my favourite books actually, and this is a nice companion piece to that book. AOTI chronicles the (approx) decade before the Endurance sets off. Endurance is far more interesting however as they take the opposite approach of this book. The first part of the book is set-up for the journe. Then the rest of the book is the ordeal and survival challenges they faced. Though I might have been less interested with AOTI because I kept waiting for the Alone part to start. So, don't buy this book if you haven't read Endurance (because buy that book, it is far better), are expecting an early 1900s Survivorman, or if you have read Endurance (because this is quite a step down in as far as records, diary entries, banter and displays of camaraderie).

I honestly didn't want to harp on this book too badly, but the misleading title was very disappointing because that sounds like an amazing story to read. Alas, we got a bunch of guys doing a bunch of tenting, dog sledding/dog eating, and that is kind of it. Nothing really happens. To compare that to Endurance, the same group of guys camped on the ship, outside the ship, on ice flows, on rocky cliff bases, on the shore, in their row boats, in upturned boats, and I could go on. And that is just their tenting situations.So, yea. I don't recommend this book based on the book quality and misleading title and plot.

However, I also want to give a point to the narrator. Because there are anachronistic words used, if you don't know the words yourself you will generally rely on the narrator to have done due diligence and figured out how to read them aloud. That is not the case here, as on numerous occasions the narrator did not say words correctly that I did know. Making it feel more than apparent that he likely didn't speak the more seldom used words correctly either. It just takes you out of the experience and makes the book that much less engaging. It just feels less polished and thus, not one I would want to keep in my collection. Otherwise, he was not disagreeable to listen to.

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4 people found this helpful