Arctic Stars

Books set the Arctic regions. Fiction (all genres) and nonfiction are included. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

Fiction

  • Voyage of the Narwhal
    Author: Barrett, Andrea
    Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039304632X Date: 1998
    starKirkusstarLJ
    LJ Best Books | NYTBR Notable | ALA Notable | PW Best Books
    A major novel by the author of Ship Fever, winner of the 1996 National Book Award for fiction. Part adventure, part love story, this unforgettable novel captures a crucial moment in the history of exploration. Combining fact and fiction, the story focuses on Erasmus Darwin Wells, a 19th-century scholar/naturalist and his expedition to search for an open polar sea.
    Updated 12.28.06
  • One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead
    Author: Dudman, Clare
    Publisher: Viking $ 25.95 ISBN: 067003276x Date: 2004
    starPW
    A haunting first novel based on the fascinating life of an Arctic explorer whose fearless pursuit of scientific discovery revolutionized our perception of the world. - Publisher Marketing.
    Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
    Updated 2.10.04
  • The Broken Lands: A Novel of Arctic Disaster
    Author: Edric, Robert
    Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312288891 Date: 2002
    starBooklist
    In this enthralling, richly inventive novel, Edric re-creates what may have happened to the doomed Franklin expedition which set sail in 1845. - from the jacket copy.
    Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
    Updated 11/20/01
  • The Ice Child
    Author: McGregor, Elizabeth
    Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525945679 Date: 2001
    McGregor takes readers on an epic journey into the heart of the Arctic--and into one of history's most fascinating mysteries--to tell a breathtaking story of faith, courage, and a mother's indomitable love.
    Updated 11.27.06
  • The Cage
    Author: Schulman, Audrey
    Publisher: Algonquin $ 17.95 ISBN: 1565120353 Date: 1994
    starPW
    ALA Notable
    A gripping adventure of a woman who goes on an otherwise all-male documentary expedition to the Canadian tundra to photograph bears from within a small iron cage. As she tests her limits on the frozen tundra, disaster strikes and she must draw on her every strength in order to survive.
    Updated 12.6.06
  • The Terror
    Author: Simmons, Dan
    Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.99 ISBN: 9780316017442 Date: 2007
    starKirkusstarPWstarLJ
    Based on the true story of two ice ships that disappeared in the Arctic Circle during the Sir John Franklin Expedition in 1845.
    Updated 11.16.06
  • North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames
    Author: Wilson, John
    Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside $ 10.95 ISBN: 1550416308 Date: 2000
    Based on a series of letters written by Franklin expedition officer James Fitzjames -- journals which were only recently discovered in a Scottish attic after lying unsuspected for nearly 150 years -- this unique work of fiction masterfully chronicles one of the most enduring mysteries of the grand era of Arctic exploration and sheds new light on the expedition and the fate of its crew. Set against a backdrop of hardy adventurers and high Arctic imagery, this work of fiction is both an engaging story of the triumphs and tragedy of the last Franklin expedition of 1845, and are interpretation of the men and events that comprised one of the great episodes in nineteenth century exploration. - Publisher Marketing
    Updated 12.28.06
  • The Rifles - Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes
    Author: Vollmann, William T.
    Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670848565 Date: 1994
    Vaulting through time to another flashpoint in the long struggle between Indians and Europeans, Vollmann's visionary fictional history now focuses on the white explorers of 150 years ago, desperately dreaming of forging a Northwest Passage.
    Updated 12.28.06

Nonfiction

  • In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic
    Author: Albanov, Valerian
    Publisher: Modern Library $ 21.95 ISBN: 0679641009 Date: 2000
    starKirkus
    "A beguiling and valuable record of polar exploration before the planes landed, and a miraculous testament to what the human spirit can achieve. Albanov's harrowing story is a welcome addition to the canon of polar literature." -Sara Wheeler, author of Terra Incognita
    Updated 12.28.06
  • Barrow's Boys
    Author: Fleming, Fergus
    Publisher: Atlantic $ 26 ISBN: 0871138042 Date: 2000
    starKirkusstarLJ
    ALA Notable
    Adventure literature at its best: the breathtaking story of England's heroic 19th-century expedition to the Arctic, the heart of Africa, and Antarctica, under the command of John Barrow.
    Updated 12.28.06
  • Ninty Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole
    Author: Fleming, Fergus
    Publisher: Grove $ 26 ISBN: 0802117252 Date: 2002
    starKirkusstarPW
    The acclaimed author of Barrow's Boys and Killing Dragons relates the epic story of the men who stopped at nothing to unravel the mysteries of the North Pole. In scintillating detail he tells of the wing governments and fantastic eccentrics who, despite their heroic failures, often achieved massive celebrity as they battled to reach the top of the world.
    Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
    Updated 7.3.02
  • Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo
    by Harper, Kenn
    Publisher: Steerforth $ 24 ISBN: 1883642531 Date: 2000
    star Library Journal
    In a story that is peopled with well-known explorers, including Robert Peary, Give Me My Father's Body tells the tragic tale of Minik Wallace, "a live Eskimo specimen," who was orphaned in turn-of-the-century New York.
  • The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule
    Author: Kavenna, Joanna
    Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034738 Date: 2006
    starBooklist
    The author set out on a harrowing and exhilarating voyage of discovery from Shetland, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Greenland, and Svalbard in search of this most haunting of northern places, the mysterious lost world of Thule.
    Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
    Updated 2.16.06
  • Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape
    Author: Lopez, Barry
    Publisher: Scribner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0684185784 Date: 1986
    starKirkus
    In a breathtaking exploration of a territory that is barely known, the author of Of Wolves and Men takes readers on a brilliant, moving odyssey into the Far North, on a journey of the mind and heart into a place that grips the imagination with the resonance of its unique and affecting grandeur.
    Updated 12.28.06
  • Polar Dance: Born of the North Wind Polar Dance
    Author: Mangelsen, Thomas D.
    Publisher: Images of Nature $ 65 ISBN: 1890310034 Date: 1997
    starLJ
    A pictorial work by a noted wildlife photographer.
    Updated 12.27.06
  • Frost on My Moustache: The Arctic Expolits of a Lord and a Loafer
    Author: Moore, Tim
    Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312253192 Date: 2000
    starBooklist
    In a welcome antidote to the Shackleton narratives and other manly survival stories set in the extremes, Moore writes with scathing self-deprecation about his misadventures in Iceland, Norway, and Spitzbergen (north of the Arctic Circle).
    Updated 12.28.06
  • The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk
    by Niven, Jennifer
    Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786865296 Date: 2000
    starBooklist
    Based on the diaries of those who were rescued and those who perished, this is the chilling true story of the "Karluk's" doomed 1913 exploration of the Arctic and the heroic efforts of the ship's captain, the Ice Master, who traveled by foot through Siberia to find help. Now in paperback, this is one of "Entertainment Weekly's" 10 Best Books of the Year.
    Suggested Reading: Sea Stories
  • Ida Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic
    Author: Niven, Jennifer
    Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786868635 Date: 2007
    starBooklist
    From the author of The Ice Master comes the remarkable true story of a young Inuit woman who survived six months alone on a desolate uninhabited Arctic island in 1921.
    Updated 12.28.06
  • Trial by Ice; The True Story of Murder and Survival on the 1871 Polaris Expedition
    by Parry, Richard
    Publisher: 0345439252 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345439252 Date: 2001
    starKirkus
    This true story of Arctic exploration details the unsolved shipboard murder committed in 1871 that led to accusations of foul play and a dramatic inquiry. The author draws on new evidence and recounts the amazing story of a killer who boarded the Arctic explorer "Polaris"--and got away with murder.
    Suggested Reading: Sea Stories