If you are like me, you probably have not heard of this bit of history. This book covers several attempts to use dirigibles-airships to find the North Pole. It was quite a process. This took place in the early 1900's. The book is easy to read and interesting. I received an ARC and am leaving a review of my own free will.

This book had adventure and survival to the max. I knew nothing of the three Arctic missions the author described in the book before I read it. The missions were also captivating and chilling. While this is a nonfiction book, I felt this author was able to describe these events in a way that felt very narrative.

Buddy Levy's arctic expedition books continue to not disappoint. I've read both Labyrinth of Ice and Empire of Ice and Stone, and rated both of those an enthusiastic 5 stars. This one, with its inclusion of the history of airship travel and the arctic, was no different, to no surprise of mine. There's just something incredibly compelling about these explorers who endure so much in the name of planting a flag.

This book's three parts tell the reader about a different airship attempt in each part. We first are introduced to Walter Wellman and the Chicago Record-Herald Polar Expedition, whose struggles to get airborne set the stage for what comes after. The second part brings in Roald Amundsen (a familiar name for anyone who's read about polar expeditions in the past) and his journey on the Norge, where both him and Umberto Nobile become rivals and enemies at the conclusion. Finally, part three involves the Italia, Nobile's attempt to cross the north pole, funded by Italy and Mussolini, that ends rather poorly. It turns out quite a lot can go wrong with giant bags of gas in a cold environment.

As usual, each part is well researched and well written, with footnotes included, as well as an extensive bibilography at the end. I evidently really need to read Amundsen's biography The Last Viking, because his inclusion (history spoilers(?) here) and conclusion was a huge surprise for me. I wasn't a huge fan of Nobile as a historical figure, but I sort of felt bad for the guy on his return.

Just a fun, informative, tense book all around. The only reason it took me so long to make it through this one is because life happened and I didn't get much time to read until now. I binged the last 50% in two days, it was that good.

This book is about the Arctic exploration, the men who tried, what they used to try to get there, and the adventures they had trying to succeed. There is so much history, and the descriptions, I could feel what they were going through. This was a different book than I usually read, but reading what this book was about, made me want to find out the details, feel the struggles, the determination, and all that they went through. Reading the book. I learned a lot, and discovered what it was like during this time.
I received an ARC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this new history that looks at the exploration of the Arctic regions from the air, the success, the tragedies, and the brave men who dared, and those that paid the ultimate cost.

The polar regions have cast a siren's song on many men, leading some to glory, some to death, and some for a lot of miserable experiences. Women of course were excluded from this as they were women, though one enterprising woman paid for her own boat and expedition, and quite a few native women were dragged along to cook and clean as camp people. Men for some reason are drawn to the poles, both North and South and both full of extremes. Extreme cold, extreme desolation, and extreme danger. Though as one famed explorer once said, it is cold, it is barren, it is deadly, and I love it so. Few things have brought so many nations together in competition than reaching the poles, few happenings have drawn so many newsman to share one telegraph on the ice, and few events have captured the attention of the world, as each step brings polar conquest closer and closer. Or more deaths and disasters. At the turn of the twentieth century, the main transportation of exploration began to shift from dog sled and ski to aircraft, both heavier than air aeroplanes, and lighter than air air ships. One could avoid the snow, the polar bears, the ice breaking up. Yet flying brought it's own problems, one for this pioneers they would discover the hard way, ending sometimes in success, a learning experience or plain disaster. Realm of Ice and Sky. Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue by Buddy Levy is a history of flying in the north, the want to discovery, the egos, the politics and the heroism of these men in the flying machines.

The book covers a lot of events but is focused on the efforts of three men, all who with varying degrees of success used air ships on their flights of discovery. Walter Wellman was a self-made man a reporter known for his writing, his ability to get things done, and for his numerous families. Wellman was the first to think of using an air ship to travel across the North and reach the poles and raised money for two different attempts, that had problems both from the cold, but from the technology of the time. Wellman also attempted the first crossing of the Atlantic with an air ship, that also had problems. Roald Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer, known as the Last Viking for his numerous expeditions and successes in polar exploration, even reaching the Southern Pole by dog sled. Amundsen raised money for an Italian air ship built by Umberto Nobile, and backed by the newly Fascist Italian leader Mussolini. Amundsen was successful flying over the North Pole and using radio to share his success with the world, buy Nobile, who was on the flight felt slighted by not being considered important, or a part of the expedition. Nobile soon planned his own flight over the frozen North, one that would end in tragedy for many.

Buddy Levy is a true chronicler of northern exploration. I have read most of his books, and I have to say I found this one to be among his best. There is such a mix of characters, a huckster American, a stoic heroic Norseman, and a Man who meant well, but allowed things to get out of control. Levy is very good at setting the scene, explaining why things are important, and why people cared, and letting the people involved tell the story. Levy is good at getting to the motivations, and not only of the big players, but the small players. A man who wintered on the ice who lost his companions on two different occasions. Levy captures the people, and gives them lives outside of stereotypes, though it is hard with a man like Roald Amundsen, who really seems like a fictional character in life an death.

A really great book, one that stays with you, especially when watching the snow fall. People interested in the north, or exploration even aviation will enjoy this one quite a bit. A good place to start reading Buddy Levy if one has not before, and become a fan.

An airship in the Arctic? What could go wrong? The answer is so, so much. Quite frankly, not nearly as much as I expected, though. As an avid reader of anything about the Arctic, I knew I would enjoy Buddy Levy's latest, Realm of Ice and Sky. Adventure and survival stories are Levy's sweet spot and I was not disappointed.

Levy tells the story of three different Arctic campaigns aimed at the North Pole. My only wish is that I knew nothing about all three before I started reading. I was aware of the Italia disaster and Roald Amundsen's trip to the pole. However, I knew nothing about their predecessor, Walter Wellman. The three stories are captivating and they work best when sitting in front of a fire otherwise you may catch a chill.

Levy is one of those authors I can recommend to anyone. Yes, this is non-fiction and history, but Levy is the master of just telling the dang story and getting on with it. While I would have loved a book twice the size, Levy knows not everyone needs to know the listing of the stores taken on each expedition. The people and their survival is all that matters. The story tells itself. Levy is just the (very well qualified) tour guide.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press.)

I've heard of Roald Amundsen before, but not William Wellman or Nobile. This one statement from the book sums it all up: "What everyone knew for certain, however—including the three men aboard the America—was that their chances of dying on the journey were likely greater than their chances of surviving it." Those men were courageous, or crazy, pitting themselves against nature at the North Pole.

Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue was quite different from what I was expecting. I thought I was going to be reading about the crash of the airship Italia and the subsequent rescue of the survivors. The last 40% of the book delivered on that, and I found it to be fascinating. However, I found the first 60% to be akin to reading a textbook. It was all about the invention and first flights of dirigibles.

That said, there may be readers who find that first part to be exactly what they're looking for. I completely get that. It just wasn't what I was expecting. If you're more like I am, you, too, will be engrossed by that last 40% of Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue!

Thank you #StMartinsPress for providing this book for review consideration via #NetGalley. All opinions are my own. It has an expected publication date of January 28, 2005.

#Dirigibles #History

Buddy does it again. A wonderful book on three stories of airships and the men who explored the North pole in the early 1900s. This book has it all, very well written, fascinating story telling and a page turn from the start. I really enjoyed how these three explorations are so connected. It just shows that these huge events in history are tied together and the few men all understood what they where trying to accomplish and the danger involved.

This is one of those rare books where you can, and should, judge a book by its cover. Certainly not by the title; REALM OF ICE AND SKY makes it sound like one of those copycat YA paranormal fantasy thingies. (I joke with my children, who read such books, that they're going to run out of nouns eventually, and you are going to get books like A COURT OF OLIVE LOAF AND MAYO.) But the cover! The cover has a huge ginormous blimp on it, sailing quietly over an ice floe.

You see (or maybe you don't), in the first years of the twentieth century, it was a normal thing to do for eccentrics and vainglorious explorers to fly lighter-than-air craft over the North Pole. You read that right. Buddy Levy has given us in this book three -- three! -- different stories of people, who I am sure looked normal enough, and were not visibly drooling from the mouth, and had the bright idea to build hydrogen airships, equipped with gasoline engines, and take them to Svalbard, a teensy island deep in the Arctic Ocean, and from there fly to the North Pole.

So before you ridicule this idea--I mean, of course you're going to ridicule this idea, it involves flying a blimp to the North Pole--consider these considerations. First, at this point, the connection between flying ginormous hydrogen gasbags and burning people falling to earth, screaming their last scream, had not yet been cemented into the public imagination. Not to say that these early blimps were safe; they were not. A minor character in the narrative eventually dies in a separate airship crash over New Jersey in a craft called AKRON; if you go to look this up on Wikipedia you will find that this was not the deadliest crash of a blimp <i>with that same exact name</i>, USS AKRON crashed in (again) New Jersey in 1933, killing 73 souls. (Both ships were named after the home of Goodyear Rubber, you see, although that doesn't explain why New Jersey is hell on airships.) The people in these stories didn't know that airships were more dangerous than airplanes, because airplanes in that era were plenty dangerous as well.

And then second--well, read any polar explorer story. If you're going to the North Pole--if you just have to--and you do it by ship, and then by dogsled--you are just asking to get yourself killed in the most horrible, long, drawn-out way possible. Ask the unquiet ghost of Robert Falcon Scott, if you like. Even today, the Poles are, well, kind of a schlep. Is it any wonder that relatively bright, curious people--including Roald Amundsen his own bad self--took a look at the new airships and thought to themselves, "Hell with it, there's got to be an easier way."

If polar exploration does anything, it reveals character, and Levy has three to work with. Walter Wellman, who unfortunately in his photo looks somewhat like a dissipated Buddy Ebsen, comes across as having the sort of panache that is just begging for George Clooney to play him in a Coen Brothers movie. Wellman was a journalist, and a self-promoter par excellence, and was the first to try to take an airship that far north. Although he wasn't successful, Amundsen, a stoic, hawk-nosed figure, took a crack at it, with much better success. That ship was piloted by one Umberto Nobile, something of a comic-opera figure and erstwhile Fascist. Nobile would go on to try his luck again, which was a mistake.

It's a cracking story, and Levy tells it well. Highly recommended.

I am a huge geek about all things related to explorers and exploration–reading about Shackleton's Endurance was my gateway, and since then I devour any book I can about various explorers–and happily stumbled upon Buddy Levy's Empire of Ice and Stone when it came out, which I loved. I've been meaning to read more from Buddy Levy and was ecstatic when I saw Realm of Ice and Sky on NetGalley! This was another absolutely fascinating dive into something that I knew very little about. I love the way that Levy is able to make nonfiction accounts completely thrilling, and can manage to convey so much information in ways that are page-turning. I've read a bit about Amundsen and Cook in the past, but Wellman is a newer name to me so I was really keen to learn about his adventures, and I also liked getting to learn even more about Amundsen's experiences. This is a perfect read for any nonfiction fan who enjoys reading about exploration and adventures, and I'd highly recommend it (along with Buddy Levy's other work!).

Realm of Ice and Sky is a complete history of the polar air expeditions set forth during the early 1900’s. This period of relatively recent history has been forgotten and the many brave men who suffered and perished in their attempt to reach the North Pole have faded from recognition. Mr. Levy focuses his book on the expeditions that used the very new mode of transportation, the aircraft, to get to the North Pole. I was amazed at many of the historical facts, the number of lives lost, the staggering cost of the expeditions and the single mindedness of the men involved. This is a very complex non-fiction book with meticulous research. It would be interesting to any reader who enjoys learning about the history of adventurers, especially obscure figures of history.

Realm of Ice and Sky by Buddy Levy

This four star Buddy Levy account of the first crossings of the North Pole by dirigibles and aeroplanes in the early 1900s is long in details to start and with adventurous stories to finish. It is perfect for non-fiction readers interested in science, engineering and polar exploration.

The dirigibles, powered by motors, were also at the mercy of the wind and weather. Some scary scenes are ones where these floating behemoths narrow miss mountain peaks hidden by fog, disasters and recoveries. There’s no doubt polar explorers like Walter Wellman, Roald Amundsen and Umberto Nobile were brave, driven men. We have them and their crews to thank for their early explorations of Earth’s last unexplored frontier.

As a footnote, Lighter Than Air crafts are once again being built to use for humanitarian deliveries of food, water and medicine to remote or devastated areas in need, as well as for luxury travel to…yes, the North Pole, where passengers can get out and walk around on the polar ice!

This book is about the three explorations of the North Pole using air ships. The first trip was led by William Wellman, the second by Roald Amundsen and the last by Umberto Nobile. Each accomplished different achievements. The first that it could be done, the second that the Arctic was an ocean and could be flown across and the last involved scientific studies. The last one resulted in a crash that necessitated at rescue of those that survived. Overall a well written and researched book that read move like a novel than history.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

A well researched story about a little known chapter of Arctic exploration. That said, I have to admit that Buddy Levy’s style is not to my liking – I read two or three of his books, and while I am fascinated by subjects, the writing is too dry for me to be engaging. But I know that this author has a lot of fans, so if you liked his previous books, you definitely will like this one as well.

Thanks to the publisher, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I am fascinated by artic explorations so I was very intrigued by this book. Overall I enjoyed it and reading about adventure. The writing was descriptive and made the setting come to life.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC for an honest opinion.

This book was a great narrative into polar exploration by three different groups of men determined to reach the true pole. This book would interest people who are into history. It is a great book and I would recommend it.

I never thought much about airships or arctic exploration. I certainly never thought that I would use phrases like ‘gripping’ or ‘edge of your seat’ to describe a book about either… the writing style of this book was riveting. I never knew just how important airships were or how involved they were in the history of exploration. Very interesting book!

2.5⭐
It’s not a fault of the book or the author, but I gotta say, spending basically 2/3rds of the book on expeditions meant to bolster the image and standing of a fascist government wasn’t really what I wanted to be reading in November 2024. So there’s no way that didn’t impact my feelings on this, which again, isn’t /Levy’s/ fault, but still.

I went into this knowing about Amundsen already, having read The Last Viking several years ago (and Nobile is in that book a lot as well but I did not remember him at all so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). First time hearing about Wellman, though.

Unfortunately, I struggled to click with the overall style. There are a lot of (presumably) firsthand recollections that aren’t direct quotes like “Riesenberg instinctively grabbed onto a rope and was thrown somersaulting from the car” and that sort of thing just irks me in this type of non-fiction. In this case that omnipresent knowledge that it was “instinctive” is obviously from Riesenberg’s autobiography, but it happened so often, and it was jarring each time.

Overall, there were some interesting parts (I had never really given a lot of consideration to how get the hydrogen to fill in a blimp in a remote area before pressurized tanks for transport existed), but it did feel like the story of the /Italia/ crash was the heart of the story, but on it’s own there isn’t enough there for a whole book, so the sections on the /America/ and the /Norge/ feel a bit like page fillers.

If you enjoy learning about early Polar exploration, this will be a good one to pick up. I have read several other books concerning this topic via dogsled or ship travel and then walking in, but this is the first one with air flight via a dirigible.
The writing is matter of fact with excellent research and I truly enjoyed it. I even finished it, and then started it over at the 50% mark just to read it again slower. I tried to get the correct names of the men in relation to what jobs they carried out and what fate beheld them.
This is one of those books that grows on you, getting more invested as you read. The author covers multiple daring vivacious dedicated brave explorers such as Walter Wellman, Umberto Nobile and Roald Amundsen. They truly were adventurers, a sextant for location and a wireless for communication, no GPS or satellite phones. None of our fancy warm outdoor clothing that we have now. Deer hide was the go-to warm fur. Mr. Levy, job well done.
I thank St. Martin’s Press along with NetGalley for providing this Galley edition for no requirement other than my offer to provide an unbiased review. High 5 stars.