During the race for the artic, there were many brave men that tried to make the trip. However, one decided to try it with an airship. There was the thought that the airship would make the trip safer, and much faster.
Instead, there were accidents. Lots of accidents. While the ultimate goal was the artic, they met instead with death, starvation, and the brutal cold. There were no guarantees of survival or rescue. As the world waited with baited breath, the men stranded did their best to keep their spirits high, and maintain as much of their physical health as possible.

Oh my goodness, I absolutely LOVED this book. It was so very hard to put down. You could almost feel the bitter cold as the author talks through what the conditions were like. This book was hands down, one of the best that I read this year.
I had both the print and the audio version from the publisher and NetGalley. I enjoyed the print version, but the audio version really brought this one home. Being able to close my eyes, and let my mind play through the series of events that led to the unfortunate events.

Put this book on the list of books to read, because this will not disappoint! Buddy Levy never lets the reader down, and this book was no exception. Prepare for one of the best adventures yet!

A really solid book about events that I didn't know much about. It was interesting to hear about the airships and their exploits (or attempted exploits) in one of the harshest environments on Earth. The bravery of those men deserve to be recognized.

An outstanding account of polar explorers attempting to use airships to reach the North Pole that reads like fiction.

This is an excellent example of how wildly entertaining narrative nonfiction can be when it’s well told. I’ve long been fascinated by both polar exploration and air ships, and the combination of the two felt like a sure winner.

But we have to credit Levy for writing a rollicking, intense account of these events, which can and have in the past felt quite banal in the telling if the wrong person is in charge of the material.

Levy covers multiple air ship voyages to the Arctic here, culminating in Captain Nobile’s disastrous trip, which ended in tragedy and resulted in multiple deaths, most notably that of Amundsen, who disappeared while trying to rescue his rival and was never seen again.

Though this topic was of particular interest to me, I’m now very sold on Levy as an excellent chronicler of narrative nonfiction, and look forward to his next offering, no matter the subject.