![]() He audibly sorts out the personalities involved and presents the whole with an understated but charged clarity which keeps the narrative moving even through what could seem like a never ending and tedious progression of disasters in the voice of a lesser reader. Simon Prebble is a perfect match for the fine writing. His ability to bring the harrowing conditions and landscape, the fascinating array of characters, and the grueling sequence of challenges and hairsbreadth escapes into sharp and riveting focus is quite extraordinary. This is unquestionably the most amazing tale of men against the elements that I have ever read or heard, and it is told remarkably well by Lansing who draws artfully from the actual diary entries of the participants without ever reducing the narrative to a dry progression of quotes. ![]() Except maybe David Downing's John Russell series since I did listen to that and didn't like it. Definitely one I will re-read and re-listen to! I would listen to anything Simon Prebble narrates. If you don't like penguins, well you'll get a lot of descriptions of how they die. If you don't like survival stories, the history and characters will captivate you. If you don't like history, the unbelievable adventure story will keep you entertained. Only when Shackleton nears death on the cross-island trek does Prebbles voice get a bit louder and a bit more excited - but it's like the 19th near-death experience and 13th major voyage for the character so why not get a bit carried away?! I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Instead, Prebble narrates the book with suspense, continuity, and an aura of isolation that perfectly fits the gentleman explorer faced with his greatest challenge yet. The classic British narrator does all the accents well, keeps the myriad of characters separate and each engaging, but also doesn't overwhelm the adventure story with over the top inflections. It is the story of the men, and the writing does this so much justice you are completely captivated by it. There were of course obvious connections to the outside world, but when the men are on the ice the story stays with them and does not get overwhelmed in the sameness of ice, ice, and more ice. Amazing, right? Well Alfred Lansing does a much, much better job than I do of telling it! Lansing's story is surprisingly able to stay with the men and not bring in outside contextualizations - I say surprising because most histories would be attempting to frame the adventure in centuries of back story and social commentary. What more could you want from a book experience than Simon Prebble's amazing voice painting a picture of the most amazing survival and travel story of all time?! Shackleton's story is one I thought I knew: great leader strikes bad luck in sea ice, ship gets crushed, brings men through harrowing months-long survival and journey from sea ice through the world's worst ocean to a small island, leaves them there to fend for themselves and sets off in the same small boat with a small crew across even worst waters for hundreds of miles, then hikes across the most inhospitable occupied island in the world to get to civilization only to go back out and rescue each and every man of the crew. Inspired by the ordeal that Time magazine said "defined heroism," author Alfred Lansing conducted interviews with the crew's surviving members and pored over diaries and personal accounts to create his bestselling book on the miraculous voyage.One of the best stories ever, plus great narratorīy far one of the best books I've ever read, and one of the best narrations I've ever listened to. The book recounts a harrowing adventure, but ultimately it is the nobility of these men and their indefatigable will that shines through. Lansing describes how the men survived a 1,000-mile voyage in an open boat across the stormiest ocean on the globe and an overland trek through forbidding glaciers and mountains. ![]() For ten months the ice-moored Endurance drifted until it was finally crushed, and Shackleton and his men drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world. Five months later, the Endurance-just a day's sail short of its destination-became locked in an island of ice, and its destiny and men became locked in history. In August 1914, explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew set sail from England for Antarctica, where Shackleton hoped to be the first man to cross the uncharted continent on foot.
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