Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Through the diaries of team members and interviews with survivors, Lansing reconstructs the months of terror and hardship the Endurance crew suffered. In October of 1915, there "were no helicopters, no Weasels, no Sno-Cats, no suitable planes. Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out--they had to get themselves out." How Shackleton did indeed get them out without the loss of a single life is at the heart of Lansing's magnificent true-life adventure tale.

Asking friends and relatives if they've read it, I've heard, "I started it, but I didn't want to see everyone die!" So here's the *spoiler...nobody dies! *

The capacity of the human body to survive and of the human brain to figure out how to do it never ceases to amaze me.

Lansing's account ingeniously pieces together journals of the men involved and includes riveting details without ever being too gory. Even knowing the ending, it's a page turner. I've heard that this is the most involving of all the accounts published...coming across more like a story and less a documentary.

The images of the men on the ice have completely captivated me...the sounds and the movement. Be prepared to grab a blanket and a snack as you read (something not made of penguin)...you'll feel like you're there.


ICY Adventure   May 17, 2004
snowblaze (Houston, TX USA)
this book is about how you SHOULD live!
Go for it!


Warning: You will not be able to put it down.   May 8, 2004
andris virsnieks (Seattle, WA USA)
I agree with many others this must be one of the greatest survival stories ever told. If you have read the The Longest Walk and found it to be a page turner you will not go wrong buying Endurance. And we know for sure that Endurance is all true.


Basically I would sacrifice my own child to reread this book   April 21, 2004
Ummmm...to say this book rocked would be an understatement. To say that this book is worth the blood of an smallish harmless animal, well then we'd be in ballpark. If Ernie Shackleton were alive...I'd be his lover, his follower, his servant, maybe even his concubine. I mean this dude was nuts (in a good way), conquering the Antartic is a feat that only demostrates this man's sexual potential, and the power of this great leader's pelvic thrust. But don't take my word for it. Buy the dang book (and then go ahead and read it). If it doesn't change your life (in a good...homo-erotic kind of way) well take two advil and re-read it. You can thank me later.


An Excellent Book   April 6, 2004
Andrew D Phillips (Charlotte, NC United States)
I saw a documentary on the Shackleton Voyage on PBS and decided to read the book. It was without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read.

It comprehensively tells the story of the Endurance in such a way that my attention was riveted from the first page until the last.

I would recommend this book to anyone.