Realm of Ice and Sky
Arctic explorer and American visionary Walter Wellman pioneered both polar and trans-Atlantic airship aviation, making history’s first attempts at each. Wellman has been cast as a self-promoting egomaniac known mostly for his catastrophic failures. Instead he was a courageous innovator who pushed the boundaries of polar exploration and paved the way for the ultimate conquest of the North Pole—which would be achieved not by dogsled or airplane, but by airship.
American explorer Dr. Frederick Cook was the first to claim he made it to the North Pole in 1908. A year later, so did American Robert Peary, but both Cook’s and Peary’s claims had been seriously questioned. There was enough doubt that Norwegian explorer extraordinaire Roald Amundsen—who’d made history and a name for himself by being first to sail through the Northwest Passage and first man to the South Pole—picked up where Walter Wellman left off, attempting to fly to the North Pole by airship. He would go in the Norge, designed by Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile. The 350-foot Norge flew over the North Pole on May 12, 1926, and Amundsen was able to accurately record and verify their exact location.
However, the engineer Nobile felt slighted by Amundsen. Two years later, Nobile returned, this time in the Italia, backed by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. This was an Italian enterprise, and Nobile intended to win back the global accolades and reputation he believed Amundsen had stripped from him. The journey ended in disaster, death, and accusations of cannibalism, launching one of the great rescue operations the world had ever seen.
Realm of Ice and Sky is the thrilling narrative of polar exploration via airship―and the men who sacrificed everything to make history.-Goodreads
Title: Realm of Ice and Sky
Series: Standalone
Author: Buddy Levy
Page Count: 384
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Date Read: December 9th, 2024
Opening
It's been almost two years to the date since my first read from works of Buddy Levy. That was Empire of Ice and Stone which I loved. This year I was notified that another of his books was available through Net Galley and I jumped at the chance to get my hands on it. This was Realm of Ice and Sky this time around taking the focus off the ice a bit and sending the adventurers airborne.
Pacing
The pacing of both Buddy Levy books I've read are simply amazing. One of the notes I find myself making when reading this is the ability he has in taking real life events and telling their story that almost seems a fantastical work of fiction. Buddy Levy is truly an artist when it comes to this ability.
If I were to sit down and simply read text books and other supporting documents which Levy does include in his references at the end of these, I feel I would still enjoy the details but wouldn't not feel nearly as entertained while absorbing the information.
World Building
The worldbuilding is always difficult for me to try and score when we are talking about real life events. This is the world we live in, just a different time within our world. I suppose this goes back to how Levy paints the picture for us. Getting the feeling of how dangerous the arctic is still today, let alone in the late 1800's and early 1900's. This was a story that had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next to the various crews covered in this book.
Character Development
Again, character development is difficult to score when looking at non-fiction. I will say though we get to know a lot about many of these adventurers and from the sounds of things some of these men kind of got lost over the years as they are more well known for other things and the fact they tried to be the firsts to make these kinds of trips to the north pole didn't stand the test of time. Beyond that we seem to get to know more about what these men were like leading up to and after these events which to me was great!
Closing
In the end this was another homerun by Buddy Levy in my book. I really need to look into some more of his works. As I mentioned I love the fact that he includes footnotes throughout the book as well as an extensive list of references used to put his stories together. At the end of this one he even discusses his own trip made to some of these locations to gather further information on these men. That seems like such an amazing adventure of its own.
Scoring
Pacing 5.0 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 4.5 / 5.0
Character Development 4.5 / 5.0
