All The White Spaces by Ally Wilkes

Jo was always envious of older brothers Rufus and Francis; the freedom they were allowed while Jo had to stay at home, their shared plans for the future, particularly their intent to join an expedition to Antarctica led by famous explorer, James 'Australis' Randall. When Rufus and Francis are killed during the Great War, Jo resolves to take up their plan and journey south - even if that means stowing away.

As the expedition leaves any signs of civilisation behind, tension aboard the Fortitude increases. Despite his reputation, not everyone totally trusts him, and the weather conditions are not looking good with too much sea-ice for the time of year, but it's once the Ice proper is reached that things start to go really wrong. A fire forces the crew to leave the ship, taking sleds and heading for the base of a rival German expedition, but this is found empty, and seemingly haunted by ghosts which call men out onto the ice and into terrible danger.

Set in the early 20th century period of great Polar exploration, all The White Spaces is a story of self-discovery and -determination set against a backdrop of  icy wastes and encroaching horror. Arctic/Antarctic stories always have some sort of pull over me - the everlasting days of summer, the equally lengthy nights of winter, the necessity for self-reliance and courage against almost over-whelming odds. So naturally I loved this. The ice and its hazards, the gradually shortening days, the complete isolation are all brilliantly captured, and make the reader feel there in this last human outpost.

The horror is finely balanced - not too much left to the imagination, not too self-explanatory (for want of a better word). Maybe it grows from the men, from their deeply hidden fears or desires, or their memories of the horrors of war - maybe it truly is something lurking in that remote place - but the men's reactions to it feel honest and believable. 

It's a story for both readers of historical adventure and horror. From the historical perspective there are similarities with Shackleton's doomed frozen-in-the-ice expedition, whose outcome I half-expected this story to follow (it doesn't). In fiction, an obvious comparison is Dan Simmons' The Terror, and if you loved that, either in book or on TV, you'll love All The White Spaces, but I preferred this as it doesn't take a real-life mystery and add unnecessary 'make-believe' horror. That element is an integral part of All The White Spaces, and the story better balanced for it.

The Terror by Dan Simmons

review by Maryom

In 1845 Sir John Franklin led an expedition to discover the North-West Passage, a sea-route passing through the maze of ice and islands that make up Canada's northern coast to reach Alaska and the Pacific Ocean. His two ships - Terror and Erebus - were equipped with the latest steam technology and ice-breaking hulls, but even that wasn't enough to cope with treacherous Arctic conditions, and the ships became trapped in the ice - not just over winter, but throughout an exceptionally cold summer too.
At that point, history leaves the crew marooned with no real explanation of what happened to them - and that's where Dan Simmons steps in with The Terror ...
After two years stuck in the ice, food and coal supplies are getting low, but a greater danger is stalking the expedition; a huge, nameless, formless thing that attacks and kills crew members one by one.

I've had The Terror sitting around on my 'to be read' shelf for a long while, and picked it up just before Halloween thinking it would be a fitting read, but at over 900 pages, it's taken a while to get through. I would say though that at no point in all those pages was I bored!
As you've probably surmised, the story is a mix of historical adventure and horror - and to be honest I found the history of the expedition fascinating and didn't think the story needed the horror aspect.
I was aware to a certain extent of the Franklin expedition and its search for the North-West passage, but only in the briefest way. Simmons brings those bare facts and dates to life; the conditions on board ship, the extensive supplies designed to last five years, the hopefulness and enthusiasm at the beginning of the voyage and gradual decline in moral as both officers and men realise that they're stuck not merely overwinter (which is to be expected) but through summer and at least another winter in the ice. I was particularly impressed with how Simmons used a mix of flashbacks and conversations to flesh in the details of past voyages to both Arctic and Antarctic, without having to fall back on just listing events. The descriptions of long, dark endless nights, the sound and feel of ice moving and cracking bring the almost alien surroundings vividly to life.
The horror didn't grab me, or frighten me as much, but I wasn't worried; the whole story of the Franklin expedition is a mystery, and fascinating as such, so this is an excellent read as a fictional version of an intriguing piece of history. (For anyone interested, I read somewhere recently that the Erebus may have been discovered at last, making this a doubly timely read)

Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - Bantam Press
Genre - adult, exploration, arctic 

Seven Years In Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

Journey to The Roof of the World
review by Maryom

Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer finds himself caught in British India at the start of WW2 and interned along with other foreign nationals. His determination to escape increases when he is moved to a camp at Dehra Dun in northern India, within sight of the Himalayas. With such a temptation on the horizon, he and a group of fellow climbers make a bid for freedom, travelling on foot over some of the highest mountain passes in the world, heading for the neutral but forbidden country of Tibet.

This is a book I've wanted to read since I first saw the film of the same title starring Brad Pitt. Every time I watch the DVD I say 'I must track down that book' and at last (thanks yet again to the library service) I have.
It's an utterly fascinating and astonishing account of Harrer's journey to and through Tibet, catching a snapshot of a culture soon to be over-run by Chinese invasion of 1950.
The film certainly gave no feeling of the difficulties they encountered, not so much getting into Tibet, but staying there as well, putting more emphasis on Harrer's friendship with the young Dalai Lama. I certainly wasn't aware that the Tibetans tried several times to expel him, that he had run-ins with bandits as well as officials or that most of the seven years had passed before he finally reached Lhasa.
In some ways the book is less personal than the film - for example there's no mention of the wife left behind in Austria or any hint of any friction between Harrer and expedition leader Aufschnaiter as seen in the film - but the reader still gets to know Harrer and share his disappointment when he has to leave Tibet. It's main loss, though, is the stunning scenery (though I discovered the film was shot in the Andes rather than the Himalayas due to political problems) and some photographs would have been nice.

All in all a fascinating real-life adventure book.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Genre - adult non-fiction, autobiography,

Buy Seven Years in Tibet (Paladin Books) from Amazon