Antarctica

Non-fiction: John C. Behrendt: the Ninth Circle (2005, University of New Mexico Press) Behrendt is a researcher who has worked in the various American Antarctic programs since the Fifties, and as such his writing about the actual scientific work on the continent is very interesting. His earlier book, Innocents on Continue Reading

Non-fiction: Sarah Moss: Scott’s Last Biscuit – the Literature of Polar Exploration (2006, Signal Books) This is a book which analyzes interesting and relevant questions posed by the wealth of Arctic and Antarctic literature. I’ve read so much trivial and willfully boring literary analysis that its good to have a Continue Reading

Non-fiction: Jennie Darlington & Jane McIlvaine: My Antarctic Honeymoon (Doubleday, 1956) An excellent Antarctica book. A hidden classic, even. Had to hunt for it through a rare book website, and got a really nice first edition. It’s Jennie Darlington’s autobiographical account of how she ended up on Finn Ronne’s 1946-1948 Continue Reading

Fiction: ed. Robert M. Price: the Antarktos Cycle (Chaosium, 2006) This is a comprehensive anthology of Antarctica and H.P. Lovecraft -related horror stories. It was of great help to me in that it saved me from finding these stories individually. The centerpiece of the book, Lovecraft’s own At the Mountains Continue Reading

Comic: Mike O’Sullivan, Andrew Dabb & Tim Seeley: G.I. Joe: Special Missions: Antarctica (Devil’s Due, 2006) I’m afraid objectivity just flew out of the window. G.I. Joe, or Action Force as they were known in Finland, were easily my favorite toys and comics when I was a kid, trumping even Continue Reading

Non-fiction: Caroline Alexander: Endurance (Otava 1998/1999) This is the book that launched the turn-of-the-millennium Shackleton craze. This is at least the fifth time I see or read the story in some form or another, soI was prepared to be bored. The writing is engaging, however, and the photos are used Continue Reading

Fiction film: George Miller: Happy Feet (U.S.A./Australia, 2006) A really good animated movie about tapdancing penguins. Visually very striking, and I appreciated both the obvious amount of research about Antarctica that had gone into this movie and the way they put all the possibilities of CGI into good use for Continue Reading

Non-fiction: David G. Campbell: The Crystal Desert – Summers in Antarctica (Mariner Books, 2002) A slightly generic account of an American scientist’s stay at a Brazilian Antarctic station. Perhaps unfortunately I would have been interested in reading about the particulars of the Brazilian Antarctic program, but Campbell is interested in Continue Reading

Fiction: M.E. Morris: the Icemen (Presidio Press 1988) This is one of the strangest Antarctica books I’ve read. It’s ostensibly a techno-thriller about Nazis on the ice, the last remnants of the Third Reich moving from Argentina to found their own country in neutral territory. The Nazis are planning to Continue Reading

Fiction film: Bob Saget: Farce of the Penguins (U.S.A. 2007) A rather unfunny parody movie about the French nature documentary March of the Penguins. It uses actual penguin footage with various celebrities voice-acting the characters. If you want to see Samuel L. Jackson, Alyson Hannigan and penguin-related anal sex jokes Continue Reading