Non-fiction: Richard E. Byrd: Little America (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1930) Little America is the U.S. explorer Richard Byrd’s account of his first Antarctic expedition. I’ve written before about Byrd’s two other Antarctic books, the account of the second expedition, called Discovery, and the account of Byrd’s winter alone (called Alone) Continue Reading
Antarctica
Stats for polar bears and space hamsters
Jukka Särkijärvi created stats for both polar bears and space hamsters for Valley of Eternity: There are many strange things in the Antarctic, and the giant space hamster is probably the strangest. This white-furred rodent is the size of an elephant seal, but much quicker in its movements. Nobody is Continue Reading
Greatest penguin RPG out there
Jukka Särkijärvi writes nice things about Valley of Eternity, now out in English. What is Valley of Eternity, you ask. Well, it is nothing less than the greatest penguin RPG of all time. Drawing from spaghetti westerns, Conan the Barbarian and March of the Penguins, it depicts a bleak and Continue Reading
Valley of Eternity published in English
In 2009, I published a roleplaying game called Ikuisuuden laakso. It was about the heroic struggles and tragic fates of lonely penguins and anti-penguins. In 2011 the game was translated into Danish as Evighedens dal by Rollespilsakademiet, and now in 2012 into English by Vagrant Workshop. The English title is Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #113: Black Ice
Novel: Matt Dickinson: Black Ice (Hutchinson, 2002) Black Ice is a paperback thriller set in the world of contemporary Antarctic exploration. It doesn’t have any particular literary aspirations, but the Antarctic milieu is depicted well. The story concerns an expedition to cross Antarctica at its widest point by two men: Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #112: Antarctica beer
(Photo: Juhana Pettersson, 2012) Antarctica is a brand of beer available at least in Argentina and Brazil. I got a can from a small supermarket on the island of Ilha Grande, close to Rio de Janeiro. There was a tiny hole in the side of the can, spraying an almost Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #111: Words of Captain Scott
Documentary: Paul Copeland: Words of Captain Scott (U.K. 2012) Robert Falcon Scott and his attempt to be first at the South Pole is probably the single most talked about subject in Antarctic literature. Words of Captain Scott is an hour-long British tv documentary trying to breathe life into the old Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #110: Berserk in the Antarctic
Non-fiction: David Mercy: Berserk in the Antarctic (Summersdale, 2006) Berserk in the Antarctic is a travel book in which the author, David Mercy, makes his way to Antarctica from Chile in a small sailing boat staffed by him, the young Norwegian captain and an unreliable guy called Manuel. The craziness Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #109 – Happy Feet 2
Film: George Miller: Happy Feet 2 (Australia, 2011) The two biggest subsections of Antarctic books, movies and other media are the men of the Heroic Age such as Scott and Amundsen and penguins. The first Happy Feet movie is probably the best example of penguin-related Antarctic children’s entertainemnt, at least Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #108: Peter Wilkins
Fiction: Robert Paltock: Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man (U.K. 1751) Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man has the distinction of being the first Antarctic novel ever written, by the English lawyer Robert Paltock. Unfortunately, it’s not very good. Peter Wilkins loses his inheritance Continue Reading