In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic

It's creepy to think that the St Anna is still up there, trapped in the ice! Wow, this stuff is great.

I also recommend "The Brendan Voyage", part of the same library. Krakauer knows how to pick em.


In the Land of White Death kept me awake reading it!   May 5, 2002
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Albanov's account of being icebound while still on the Santa Anna, as well as the many difficulties he faced trying to find land was so fascinating that I was awake all night long reading it! I simply could not stop. I have never read other books on the same subject matter, so have nothing to compare it to, however, Albanov's story is a must-read in my opinion!


Very Good Quick Read   April 24, 2002
Short, concise story well-documented in the editorial review. It's a quick and very entertaining read, which includes a realistic viewpoint of the fallible nature of moderately experienced people in an extreme situation. It is refreshing when the results of carelessness or ignorance are protrayed by an author as exactly what they are, nothing more.
Definitely worth a read.


Double Wow   December 16, 2001
T. Schmitt (Issaquah, WA USA)
Instead of repeating the subject of the book, which other reviewers have already done, I'll just add that this is a fantasic saga of a story of survival of incrediable odds in unimaginable circumstances. I read the entire book in one night because I couldn't put it down. This is a great find of early 19th century polar experience. In one section, when the ice flow the author is sleeping on splits in two during the middle of the night, telling of being like unwanted kittens placed in a rut sack cruley thrown into the cold ocean to quickly meet a deathly fate, you'll feel your own bones shiver.


A book that defines vividly the words - courage and tenacity   September 22, 2001
Allan M. Gathercoal (Norcross, GA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Ninety years after the daring hostile and torrid trek of desperation, this `tour de force' of arctic literature was found hidden away in the library of a major university. Now, made available in English for the first time, this is a gripping story of Russian navigator Valerian Albanov. A man among men who establishes, or at least reinforces, the definition for the words: courageous, tenacious and dedicated.

Albanov's story does not read like the personal diary that it is; rather `Land of White Death' is the gripping compelling writing of a journey through a world that so foreign and hostile that it vaporizes hope of the most valiant men replacing hope with the despairing darkness of the frigid arctic nights.

He and a group of ill prepared and poorly equipped men left the warmth and perceived safety of their stranded ship to journey without a map into the frozen arctic. Only two emerged 3 months later. This is their tale. Strongly Recommended