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The Terrible Year of 1856

Revisado: 07-22-24

So the first 2 or 3 hours is a little dry. It's setting the scene of the type of ships crossing the Atlantic and for what reasons. The book overall is collection of many ships that sank in the same month of winter 1856, which was a particularly bad year for ice in the North Atlantic. But the last 3/4th of the book mostly focuses on the sole survivor out of all the myriad of ships that vanished without a trace in that time.

At first it seems so bizarre that the lifeboat with this sole survivor could start with 13 people and end with 1 just ten days later, but as the story progresses it becomes abundantly clear the numerous bad decisions they make. The story really becomes like a psychological experiment. It's fascinating to watch it play out knowing how it ends. If you're interested in survival stories, history, sinking ships in general you'll really like this book.

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Another Great by Kim MacQuarrie

Revisado: 03-25-24

Kim MacQuarrie's book The Last Days of the Inca was one of my favorite books ever. So even though this book's synopsis didn't really catch me I decided to listen. I'm glad I did. This book has a wide range of stories throughout all of South American Andean history, a lot of it I either didn't know outright or knew only small portions of. I think most people with a terse love of history will like this book if they listen to it, if you love history books you'll definitely enjoy this. I judge a lot of books based on if I think I could see myself listening to them twice and this one I could definitely listen to a few times and pick up things I missed the first few times.

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My Second Favorite Polar Exploration Book

Revisado: 02-23-24

I've audiobooked a lot of the polar exploration stories over the years: the Greely Expedition, Jeannette Expedition, Belgica Expedition, Erebus (South Polar) Expedition, Vitus Bering Expedition, etc. Sometimes the content of the expedition isn't all that interesting, sometimes the author just doesn't know how to write an enticing narrative. In the case of this book the story itself is fascinating and the writer Buddy Levy definitely knows how to write the history of the people to make them come to life. I noticed this when reading his book River of Darkness which I couldn't put down and finished in a week after I started it, which is rare for me to do with hardcopy books anymore.

I will say it's only my second favorite though after the Jeannette Expedition book "In the Kingdom of Ice", but only because the actual story I found slightly more fascinating. Though the Jeanette and Karluk are very similar stories start to finish. In my mind the two books are almost like a first half and second half of the same narrative because the Karluk's crew were reading the Jeannette logs for tips on how to survive in relatively the same place. This book (Empire of Ice and Stone) I will say started off a little dry in the first hour or so but it definitely picks up after.

But the end of the book my jaw was on the floor just hearing about the afterward portion of what happened to all of the survivors afterward. The child Mugpi's afterward left the greatest impression on me. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in tales of survival or history in general.

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Michael Wood Does Not Miss, Narrator Kinda Does...

Revisado: 11-09-23

I saw someone else mentioning in a review that the narrator can't pronounced Chinese names correctly I want to point out all the English words he doesn't seem to know how to pronounced. When he said stuff like inculcate as 'incalcate', hegemony as 'hegimminy', coup de grâce as 'coup de Grace' (like the name Grace). It always had me shaking my head conjuring memories of the Bone-Apple-Tea subreddit.

But having said that about the narrrator Michael Wood is on top of his game as always. He's able to weave a story of China's history citing archaeological finds, written sources, etc talking about the commoner and Emperor alike. If you like history and or history of Asia you'll love this book.

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Oldie but a Goodie

Revisado: 05-09-23

I first read this book in 2007 and remembered really enjoying it so I got it on Audible to listen to it. I can definitely see why I liked it the first time: it's informative, it's paced pretty well despite talking about genetics and markers, and lays out the premise and how it was reached.

Having said all that some parts of the book haven't aged particularly well like when he talks about "the complete absence of Neanderthal DNA from modern Europe" and there being "no clear signs of interbreeding [between modern humans and Neanderthals]" which has firmly been disproven now twenty odd years after the book came out. Also I do see the stories setup for the different 'Daughters' as being full Clan of the Cave Bear fantasy now when hearing it years later. The first 4/5th of the book are established science with only the last 1/5th or so being made up stories about the possible lives of the women being described. Overall it's a great book though if you're interested in Genetics or History.

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Reluctant Recommendation

Revisado: 04-14-23

Have you ever recommended a TV show to someone but prefaced it with "so long as you get through the first two seasons you'll love the third season!" that's kinda like this book. It's an interesting book if you're a history nerd. It sticks to the sources, which are sadly lacking (as many ancient sources are) for details. But once you get to the last 1/3rd of the book with Mithridates VI it starts to pick up and get interesting. I usually ignore if a narrator is good or bad but for me I didn't really care for the one reading this. If you're not familiar with the territory around the Black Sea you'll probably be referring to a lot of maps over and over as I did.

So I give this book a tepid endorsement, but a similar book on the opposite side of the Black Sea from the Kingdom of Pontus called "The Scythians" by Barry Cunliffe I'd highly recommend you try before this book.

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Fascinating Even If A Little Dated

Revisado: 12-07-22

Every culture changes, obviously the values held by our grandparents may or may not be similar to what we hold as meaningful. But this book is a great look at the Japan at the moment in time at the end of World War 2. It sounds a little dated in places where it talks about the 'unusually high birth rate of the Japanese' but it does give a sense of the overall cultural differences between Japan and the broader Western culture they've been assimilated into. I'd love for a followup talking about Japan in the era of videogames and kawaii but I don't think Ruth will be doing one since she's been dead since my father was born...

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Good Followup to Jack Weatherford

Revisado: 08-15-22

I've been interested in the Mongol Empire since listening to the Jack Weatherford 'trilogy'. While those books are obviously still my favorites on the topic this is the best followup I've listened to on here so far (out of like 3 other Mongol Empire books). I think it's better to listen to or read Jack Weatherford's books first not only because they're the best (some of my favorite history books in general) but because they make the names of characters more approachable in a mostly linear telling of the story. You'll get to know the characters more in those books, but in this you'll hear more about a lot of the same individuals. These Great Courses lectures are the perfect followup because they give you more names and add more detail to a lot of events in the Jack Weatherford books, even citing parts of Weatherford's books in some of the lectures.

And also something I liked about these Great Courses lectures was a lot of the Timur the Lame portions near the end which aren't really in the Jack Weatherford books. I had been looking for more books about Timur the Lame but a lot of the books in English are ancient themselves. Definitely listen to this series if you enjoyed the Weatherford books.

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Not what I expected but also not bad

Revisado: 07-28-22

As other reviews have said it reads at times more like a travel book, some people harshly saying the writer just wanted to do a large vacation while getting paid. I don't think that's accurate. I was wanting an in depth book about the history of all the countries, but I didn't dislike the book as it is. It focuses on certain cities and regions from each nation Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan. It is in large part about modern history of the regions. I would say I was most surprised by Taiwan, Japan's nuclear bomb program, and the comfort women. I think if you like one or all of the countries in the book you'll probably generally like the book even though it's not a 'all encompassing history explaining thousands of years of politics'.

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Good Stuff

Revisado: 06-16-22

Some of the other reviews are really angry about the narrator, I thought the narration was great. I bought this audiobook then put off reading it for a year and a half, I'm glad I came back to it. It's a really cool book with up to date information. The only problem I had was following locations of different Neanderthal sites, having a map as a non-European would make the analog version better than listening if you're concerned about the exact places. Other than that I learned several things I'd never heard before about Neanderthals and I'm glad I did eventually listen to it.

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