Empire of Ice and Stone

The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk

By: Buddy Levy

Narrated by: Will Damron

"...Damron's able narration carries listeners through this arduous journey with a steady tone that lightens at moments of joy and becomes grave at times of deep sadness and loss. While the tale has all of the trappings of a great adventure novel, neither the author nor Damron let listeners forget that the toll here was real, human, and significant."- Booklist

"Will Damron sweeps listeners onto the Arctic ice with the shipwrecked crew of the Canadian KARLUK."- AudioFile

The true, harrowing story of the ill-fated 1913 Canadian Arctic Expedition and the two men who came to define it.

In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.

Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.

Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett’s leadership they built make-shift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope.

Set against the backdrop of the Titanic disaster and World War I, filled with heroism, tragedy, and scientific discovery, Buddy Levy's Empire of Ice and Stone tells the story of two men and two distinctively different brands of leadership: one selfless, one self-serving, and how they would forever be bound by one of the most audacious and disastrous expeditions in polar history, considered the last great voyage of The Heroic Age of Discovery.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

Heard preview on the Meat Eater

What a great listen and the book was wonderfully written. Narcissism is a serious illness that needs to be addressed!

While in recovery

Chose this book….loved every minute. Narration greatly enhanced the story. Thrilling and informative on many levels

Thoroughly enjoyed this.

I love exploration adventure books in this one is right right there at the top. Such great detail of the conditions the explorers had to endure.

An Age of Exploration Story to Rival Them All

The book, not to mention the narration, is unique and has the reader waiting on edge as if the fate of the men of the Karluk hangs in the balance today. If it’s adventure you’re after, I really can’t recommend this book enough.

Great story of survival

Excellent story, well researched, great narrator. It made us freezing cold just listening to it.