South with the Sun

Roald Amundsen, His Polar Explorations, and the Quest for Discovery

By: Lynne Cox

Narrated by: Christine Williams

A powerfully built man more than six feet tall, Amundsen’s career of adventure began at the age of fifteen (he was born in Norway in 1872 to a family of merchant sea captains and rich ship owners); twenty-five years later he was the first man to reach both the North and South Poles. Lynne Cox, adventurer and swimmer, author of Swimming to Antarctica (“gripping”—Sports Illustrated) and Grayson (“wondrous, and unforgettable”—Carl Hiaasen), gives us in South with the Sun a full-scale account of the explorer’s life and expeditions.

We see Amundsen, in 1903-06, the first to travel the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in his small ship Gjøa, a seventy-foot refitted former herring boat powered by sails and a thirteen-horsepower engine, making his way through the entire length of the treacherous ice bound route, between the northern Canadian mainland and Canada’s Arctic islands, from Greenland across Baffin Bay, between the Canadian islands, across the top of Alaska into the Bering Strait. The dangerous journey took three years to complete, as Amundsen, his crew, and six sled dogs waited while the frozen sea around them thawed sufficiently to allow for navigation. We see him journey toward the North Pole in Fridtjof Nansen’s famous Fram, until word reached his expedition party of Robert Peary’s successful arrival at the North Pole. Amundsen then set out on a secret expedition to the Antarctic, and we follow him through his heroic capture of the South Pole.

Cox makes clear why Amundsen succeeded in his quests where other adventurer-explorers failed, and how his methodical preparation and willingness to take calculated risks revealed both the spirit of the man and the way to complete one triumphant journey after another. Cox also describes reading about Amundsen as a young girl and how his exploits inspired her to follow her dreams. We see how she unwittingly set out in Amundsen’s path, swimming in open waters off Antarctica, then Greenland (always without a wetsuit), first as a challenge to her own abilities and then later as a way to understand Amundsen’s life and the lessons learned from his vision, imagination, and daring.

South with the Sun—inspiring, wondrous, and true—is a bold adventure story of bold ambitious dreams.

©2011 Original material © 2011 Lynne Cox. (P)2011 (p) 2011 HighBridge Company

NOT WHAT I EXPECTED

This was a huge disappointment. I expected a book about Amundsen and the history of polar explorations. It started that way, promisingly. Then it quickly derailed into a disjointed account of the author’s personal diary as she visited and swam in various icy locales. If you know this author and her swimming history is of interest, you might like it. If you’re interested in polar exploration & Amundsen, look elsewhere.

Incidentally, the narrator’s delivery, with inflections that belong to a children’s story, was extremely annoying. She made the book even less tolerable.

Not worth the time

What would have made South with the Sun better?

Not writing it.

How could the performance have been better?

This was a phoney reinactment of a fabulous explorer

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from South with the Sun?

Would not have published it.

Ultimate literary ripoff.

This book was the first completely dishonest book that I have ever been sucked into buying. from Audible. Everybody associated with this sham, including Audible, should be ashamed.

This is not a biography of Amundsen—it’s better

Indeed, this is not a biography of Amundsen, which is what I’d expected and was curious about. In fact, this is a much more interesting book—almost a series of essay—about various, mostly Norwegian, explorers, and the author’s fascination with them. These tales are interspersed with the author’s chronicle of some of her cold water swimming exploits in Greenland, Alaska, and Antarctica. It’s an extraordinary book, but you’re not going to like it if you can’t just go with the flow (sorry). I have no idea why the publisher would advertise this book as a biography of Amundsen. The narrator was fine but at times perhaps overenthusiastic, which could be heard as naive.

Prepare to go on an adventure!

This is a book by an adventurer for adventurers. The author is a polar pioneer and presents an extensively researched body of information about the earliest polar pioneers. A primary protagonist is Roald Almundsen and his preparation and quest to be among the first, if not the first, to travel to the North and South poles. The author draws a connection with Amundsen and dives in (sometimes literally) to learn all she can. In so doing, she details some of her personal cold water swim preparations and accomplishments. In this book, the reader can swim, sail, sled, and fly to far reaches of the globe. Be ready to be inspired!