The Last Viking
The Life of Roald Amundsen
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The Last Viking
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Hoye
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By:
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Stephen R. Bown
About this listen
The Last Viking unravels the life of the man who stands head and shoulders above all those who raced to map the last corners of the world. In 1900, the four great geographical mysteries - the Northwest Passage, the Northeast Passage, the South Pole, and the North Pole - remained blank spots on the globe. Within twenty years Roald Amundsen would claim all four prizes. Renowned for his determination and technical skills, both feared and beloved by his men, Amundsen is a legend of the heroic age of exploration, which shortly thereafter would be tamed by technology, commerce, and publicity. Fted in his lifetime as an international celebrity, pursued by women and creditors, he died in the Arctic on a rescue mission for an inept rival explorer.Stephen R. Bown has unearthed archival material to give Amundsen’s life the grim immediacy of Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World, the exciting detail of The Endurance, and the suspense of a Jon Krakauer tale. The Last Viking is both a thrilling literary biography and a cracking good story.
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This gripping story of courage and achievement is the account of Robert Falcon Scott's last fateful expedition to the Antarctic, as told by surviving expedition member Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Cherry-Garrard, whom Scott lauded as a tough, efficient member of the team, tells of the journey from England to South Africa and southward to the ice floes. From there began the unforgettable polar journey across a forbidding and inhospitable region.
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4 out of 5 stars
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What a story!
- By A. Massey on 05-25-04
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Race for the South Pole
- The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen
- By: Roland Huntford
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 198
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 169
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 170
For the first time ever Roland Huntford presents each man's account of the race to the South Pole in their own words. In 1910, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen set sail for Antarctica, each from his own starting point, and the epic race for the South Pole was on. 2010 marks the centenary of the last great race of terrestrial discovery. For the first time Scott's unedited diary entries run alongside those of Amundsen and Bjaaland, never before translated into English.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great account, might be better in hard copy
- By Error9312 on 05-24-22
By: Roland Huntford
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Island of the Blue Foxes
- Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition
- By: Stephen R. Bown
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 204
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
The story of the world's largest, longest, and best-financed scientific expedition of all time, triumphantly successful, gruesomely tragic, and never before fully told. The immense 18th-century scientific journey, variously known as the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition, from St. Petersburg across Siberia to the coast of North America, involved over 3,000 people and cost Peter the Great over one-sixth of his empire's annual revenue.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Vivid History of Russia's First Contact In Alaska
- By Neil Ring on 09-01-18
By: Stephen R. Bown
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Madhouse at the End of the Earth
- The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night
- By: Julian Sancton
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 875
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 760
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 755
In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica. But de Gerlache’s plans to be first to the magnetic South Pole would swiftly go awry. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Excellent story
- By Ginger 3701 on 05-23-21
By: Julian Sancton
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Wanderlust
- An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age
- By: Reid Mitenbuler
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 232
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 201
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Story5 out of 5 stars 201
Deep in the Arctic wilderness, Peter Freuchen awoke to find himself buried alive under the snow. During a sudden blizzard the night before, he had taken shelter underneath his dogsled and become trapped there while he slept. Now, as feeling drained from his body, he managed to claw a hole through the ice only to find himself in even greater danger: his beard, wet with condensation from his struggling breath, had frozen to his sled runners and lashed his head in place, exposing it to icy winds that needed only a few minutes to kill him. If Freuchen could escape that, he could escape anything.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazingly in-depth look at an amazing person.
- By Dave on 06-18-23
By: Reid Mitenbuler
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A Wretched and Precarious Situation
- In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier
- By: David Welky
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4 out of 5 stars 52
A remarkable true story of adventure, betrayal, and survival set in one of the world's most inhospitable places. In 1906, from atop a snow-swept hill in the ice fields northwest of Greenland, hundreds of miles from another human being, Commander Robert E. Peary spotted a line of mysterious peaks looming in the distance. He called this unexplored realm "Crocker Land". Scientists and explorers agreed that the world-famous explorer had discovered a new continent rising from the frozen Arctic Ocean.
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4 out of 5 stars
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it all comes together at the end
- By Kat on 01-30-18
By: David Welky
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South
- The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition, 1914-1917
- By: Sir Ernest Shackleton
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 234
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 209
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 209
As war clouds darkened over Europe in 1914, a party led by Sir Ernest Shackleton set out to make the first crossing of the entire Antarctic continent via the Pole. But their initial optimism was short-lived as ice floes closed around their ship, gradually crushing it and marooning twenty-eight men on the polar ice. Alone in the world's most unforgiving environment, Shackleton and his team began a brutal quest for survival.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This is a must read.
- By Charles on 10-01-12
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In the Kingdom of Ice
- The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,515
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,193
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,187
In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Superb tale that unravels at an iceburg's pace
- By Mel on 03-19-15
By: Hampton Sides
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The Great Polar Fraud
- Cook, Peary, and Byrd - How Three American Heroes Duped the World into Thinking They Had Reached the North Pole
- By: Anthony Galvin
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
The Great Polar Fraud explores the history of the three men who claimed the pole, their claims, and the subsequent doubts of those claims, effectively rewriting the history of polar exploration and putting Amundsen center stage as the rightful conqueror of both poles.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good read
- By rjay on 09-08-17
By: Anthony Galvin
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Scott and Amundsen
- Their Race to the South Pole
- By: Roland Huntford
- Narrated by: Tim Piggott-Smith
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 179
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
This is a brilliant dual biography charting British Robert Scott's and Norwegian Roald Amundsen's race to the South Pole during 1911-12. Huntuford's is the accepted, definitive account of the race and a reassessment of the two men. Thoroughly researched, revealing the adventures and misfortunes that befell them both, he describes the driving ambitions of the era, and the complex, often deeply flawed individuals who were charged with carrying them out.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good but could have been great
- By Pierre on 05-19-08
By: Roland Huntford
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The Man Who Ate His Boots
- The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage
- By: Anthony Brandt
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 289
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 245
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 245
The enthralling and often harrowing history of the adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of 19th-century British exploration. After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the 16th century: Find the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcut to the Orient via a sea route over Northern Canada. For the next 35 years the British Admiralty sent out expedition after expedition to probe the ice-bound waters of the Canadian Arctic in search of a route.
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5 out of 5 stars
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They don't get any better than this
- By Christopher on 08-15-14
By: Anthony Brandt
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Merchant Kings
- When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900
- By: Stephen R. Bown
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
It was an era when monopoly trading companies were the unofficial agents of European expansion, controlling vast numbers of people and huge tracts of land, and taking on governmental and military functions. The leaders of these trading enterprises exercised virtually unaccountable, dictatorial political power over millions of people.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting
- By richard on 02-20-24
By: Stephen R. Bown
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Labyrinth of Ice
- The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition
- By: Buddy Levy
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,145
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,025
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,022
In July 1881, Lt. A. W. Greely and his crew of 24 scientists and explorers were bound for the last region unmarked on global maps. Their goal: Farthest North. What would follow was one of the most extraordinary and terrible voyages ever made. Greely and his men confronted every possible challenge - vicious wolves, sub-zero temperatures, and months of total darkness - as they set about exploring one of the most remote, unrelenting environments on the planet. In May 1882, they broke the 300-year-old record, and returned to camp to eagerly await the resupply ship. Only nothing came.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An incredible read
- By Lauren Olson on 12-06-19
By: Buddy Levy
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Alone on the Ice
- The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration
- By: David Roberts
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,204
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,063
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,065
On January 17, 1913, alone and near starvation, Douglas Mawson, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, was hauling a sledge to get back to base camp - the dogs were gone. Mawson plunged through a snow bridge, dangling over an abyss by the sledge harness. A line of poetry gave him the will to haul himself back to the surface. On February 8, when he staggered back to base, his features unrecognizable, the first teammate to reach him blurted out, "Which one are you?"
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4 out of 5 stars
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Put Another Log on the Fire
- By Mel on 02-07-13
By: David Roberts
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The Last Viking
- The True Story of King Harald Hardrada
- By: Don Hollway
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 122
Harald Sigurdsson burst into history as a teenaged youth in a Viking battle from which he escaped with little more than his life and a thirst for vengeance. But from these humble origins, he became one of Norway’s most legendary kings. The Last Viking is a fast-moving narrative account of the life of King Harald Hardrada, as he journeyed across the medieval world, from the frozen wastelands of the North to the glittering towers of Byzantium and the passions of the Holy Land, until his warrior death on the battlefield in England.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Just okay
- By Amazon Customer on 06-28-24
By: Don Hollway
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Empire of Ice and Stone
- The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk
- By: Buddy Levy
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 395
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 348
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Story5 out of 5 stars 347
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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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My Second Favorite Polar Exploration Book
- By Than on 02-23-24
By: Buddy Levy
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The Lost Men
- The Horrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party
- By: Kelly Tyler-Lewis
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed south aboard the Endurance to be the first to cross Antarctica. Shackleton's endeavor is legend, but few know the astonishing story of the Ross Sea party, the support crew he dispatched to the opposite side of the continent to build a vital lifeline of food and fuel depots.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Just OK
- By Michael on 05-17-07
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Against the Ice
- The Classic Arctic Survival Story
- By: Ejnar Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau - foreword, Maurice Michael - translator
- Narrated by: Tristan Wright
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Ejnar Mikkelsen was devoted to Arctic exploration. In 1910 he decided to search for the diaries of the ill-fated Mylius-Erichsen expedition, which had set out to prove that Robert Peary’s outline of the East Greenland coast was a myth, erroneous and presumably self-serving. Iver Iversen was a mechanic who joined Mikkelsen in Iceland when the expedition’s boat needed repair.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Accent
- By Sarabeth on 03-03-22
By: Ejnar Mikkelsen, and others
Enjoyable and worth the listen
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An extraordinary life
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Amazing explorer
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Would you consider the audio edition of The Last Viking to be better than the print version?
Audio is the only version of this book I've experienced.What other book might you compare The Last Viking to and why?
Searching my mind for a comparison, the only things I come up with are fiction.What does Stephen Hoye bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His lovely, strong voice.Any additional comments?
After the first evening I spent listening to this book, I went to YouTube and watched everything I could find about Roald Amundsen. That led to searches on Scott and Perrie, and of course, Shackelton - whose story I already knew. IMHO, Amundsen and Shackelton are a breed apart.A fascinating man
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A man to be admired
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What a story!
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Excellent Book
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Title
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Informative
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OUTSTANDING!!!
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