Stephen R. Bown's Blog: Stephen Bown's random author musings, page 5

Great review in The Key Reporter!

"The Last Viking should restore this remarkable man’s place in the canon of explorers, while winning itself a prized place on the shelves of adventure enthusiasts."

http://www.keyreporter.org/BookReview...

Polar Blog interview

Here is an interview I did for a Polar blog about Amundsen, the nature of exploration and the book I am working on right now, a biography of the Danish explorer and ethnographer Knud Rasmussen.

http://polar-exploration.blogspot.ca/...

UTNE Reader

UTNE Reader is featuring The Last Viking on its website right now.

http://www.utne.com/literature/roald-...

The more people who view it, the better the chances they’ll run the excerpt in their print magazine as well.

Best of 2012 from Kirkus!

I just just read this online - The Last Viking has made the Best Books of 2012 list from Kirkus Reviews.

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/issue/20...

That's two best of the year lists so far - the Globe and Mail and now Kirkus. Yay!

Extreme South

I just received in the mail an autographed copy of Extreme South - the companion book to the Banff Film Fest award-winning film Crossing the Ice. I sent Cas and Jonesy a copy of The Last Viking, because as they wrote in their note "Amundsen was our hero! Never give up!"

Looking at the photos in the book, I can state clearly that I won't be setting off to cross Antarctica anytime soon! Be sure to check out the film if you are at all interested in the South Pole or adventure expeditions.

Globe and Mail Top 100

The Last Viking made the list of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books of the Year.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/b...

More excellent reviews of The Last Viking

"[A] riveting tale of adventure, political intrigue and achievement. This handsome volume is exceptionally well researched and eminently readable ... an important contribution to the historiography of polar exploration." Shelagh Grant, Literary Review of Canada

"A fascinating look into the life of the Norwegian explorer who approached his perilous goals as gruelling mental and physical challenges that he carried out with military-style precision. . . . Amundsen comes to life once again to ignite the spirit of exploration in all of us."
San Antonio Express

"The work is sharp-eyed, thorough and convincing, and constitutes a significant addition to the Arctic canon."
Ken McGoogan, The Globe and Mail

Wall Street Journal

It's amazing the difference publicity makes: there was a dramatic sales spike on Amazon.com after Sara Wheeler's positive review in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. Although she quibbled with my one-sentence description of the Antarctic she called the book "a solid, entertaining account of Amundsen's adventures...a 'Boy's Own' narrative, one that conjures the rasp of hickory ski on thin ice, the patter of a hundred dogs, and the whiff of tobacco after a long day on the trail...a jolly good read."

My Book The Movie

Here is a little write up I did for the blog My Book The Movie, imagining a movie about Amundsen's incredible life. Coincidentally, there is a movie in the works that is about at least part of Amundsen's life, The Race to the South Pole.

http://mybookthemovie.blogspot.ca/201...

Boston Globe and Canadian Geographic

Publicity for The Last Viking is taking off this week. I've been doing interviews on radio and the reviews are starting to come in.

Here are two worth mentioning:

“Bown gracefully weaves together these and other journalistic records, along with journals kept by Amundsen and his men, to paint a surprisingly intimate portrait of a complex, at times difficult, yet eminently admirable man.”

- Boston Globe


“In chronicling Amundsen’s career, Bown shows that it is ultimately an explorer’s vision, not his or her business acumen or public relations skills, that makes incredible feats possible. For the armchair explorers among his readers, Bown offers a second, more poignant layer of insight into how the modern age has shaped our attitudes toward the unknown.”

- Canadian Geographic