Across the Top of the World: To the North Pole by Sled, Balloon, Airplane and Nuclear Icebreaker

by David E. Fisher

A chronicle of the history of polar exploration describes the 1991 expedition of a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker across the polar ice cap and discusses previous expeditions to the North Pole and the explorers who took part.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Ejayen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the book was fascinating and funny, but the last two sections went to talking about nineties worry of global warming.

[Heidi Bakk-Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining account of European polar exploration in the modern era and the old.

[Karen Contos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining, and informative.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a relatively good book. I love books about Arctic explorers. People attempting to survive in the Arctic with poor supplies and gear, facing starvation, Polar Bear attacks and probably death and I'm interested. This book was the perfect combination in that it discussed all of the major adventures to the North Pole since the 1600s. The only issue I had with this book was that it is told through the point of view of the author who is going on a Nuclear Icebreaker Cruise of the North Pole. Although his adventures are funny sometimes, mostly they take away from the other expeditions going on in the book. There were parts of the book that were just discussing his journey that went on and on and on to the point that I flipped through the pages searching for more information on other Arctic explorers. The book was very good, but if you are not interested in the topic you might want to put this book down. The author does not make the story compelling for anyone who is not interested in the topic, this is not a book that anyone could pick up and suddenly become interested in.