MixedThe New York Times Book Review... an insider’s look into a very select club. In a sense, that creates a problem. It is easy to set expectations too high, though Fiennes himself is complicit in this ... The comparison between the author’s feats and those of Shackleton will prove to be the book’s chief charm. However, the tension of a book that seeks to draw these comparisons while also serving as a biography is apparent from the outset: The preface is, unexpectedly, largely about Fiennes, not Shackleton ... Little of Shackleton’s dark side makes it into this book. While Fiennes dwells on the explorer’s financial woes and hints at his dalliances with women, for the most part Fiennes views Shackleton (and, it has to be said, Scott too) through rose-tinted snow goggles. Initially, Shackleton emerges from a whiteout of clichés as a largely one-dimensional character ... To approach this book, then, expecting it to be the definitive account of the explorer is likely to be an exercise in frustration. Its lack of depth, nuance and referencing is a problem in this regard. And yet, Fiennes moves the narrative along at a good pace and his storytelling becomes particularly animated when he is describing the actual grind of slogging through the snow and ice. The clichés melt away and are replaced by the hard-won descriptions of struggle, perseverance and initiative that only someone who has experienced such hostile conditions can know ... this book by Fiennes sets no records—straight or otherwise. Its appeal lies in its perspective: reading about an extreme polar superstar from the viewpoint of another.
