Ashley ShelbyCritiques

Three stars. Decent book, I finished, but not something I particularly enjoyed. Good premise, good them, interesting setting, but very little forward motion.

The story dragged. The characters were interesting but way too much backstory at random times throughout. And the author settled down after awhile, but the overuse of complicated words that added nothing to the story was disruptive to the plot development.

I appreciated the theme and the overall goal of the story, that science should be inclusive as long as it's good science, and not all good science produces definitive proof, but even the theme was treated with too much high-brow arrogance.

I agree with another reviewer---there was so much detail to give you a mental picture of the South Pole that it IS hard to believe the author wasn't actually THERE for some period of time. I was listening to the CD---while I was raking---and the CD was over before my raking is finished---good story for a project---but it almost made me colder than the weather I was raking in!! I liked the whole climate discussion --- we need so much more emphasis on the whole problem so it was great that the author handled it so well, even in a novel.

While I enjoyed the core story line and the writing, this book was just too cluttered with tangential material. There are long sections detailing backstory of certain characters that distracted from the main story. Without this, the book would have been 4⭐️s for me. It was a great look at life at South Pole and a critic of the politicization of science.

Cooper is unmoored--her family faced the tragic suicide of her twin and she is in a field that is difficult to be successful at overnight. Cooper's father, Bill Gosling, practically raised them on bedtime stories involving the various expeditions to the Antarctic region. So much so, those were some of the games the siblings played as children. When an opportunity arrives in the form of an artist in residence post from the National Science Federation, Cooper jumps at the chance to endure the rigorous training and eventually wind up in Antarctica. It's not too surprising that there is a diverse group populating the South Pole Station. Some of the narrative moves between them and the overall scientific community. The addition of a climate change denier drives a good portion of the book, as the scientitists and other members of the community go head to head. There was a lot of information about the base and life on that base. It was very vivid, I had trouble believing the author hadn't spent time there as well.½

The story reminds me of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, but it's not near as entertaining. l read this book for a book club, otherwise it would not have been my choice of reading matter.

This book is primarily a character study. Sure there's a plot, but the most interesting this is discovering the different characters and how they relate to each other as well as the harsh conditions, both physical, emotional, and mental. At first a lot of the people in the book seem like stereotypes, but as you get to know them multiple facets are revealed making them all very compelling. That is perhaps what I liked most about this book, it doesn't present a point of view, it presents situation and well fleshed out characters who all have their own varying points of view.

Accepted to travel to the South Pole as a visiting artist, Cooper Gosling details her trip and the extraordinary lives she meets at the base. There are rivalries, pairings, and wonderfully distinct characters whose back stories are often included. Into the mix of the scientists, who are in the middle of a three-year experiment to confirm or deny the Big Bang, comes a climate change denier forced on the base by a pair of right-wing Congressmen who have threatened polar funding.

The author's sister has overwintered at the Pole, so I think the atmosphere among the Polies is probably drawn pretty accurately. These are serious people, made so largely by the physical dangers and restrictions of the place: close quarters, infrequent baths, too much or too little daylight, and killer temperatures. Combine this with very strong personalities, competition among the scientists' visions, tensions between the scientists and the maintenance crew, and, of course, the presence of a science denier. The scientists are appalled by his presence, not least because working at the Pole is very, very serious life-and-death business, not to be messed with just to make a political statement. This man's presence is central to the story, but it actually works in quite nicely and doesn't turn the book into a thriller, thank goodness.

I had only one complaint in a book I otherwise loved: the climate change denier's backstory is told in some detail, and I really, really didn't care what his personal reasons were. I skimmed that section and didn't think it was necessary to include it at all. Skip that section and give yourself a wonderful read about a place you'll probably never be able to experience yourself.

Not that I'm biased or anything, but...pretty good book.