Customer Reviews

The Broken Lands

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The quest for the NorthWest Passage has always fascinated me. Reading accounts of Nansen, Frobisher and Hudson fuelled my early love for adventure and the North.

Broken Lands does not disappoint. This novel tells of an expedition into the Canadian North by the "Lion of the North," Sir John Franklin. The research that author Robert Edric must have done is showcased in the detailed account of the effects of extreme cold on the expedition's ships and sailors. He gives the North a distinct character in Broken Lands: one of a harsh, merciless adversary.

The characters are believable and the story is captivating. the descriptions of the Arctic are evocative and powerful. Edric writes for his audience. The combination of personal struggle and taut action makes Broken Lands immensely readable.

The Franklin expedition may not have happened exactly as Edric presents it, but after reading Broken Lands, it certainly feels possible. An excellent fictional supposition of what the expedition was like.

Like the Arctic ice it so beautifully and realistically it describes, this book keeps the reader in its vise as the ships of the Franklin expedition were kept. This is a real page turner, and with each page I became more identified with the well-drawn characters and anxious for them to survive, although I knew in advance that they wouldn't. Franklin himself is the least clearly drawn, and this is O.K. here, as he is almost an eminence gris, so far above the "common" man on the expedition.
This novel did what any good work should do: it made me want to delve deeper into the facts and check out some of the other titles that have been recommended here.

I know this is supposed to be a 'historical novel' about the famous Franklin Expedition but the author should at least stick to known facts. He has Graham Gore alive until about the last page when he in fact was dead before the trek to Back's Fish River began. Also, Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier - the only true Polar expert in the entire expedition - is portrayed constantly as the bad guy. Captain Crozier had been to the Arctic numerous times with Parry and to the Antarctic with Ross so he had experience in any ice condition. Sir James Clark Ross thought highly of him and called him his 'tried and trusty friend'. John Irving of the Terror wrote his sister how much he liked 'my Skipper'. Sir John Franklin only wanted to lead the expedition because of his political troubles in Tasmania and he was trying to heal his wounded pride. Captain Crozier had, in fact, commanded the Terror during Ross' Antartic expedition and conned his ship through many dangers. I can't understand why Fitzjames is made out to be the big hero when in fact he got where he was because of his friendship with Sir John Barrow's son. If you want to read an outstanding 'historical novel' about this famed expedition, then buy NORTH WITH FRANKLIN: THE LOST JOURNALS OF JAMES FITZJAMES by John Wilson. For the actual historical story itself (not a novel), you can't do any better than ARCTIC GRAIL by Pierre Berton, BARROW'S BOYS by Fergus Fleming and the 2 books by David C. Woodman (by far the best of them all): UNRAVELLING THE FRANKLIN MYSTERY and STRANGERS AMONG US. Don't waste your money buying THE BROKEN LANDS - I'm sorry I did.