AntarcticaThe award-winning author of the Mars trilogy takes readers to the last pure wilderness on Earth in this powerful and majestic novel. “Antarctica may well be the best novel of the best ecological novelist around.”—Locus It is a stark and inhospitable place, where the landscape itself poses a challenge to survival, yet its strange, silent beauty has long fascinated scientists and adventurers. Now Antarctica faces an uncertain future. The international treaty which protects the continent is about to dissolve, clearing the way for Antarctica’s resources to be plundered, its eerie beauty to be savaged. As politicians wrangle over its fate, major corporations begin probing for its hidden riches. Adventurers come, as they have for more than a century, seeking the wild, untamed land even as they endanger it with their ever-growing numbers. And radical environmentalists carry out a covert campaign of sabotage to reclaim the land from those who would destroy it for profit. All who come here have their own agenda, and all will fight to ensure their vision of the future for the remote and awe-inspiring world at the South Pole. |
Contents
Ice Planet | 3 |
Science in the Capital | 35 |
In the Antarctic Grain | 51 |
Observation Hill | 84 |
A Site of Special Scientific Interest | 115 |
In the Footsteps of Amundsen | 172 |
Down the Rabbit Hole | 216 |
The Sirius Group | 255 |
Roberts Massif | 319 |
Extreme Weather Event | 356 |
Transantarctica | 399 |
The McMurdo Convergence | 449 |
From the Bottom Up | 477 |
Shackletons Leap | 501 |
Acknowledgments | 545 |
Big Trouble | 286 |
Common terms and phrases
Amundsen Antarctic Treaty Antarctica anyway Barwick Valley beakers blimp blue called camp Cape Crozier Cape Evans Carlos clients climbed cloud cold course crevasse door Dry Valleys ecotage Elspeth feng shui ferals glacier going happened hard haul head helo hiked hovercraft ice shelf inside Jack Jamesway kilometers kind Kiwi laughed live looked Mac Town Mai-lis McMurdo Michelson Misha Mohn Basin mountains never nodded okay parka Phil polar cap pulled radio ridge Roberts Massif rock Ross Ice Shelf Ross Island Ross Sea scientists Scott sea ice Shackleton Shackleton Glacier shouted side Sirius Ski-Doo sledge sleeping slope snow Spiff stared station sure Sylvia talk tell tent thing thought tion took Transantarctics trip turned Wade asked walked wall warm wind Yeah