Travel to Antarctica

The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica

Format: Paperback
Author: David G. Campbell
ReleaseDate: 07 May, 2002
Publisher: Mariner Books
Rating:

A good (not great) read on Antarctica if you are going there.
That's fine, but if you're reading in preparation for a trip to Antarctica, you want more. There may be a growing body of literature on Antarctica, but let's face it: about 80% of it is about Amundsen, Scott, or Shackleton. Campbell's book is a very readable albeit superficial overview of the wildlife and physical landscape you're likely to encounter. I agree with other reviewers that Campbell comes across as stuck-up, and I do take exception to his disparaging of tourists, since my experience has been that Antarctic tourists tend to be very environmentally respectful. I recommend the book because its insights and information did enhance my enjoyment of Antarctica and the South Shetlands.

Interesting look at the flora/fauna of Antarctica
. Very interesting reading for those with limited knowledge of what kinds of life exist in this hostile locale.

Not About Antarctica
Like writing a book about North America from research conducted on Cuba. This was a disappointing read, mainly because it isn't about Antarctica, but about King George Island. Yes, Cuba is part of North America, but. . . If you want information on Antarctica, look elsewhere. Why he named it "Crystal Desert" is beyond me because there is NOTHING on the ice cap. Secondly, Campbell, who may or may not be a competent biologist, spends far to much time grinding his environmental axe. For some reason, he thinks he and other academicians are the only people with the right to go to Antarctica, making numerous disparaging comments about tourism throughout the text. Moreover, he seems to have a major problem with males - be they human, sperm whale, or elephant seal, espousing traits such as "machismo" and other derogatory human emotions to these animals simply because they are larger than the females. And finally, he spends the entire final third of the book expounding on the horrors of the seal and whale hunts that decimated the populations of these magnificant animals. Unfortunate, definately. But the book is supposed to be about Antarctica - not a treatise on over-sealing and over-whaling by people from another period in time. It does have some good descriptions of Admiralty Bay on King George Island - mainly from a biological perspective, but overall, it was a waste of time.

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