Icebound Audiobook By Andrea Pitzer cover art

Icebound

Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Icebound

By: Andrea Pitzer
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.49

Buy for $19.49

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

In the best-selling tradition of Hampton Sides’ In the Kingdom of Ice, a “gripping adventure tale” (The Boston Globe) recounting Dutch polar explorer William Barents’ three harrowing Arctic expeditions - the last of which resulted in a relentlessly challenging year-long fight for survival.

©2021 Andrea Pitzer. All rights reserved (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Arctic & Antarctica Expeditions & Discoveries World Inspiring Polar Region Survival Polar Exploration

Critic reviews

"Narrator Fred Sanders's grave voice and understated performance work well for this grim and brutal history of Arctic exploration. In the sixteenth century, Dutch explorer William Barents set out three times from Amsterdam to search for a northeastern passage through the Arctic to China. Everyone made it home the first time. The second time, Barents lost crew members to polar bear attacks, drowning, and a mutiny. The third expedition was a disaster, with the ship lost and the crew forced to overwinter in the Arctic. Sanders's narration is quiet and grim, a style that makes the grisly polar bear attacks easier to handle." (AudioFile Magazine)
Fascinating Survival Story • Incredible Adventure Tale • Great Writing • Detailed Historical Account • Animated Prose
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
While the author had to draw largely on the day to day log entries, the story came alive with animated prose and a real feel for the struggles of the crew.

Extraordinary survival story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
an amazing adventure that I had not heard of before. Incredible man over nature Survival Story

amazing adventure

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator was annoying bad. I loved the story. Not well written , but kept my attention with the incredible story and detailed explanation

Great story. Bad reader. Kept my attention

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I can't really recommend or scathe this book. On the good side it is about artic exploration and survival, on the other there's distinct stereotypes and prejudtices that mark the era the author hails from.

Namely, the author matter of factly explains the brutal things the Dutch really did do like keel hauling and mutiny, while roundly damning them for killing polar bears for their pelts. Specifically he said "it was a surprise there was anything left," which is a laughably naïve statement to anyone who hasn't spent their whole life in a big city. The author also repeatedly brings up vague "slaughter of natives" by European explorers, the vagueries being a product from how that part of history is largely imaginary.

But, he does have attention to detail for the actual saga he tells and doesn't make any accusations at the men he writes about. He explains how the voyage was an investment, and how the explorers had orders to trade and some sailors were punished for pilfering.

Meh.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A very, very long and basically painful listen. I felt the need to persevere as much as the men involved. But I did so in recognize and honor those who did not come back.

A good way to “chill out”

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’d tip my hat, if I had one on,to these beyond brave early sailors. Their travails are colorfully described in this work. Well done author and narrator.

Geographically illuminating!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well I enjoyed the overall story the book itself and the writing is all over the place. I found it somewhat hard to follow with the story supposed to take place in the 1500s but constantly bouncing from century to century and decade decade referencing randomly seeming other people in explores.

All over the place.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This visceral tale of hardship and death that took place 500 years ago feels if if you're following along today. The research, writing, and narration are all great and it was suspenseful even as a historical piece with a fixed outcome.

Fascinating story told as if you were there

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
While listening I imagined being there and what the brave sailors went through on a good day let alone the desperate situation they were in. Amazing any of them survived to tell the story and build a legend.

Made me appreciate the simple things

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Stick with it! I thought it started very slowly; I almost gave up. The actual accounting of their time in the Arctic was fascinating and awe inspiring!

Stick with it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews