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The Best Journey in the World
- Author
- Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrator
- Kim Stanley Robinson
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- Publish Date
- 1 December 2026
- Run Time
- 14 hours 30 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Interweaving memoir and good old fashioned ice adventure, Kim Stanley Robinson takes readers along on the journeys that have happened before and the journeys that may never happen again.
In May of 1911, Robert Scott and the twenty-four men under his command said good-bye to the sun and settled in for the long Antarctic winter. When the sun returned in September, they were going to try to become the first people to reach the South Pole. However, a week past the winter solstice, Scott's second-in-command took a team on a trip to Cape Crozier to man-haul two sledges through the perpetual night of the Antarctic winter, exposed to the coldest temperatures human beings had ever traveled in. This side trip was, at best, a dangerous distraction and at worst, a disaster. Yet, chronicled by zoological assistant (and major expedition funder) Apsley Cherry-Garrard, it became The Worst Journey in the World, one of the best adventure books ever written.
Kim Stanley Robinson first read Cherry-Garrard's book in his twenties and re-read it again in 1995, as part of his preparations to Antarctica that he made that year as research for his Mars novels. It was a dream excursion: he traveled around the continent, by snowmobile and helicopter and airplane. All the while, Cherry's book loomed larger and larger in Robinson's mind, and he tried to follow in their ill-fated footsteps.
Ultimately, in The Best Journey in the World, we see Robinson stepping on ice and finding an earthly holy place. As he searches for what can—and cannot—be found again, he takes readers on a journey of realization that is not just about being the first to get somewhere but about falling in love with what the world has to offer us. That being with people who also feel a kinship to a place worthy of preserving is itself, an act of devotion. Replete with gorgeous photographs taken in a place many will never set foot, and woven throughout with Robinson’s sharp, funny, and personal voice, prepare to take the best journey in the world.
Critics Review
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“Since there are no humans native to Antarctica, Kim Stanley Robinson may be the best person our species has to write about this most remarkable part of our planet. He's been there—in person, and in his imagination—and he's done the hard work to understand its significance in our history, in our present, and most of all in our shared and imperiled future. What a book!”—Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun
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“A mesmerizing blend of personal memoir and gripping polar history, Kim Stanley Robinson weaves the harrowing winter journeys of the Heroic Era together with personal memoir and future-facing science to reveal our most ‘pointless’ yet essential continent. It is a profound meditation on what it means to stand on the side of a planet that is real but surreal, unbelievable but undeniable. Robinson delivers a powerful vision of solidarity and survival, reminding us that whatever is true in Antarctica is true everywhere else.”—Hakan Bulgurlu, author of A Mountain to Climb
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Details
- Author
- Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrator
- Kim Stanley Robinson
- Duration
- 14 hours 30 minutes
- Release Date
- 1 December 2026
- ISBN
- 9781668651438
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- Genre
- The Earth: natural history: general interest, Glaciers and ice caps, Biography: adventurers and explorers, History of other geographical groupings and regions, Memoirs
Synopsis
Interweaving memoir and good old fashioned ice adventure, Kim Stanley Robinson takes readers along on the journeys that have happened before and the journeys that may never happen again. In May of 1911, Robert Scott and the twenty-four men under his command said good-bye to the sun and settled in for the long Antarctic winter. When the sun returned in September, they were going to try to become the first people to reach the South Pole. However, a week past the winter solstice, Scott's second-in-command took a team on a trip to Cape Crozier to man-haul two sledges through the perpetual night of the Antarctic winter, exposed to the coldest temperatures human beings had ever traveled in. This side trip was, at best, a dangerous distraction and at worst, a disaster. Yet, chronicled by zoological assistant (and major expedition funder) Apsley Cherry-Garrard, it became The Worst Journey in the World, one of the best adventure books ever written. Kim Stanley Robinson first read Cherry-Garrard's book in his twenties and re-read it again in 1995, as part of his preparations to Antarctica that he made that year as research for his Mars novels. It was a dream excursion: he traveled around the continent, by snowmobile and helicopter and airplane. All the while, Cherry's book loomed larger and larger in Robinson's mind, and he tried to follow in their ill-fated footsteps. Ultimately, in The Best Journey in the World, we see Robinson stepping on ice and finding an earthly holy place. As he searches for what can—and cannot—be found again, he takes readers on a journey of realization that is not just about being the first to get somewhere but about falling in love with what the world has to offer us. That being with people who also feel a kinship to a place worthy of preserving is itself, an act of devotion. Replete with gorgeous photographs taken in a place many will never set foot, and woven throughout with Robinson’s sharp, funny, and personal voice, prepare to take the best journey in the world.
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