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The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica | 
 enlarge | Author: David G. Campbell
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $6.00
You Save: $8.95 (60%)
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 66409
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0618219218
Dewey Decimal Number: 577
UPC: 046442219211
EAN: 9780618219216
ASIN: 0618219218
Publication Date: May 7, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
In The Crystal Desert David Campbell weaves together travelogue gathered from his many visits to the wind-blasted continent of Antarctica, along with natural history, oceanography, and accounts of the tortured attempts of earlier exploratory missions "in an alien environment, beyond the edge of the habitable earth." He's a gifted writer with an especially fine hand at making his readers feel right at home in a place very few of us will ever get to see. Armchair travelers couldn't ask for a better book, no matter what the season.
Product Description
THE CRYSTAL DESERT: SUMMERS IN ANTARCTICA is the story of life's tenacity on the coldest of Earth's continents. It tells of the explorers who discovered Antarctica, of the whalers and sealers who despoiled it, and of the scientists who are deciphering its mysteries. In beautiful, lucid prose, David G. Campbell chronicles the desperately short summers on the Antarctic Peninsula. He presents a fascinating portrait of the evolution of life in Antarctica and also of the evolution of the continent itself.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Brilliant read November 13, 2008
The author is both a passionate biologist and a sensitive prose stylist. His paean to Antarctica combines his considerable knowledge about the continent's history and biology with his own direct observation of the place and close study of its creatures. Fully researched, critically observed, beautifully written. If you're interested in Antarctica, or just like nature writing, you need to read this book.
The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica March 9, 2007
I enjoyed reading this book and it provided me with a lot of information that I found very useful. I had no idea what it was like in Antarctica and this book helped me get a feel for it.
 A good (not great) read on Antarctica if you are going there. November 18, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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. That's fine, but if you're reading in preparation for a trip to Antarctica, you want more. 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 September 26, 2006
Very interesting reading for those with limited knowledge of what kinds of life exist in this hostile locale.
 Not About Antarctica October 1, 2003
29 out of 33 found this review helpful
This was a disappointing read, mainly because it isn't about Antarctica, but about King George Island. Like writing a book about North America from research conducted on Cuba. 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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