... a gripping adventure tale that deserves an honored place in the long bookshelf of volumes dealing with arctic shipwrecks, winter ordeals, and survival struggles.

... for its richly descriptive contribution to the literature of harrowing expeditions, Andrea Pitzer's deeply researched Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World is most welcome.

Icebound...gives readers a helpful accounting of the unique political context in which Barents set sail.

Icebound is a fascinating modern telling of Barents’s expeditions. The book faces limitations due to its very old source material.

The monotony of their lives—punctuated by moments of terror—is chillingly told.

Narratives of frozen beards in polar hinterlands never lose their appeal. Most of the good stories have been told, but in Icebound Andrea Pitzer fills a gap.

This is a masterful re-creation of a desperate fight for survival. Based on extensive research, the book takes us back nearly half a millennium and plunks us down in a vividly realized world in which sailing off into the unknown really meant just that.

... exhaustive.

... [an] impressively researched history.