The Surfacing

Written by Cormac James

Narrated by Chris MacDonnell

Far from civilization, on the hunt for Sir JohnFranklin’s recently lost Northwest Passage expedition, Lieutenant Morgan andhis crew find themselves trapped in ever-hardening Arctic ice that threatens tobreak apart their ship. When Morgan realizes that a stowaway will give birth tohis child in the frozen wilderness, he finds new clarity and courage to leadhis men across a bleak expanse as shifting, stubborn, and treacherous as humannature itself.

A harrowing tale of psychological fortitude againstimpossible odds, The Surfacing isalso a beautifully told story of one man’s transformative journey towardfatherhood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Jun 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504612463

Reviews for The Surfacing

[hobbitprincess · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I started reading this book, it frankly didn't interest me that much, but the more I read, the more I found I could not put the book down. I knew very little about the ships lost during the search for the Northwest Passage, and James inspired me to do some research to learn more. I can imagine through the writing how quiet it must have been, except for the cracking and shifting of the ice. I was only displeased with the ending. Maybe I missed some hint, but the book just seemed to end.

[vicki_weisfeld · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cormac James tells the story of the dangerous 1850 voyage of the Impetus, which sailed north of Greenland to find and rescue men who’d been lost while searching for the Northwest Passage. The story is told from the viewpoint of Impetus’s second in command, Mr. Morgan, and his doubts about the judgment of their captain are growing. Captain Myer has a monomaniacal desire to push on, even though it’s late in the season, and his ship risks being trapped in the ice.It’s ice and snow and wind and water and more ice everywhere. Such conditions might seem likely to become rather tedious, but James surprises with his inventiveness and acute perception, expressed in beautiful prose. Despite conditions, there’s good humor among the crew, especially between Morgan and his friend, the ship’s doctor. The woman with whom Morgan had a dalliance in their last port-of-call has been smuggled on board, pregnant, and he must contend not just with an incompetent captain and implacable weather, but with the unexpected pull of fatherhood.The conditions so far north put everyone to the test. As the darkness of another winter descends, they must each face their fate in their own way.

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I expected to enjoy this book. I have an interest in Arctic exploration and am familiar with the search for Franklin's expedition that continues to this day. However, James' writing simply didn't capture my imagination. I had to re-read sections so that I could summon up some kind of image of the scene in my mind. Some parts were explained in detail, yet so much more was left unexplained. What was illustrated very well was the misery, dreariness and strained relationships which reflected the harsh surroundings. While there is a dreamy quality to the writing, reading it was a slog with just not enough substance to absorb this reader.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Over the years I have read a number of books, fiction and non-fiction, that concerned the search for the lost Franklin Expedition. I have always found it fascinating to read about the lengths people have gone to in the most challenging circumstances to find traces of Franklin and all the crew of his two ships, the Erebus and the Terror. Of course, we now know that Franklin headed west and south of his wintering spot on Beechey Island. In fact, Parks Canada found the Erebus on the bottom of Victoria Strait near King William Island in 2014. However in the 1850s it was thought that Franklin went north from Beechey Island and that was where the search concentrated. This book is an account of a fictional ship, the Impetus, which took part in the search starting in 1850.The second in command of the Impetus was Lieutenant Morgan of Anglo Irish ancestry. He seems to have joined the expedition as much to get away from his family as for the adventure. When the Impetus put into Disko Harbour on Greenland Morgan became friendly with the governor's unmarried sister, Kitty. While the other officers and the governor were away on a short trip Morgan and Kitty fell into bed together. To Morgan it was a matter of no importance. He was thus astonished when, three weeks after leaving Disko, the chaplain informed him that Kitty was on board and was expecting his child. Morgan was sure Kitty was shamming and he was determined to get her off the Impetus as soon as possible. Despite his best efforts Kitty remained on board. When the ship got stuck in the ice beyond where any other ship had ventured Kitty gave birth to Morgan's son. To his amazement Morgan became besotted with his child. Thereafter his actions were couched in terms of what would be best for his son.I wanted to like this book but it just did not grab my attention. There were sections that were quite gripping but they would end suddenly and then a new time period would start up with little mention of what went before. Kitty's role was never developed; she remained a cardboard mother figure throughout the book. There were some promising secondary characters such as Dr. DeHaven and the French cook, Cabot, but they could not redeem that disconnectedness of the main story.If you want to read about the search for Franklin I can recommend both The Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton and Race to the Polar Sea by Ken McGoogan. For a modern and fictional take on the quest check out Darkness at the Stroke of Noon by Dennis Murphy

[whitreidtan · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have a fascination for snow and ice. I don't particularly want to live in them full time (or even beyond the first driveway shoveling, if truth be told) but there's something very appealing about them in the abstract. Antarctica is on my bucket list. So are those ice hotels in Finland or Sweden. I am captivated by books about polar expeditions and their fates. The frozen North (or South) land calls to me. So I was fully prepared for Cormac James' newest novel, The Surfacing, a tale about a ship and its crew searching for the lost Franklin expedition to enchant me. I wanted to love this book in all its frozen glory. Unfortunately, it made me feel beaten down, like I always felt after a long, grueling winter when spring should be imminent but is still out of sight, hidden by dirty, monotonous banks of snow.In 1850, a fleet of ships headed for the Arctic in a bid to find and possibly even rescue the lost Franklin expedition. One of the ships searching, the Impetus, needed repairs after a short trip north and had to return to Greenland for a time. While the ship is in harbor, the first officer, Richard Morgan, thinks little of a dalliance with the governor's sister, Kitty. But when the ship's captain decides to go out searching again despite it being late in the season for safe travels, Kitty is discovered as a stowaway. And as the long months of the search drag on, it is clear that she is pregnant with Morgan's child. As Morgan comes to grips with what this means both in practical terms and for him emotionally, the Impetus is slowly and irrevocably encased in the ice pack, moving ever further north away from freedom and open water, frozen solid into a moving sheet of solid white.The book is written as a series of ship's log or journal entries but from a third person perspective, which is a little disconcerting, and there is no punctuation setting off dialogue from exposition. It is separated into two different sections: before the birth of the baby and after with a gap of almost a year in between the two. Morgan as a main character is coming to grips with fatherhood at a time when the only other thing occupying the crew is the daily slog of survival in such a harsh and unforgiving landscape. He is hard to know but is better fleshed out than the other characters, who took a very long time to show any signs of individuality. Without distinguishing characteristics, it is hard for the reader to care about them. Much of the book is like this, with well-constructed passages that unfortunately leave the reader nothing but numb. The interactions between the crew members are reduced to a line here or there, keeping them all distant despite the situation. The lack of plot makes it a struggle to stay engaged with the story and even as a contemplative reflection on fatherhood, the book doesn't quite deliver. The story of Morgan coming to cherish his son might have been more engaging had the year's gap, which allowed the hard work of building this development organically to be avoided, not been present. The story feels minimal and spare and yet still too long what with the unemotional tone and the completely unresolved ending. Perhaps I expected something different from this than the author intended but despite my initial eagerness, rather than a harrowing tale of life in extremis, I found this to be a mostly tedious and disappointing read.

[emr093 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This work is historical fiction and it is head and shoulders above the average novel in that it is well-written literature. However, the characters are interesting and not compelling. I found myself putting this down for ten days at a time before returning to it.

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I did not think I would really love this book when I started. 1850 is the year, the location is on a ship in the Arctic, the purpose is hunting for another ship. The writing is primarily prose and the dialogue not marked with punctuation, but once I got used to it, the book pulled me along.Each chapter is a day or two, so they're often short sections, relatively easy to pick up and put down frequently. The whole book is an excellent example of concise narrative. Much is said and explained, but the reader also has to pay attention because much is insinuated or left between the lines -- in a good way. I didn't think I'd like reading a book about a ship full of men in snow and ice, but it was a great contrast to the real summer weather around me, and I was captivated by their wry humour, their wit, and their humanity.Certainly this is a literary read, not for the pop fiction crowd, but very worthwhile for the discerning reader, male or female. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed this book.Thanks to LibraryThing for the ARC!

[katylit · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Well, what to say about this book. I love Arctic/Antarctic exploration books and have devoured many a one about the intrepid explorers of the golden age, Franklin, Ross, Scott, Shackleton, just to name a few. So I was very excited to receive this book through the Early Reviewers program with LibraryThing. But I must confess to great disappointment. While the subject was interesting, following the adventures of the crew of the Impetus as they join in the search for the lost Franklin expedition, I found the overall story disjointed, obscure and frankly, boring. The writing is spare, evocative of the harsh landscape in which the characters find themselves. There were times when things happened and were not followed up on, as when the captain walks on the ice, seemingly disappearing with only his hat remaining. The reader is left to assume that he is lost, as nothing more is mentioned, yet a few pages later the captain reappears, seemingly none the worse for the experience. The characters are unlikeable, often their more undesirable traits are elaborated on rather than any redeeming qualities, giving an encompassing air of cynicism that I found dark and discouraging. The text, with it's lack of quotation marks often left me confused as to the speaker and overall the story simply fell flat.

[lizzied_11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cormac James proves himself a real writer in The Surfacing, a novel set in 1850-52 in the Arctic on the British boat Impetus, set out from Greenland to rescue the lost John Franklin party. Even so, the first third was slow-going for me. I couldn't get any feeling for the characters' motivation, and that remained the case until the end. By the last third though, I couldn't turn pages quickly enough. For the last twenty pages, I was harrowed and had to put the book down - and then quickly to pick it up because I couldn't stand the suspense. The focus of the narrative is the second officer, Richard Morgan, a man who doubts himself and challenges himself through the whole book. He has made love with Kitty Rink, sister of the British agent in Disko, and she presents herself pregnant on the ship when it is too late to turn back. Why? Why risk your baby on a north-bound ship going into winter for a man you don't really love? This is only one of the questions I'd like to ask James about his characters. Also fascinating is DeHaven, Morgan's friend and the ship's doctor.The compelling character though is the Arctic itself. The Impetus is firmly imbedded in The Pack, frozen into an floe of several acres which is pushed inexorably north, farther north than any other ship has been. They have plenty of heat and plenty of food for several years and no way of escape. James's descriptions of that cold and unforgiving place will stay with me even when the characters are faded.Thank you, Early Reviewers, for an opportunity to read this book!

[lriley_43 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Surfacing is a novel by Cormac James loosely based around one of the rescue missions to find the lost Franklin expedition in the Arctic regions circa 1850. Gordon Myer is the captain of HMS Impetus one of a fleet of ships charged with exploring these unknown regions and finding some trace of the missing. Myer is a stubborn, obtuse and somewhat arrogant man--a bit more ambitious and fame seeking than intelligent. Next in command is Richard Morgan an Irish born lieutenant who more often than not tries vainly to reason with him and who on a stopover in Greenland impregnates the sister (Kitty Rink) of the governor who then stows away on the ship (with the aid of the ships chaplain MacDonald) as it heads north towards its mission. There's also a ship's doctor DeHaven constantly clashing with Myer. As it happens the ship becomes locked in an ice floe and the officers and crew find themselves pushed further and further away from civilization. That's somewhat the setup for the last two thirds of the novel and it's a fairly compelling read though a little dry at times. It's basically about perseverance under extremely harsh conditions, failure, disaster and love--all with a historical background and James does a pretty good job of bringing it off. For people who like to read seafaring novels or arctic (antarctic) exploration fiction/non-fiction this would be a very good addition to their libraries.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a story of man versus nature in two senses. First, it is a quest to survive in the Arctic as members of an expedition searching for the lost Franklin ships and crew. Second, it is a struggle against our own human nature as we watch Lt. Morgan come to grips with fatherhood, Captain Myer struggle with leadership and other crew members engaged in their own struggles with whatever has compelled them to join this rescue mission.The writing is, at times, very powerful. However, it is often cryptic enough to be frustrating. For example, we are told Kitty is awaiting confirmation of her pregnancy and taking the Doctor's little blue pills. What are the pills for? This had me curious, but they were never mentioned again. At one point, the Captain disappears, leaving only his hat on the ice. I thought he'd died....but no, he is mentioned again a few pages later as if nothing had happened. And Kitty's motivations are never clear....I can understand why she'd want to leave Greenland, but why she chose to stay on the ship when she had an alternative seemd strange. So, while there were many wonderful moments in reading this book, there were enough puzzling ones to reduce my overall enjoyment.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of my sub-specialties is "in extremist" literature, especially ships caught in ice in the polar regions (all the Shackleton books, for example), so I expected to be similarly riveted by this. I did enjoy it, but it was a different kettle of fish. We plunged into it with no background information about any of the characters, which was a bit challenging but an interesting approach. The captain, for example, seemed not to be respected by Morgan or the rest of the crew, but we never found out why. And many situations were just tangentially portrayed, becoming essential only later - Morgan's affair with Kitty, for example, which seems a passing thing in Greenland, until she ends up, pregnant, aboard.I liked the writing. I was fine with the lack of plot (pretty much, until the end, which I found quite unsatisfactory), I liked the dailyness of it all. I would have liked more back story and understanding of Kitty (not to mention Morgan).But please, please: how can you give us a book like this without a MAP?

[scrabblenut · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought I was going to love this book, having enjoyed many other books exploring survival and adventure in harsh cold climates. However, I found it very hard to identify with any of the characters, nor their motivations. The descriptions of the ship being endlessly caught in the pack ice with very little change, while somewhat fascinating and poetic in nature, quickly gave way to desolation and tedium, not exactly the feelings I look for when reading a book. The pregnant stowaway was completely inexplicable but did add another dimension to the psychology of the main character, second-in-command Lieutenant Morgan. The book was very long, and very sad, yet also very memorable. It is told in small chapters headed by dates, like a log or diary. A map would have been much appreciated, as my atlas wasn't much help.

[fmgee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story of Richard Morgan, second in command of a ship bound for the Artic to search for the Franklin in 1850. This novel touches on Artic Exploration, fatherhood, and leadership in this studdy age. I found it enjoyable as well as harrowing to read. There were times when the book got a little lost but each section is short so that quickly find yourself again. The ending was more open than I would like but I can respect it none the less.

[hardboiled-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Surfacing not only challenges Lieutenant Morgan and his crew in their Arctic quest to hunt for Sir John Franklin's expedition but equally challenges the reader to fully engage in this quest. At face value the promise of a classic, Jack London "man versus nature" tale initially drew me into the novel. However, I quickly realized that any Jack London comparisons were both premature and unwarranted. Unlike London, no matter how much I tried I could not identify with any of the characters or their plight. In thinking back, I attribute this lack of empathy to a several factors. First, I could never get past the feeling that it was just a ship, snow and ice. I never gained an understanding of the scope of their journey which was paramount to empathizing with the magnitude of the challenges they faced, i.e., exactly where were they, where they were going, what was their progress in time/distance, etc. Second, there was plenty of opportunity from the nature of the plot line to draw me in and make me root for someone ... the Lieutenant, Miss Rink or any of the crew members ... but, sadly, it did not happen. As a result I quickly became detached from the action and characters. Third, I had problems with the relationship between Morgan and Miss Rink. Not that they had a relationship but that, even though she was dead set against staying with her brother, she would stowaway on the ship, remain undetected for as long as she did, and continue to put herself and child in jeopardy. It just did not work for me especially considering the nature of Morgan and Rink's feelings or lack thereof. As a result, the entire Morgan/Rink plot line became more of a distraction than the driving motivation I can only assume it was meant to be. The struggle I had with this novel was not with the snow and ice within but with the challenge as a reader to just get through it.

[schatje_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is 1850; the Impetus is a ship looking for Franklin’s lost expedition in the high Arctic. Dispatched to the most northerly unchartered polar region, it becomes stuck in ice with a pregnant stowaway on board. The novel is narrated in third person from the point of view of Lieutenant Richard Morgan, the ship’s second-in-command and the father of the expected child. The story is much more about his journey of self-discovery than it is about a journey of exploration. Morgan’s usual modus operandi is to run away from problems and responsibilities. When faced with fatherhood, his initial reaction is to flee; when away from the stranded ship, he admits that “part of him did not want to return” (157). He feels he has not “any [attention and affection] to give” (234). Of course, since the crew is totally isolated and unable to communicate with the outside world, Morgan has no real option but to accept the role of father: “He would muster something, he supposed, to meet the need” (234). As one would expect, his transformation begins with the arrival of the child: “For the first time in a long time, he heard a call to his better self” (250).This is certainly not a novel of plot. For long periods of time, very little happens. It could be said that the book is about the human capacity to endure. Finding themselves in a hostile, unforgiving landscape, the crew must strive to survive. There is much description of shipboard life where the men are forced to live in close proximity with crew members. Obviously, there is a great deal of tedium.The problem is that the reader experiences tedium when reading the book. The almost 400 pages could be halved and the themes still be well developed. Reading should not feel like hauling a whaling boat across a frozen wasteland. And after sacrificing and enduring, the reader is left with few answers since the conclusion is open-ended. All that is known for certain is that Franklin and his men are not found; history tells us that. In fact, it was only last year that the remains of Erebus were found by Canadian scientists and archaeologists. I had difficulty identifying with any of the characters. The ship is an all-male enclave except for Kitty Rink who upsets the equilibrium. Unfortunately, she is also a problem for this reader. Her motivation, for example, is unclear. She wants to escape her life in Greenland, but why would she put her life and that of her child in jeopardy? It cannot be love she expects from Morgan who shows himself clearly to be emotionally repressed; for him, she is nothing but a temporary diversion during a stopover. And when she has one last opportunity to escape a journey she fully knows will be unrelentingly harsh, if not deadly, she doesn’t take it?Several of the excerpts of reviews included at the beginning of the book praise the author’s poetic prose. There is certainly a lyrical quality to the writing but, for me, it is insufficient compensation for the lack of plot in a lengthy novel. Descriptions of endless snow and ice need not be endless. This book seems to be an attempt to extend an Arctic exploration narrative into something resembling interpretive literature. Unfortunately, it has insufficient adventure to be the former and includes too much unnecessary detail to qualify as the best of literary fiction. Note: I receive an ARC of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Surfacing by Cormac James plays out within the setting of an 1850’s search for the lost Franklin expedition, but in fact, this is more of a psychological story as the rescue ship, the Impetus, becomes trapped in the artic ice and the captain discovers a pregnant stowaway on board. This stowaway is, in fact, carrying the captain’s unborn child and although there is no great love between the parents, the captain strives to find the right balance between his responsibility to mother and child and his duty to his ship.Being a novel about survival, I should have loved this story. I did find it interesting, especially due to the recent discovery of one of the ships from the Franklin expedition, but I was never fully drawn into this book. I felt held off at a distance and so, as much as I admired the descriptions of the barren, dramatic landscapes, I cared little for the people the author placed in these landscapes.The writing is beautiful, almost poetic and I was disappointed that I had such a struggle to stay focused on this story. . In the long run, I found the book rather tedious and would suggest that this is a book for people who prefer literary style or straight forward storytelling.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This work of fiction uses as its backdrop the disastrous 19th century Franklin Expedition, which was mysteriously lost while trying to discover the Northwest Passage. Franklin commanded two British ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, which became icebound in the Canadian Arctic and presumably perished with all aboard.The Surfacing follows the adventure of one of the rescue ships sent to discover the fate of the Franklin Expedition. As you might imagine, the narrative is one of extreme privation and disastrous results. Having read the Dan Simmons novel The Terror, which also had as its basis the Franklin Expedition, I was aware of the background, as well as what one can expect from attempting Arctic Exploration. Much of the description of daily life and heroic effort involved with being icebound was, nevertheless, fascinating.The tone of the dialogue and the writer’s point of view is almost ethereal, written at some times as though seen as a dream, viewed through gauzy cloth. While this works well at times, at others it becomes somewhat confusing. I must confess to being disappointed with the unresolved ending. I suspect that there will be some fans of high-brow literature that will rave over the method in which the story is told, however those looking for a good story will be teased but likely ultimately left unfulfilled.I would be remiss if I didn't mention the almost unforgivable failure of the author to include any maps. When penning a novel involving exploration, which frequently makes reference to places and directions, how hard would it be to include a map so the reader can follow the progress of the explorers and get some feel for the geography involved. Hopefully, this will be rectified in the final version released to the public.