Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air --- Stewart Ross As the title would have you know, this is a book about voyages into the unknown. A few of these are well known to all: Magellan’s voyage around South America and across the Pacific Ocean; the voyages of Christopher Columbus; James Cook’s voyages of discovery that took him around the world. Other exploits of discovery are perhaps not so well known: the voyages of Zheng He’s gargantuan treasure fleet; Greek Pythias’ travels to Ultima Thule in 340BC; the overland travels of Marco Polo to China in 1274. Other exemplars of voyages of discovery are not exploits of this kind. There are the Arctic exploits of Umberto Nobile in 1928 using dirigibles to achieve his objectives; the daring feats of the Picards to soar the hights in a balloon across the Alps in 1932 or plum the oceanic depth in their bathyscaphe. The write ups are by no means complete but there is certainly enogh material here to whet the appetite. Each voyage into the unknown chapter includes at least one excellent coloured line drawing with appropriate brfeak-aways to explain the vehicle (or a caravansary) used. Appropriate annotated maps are supplied where needed. A very satisfying book.

on the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards