"It's a lilting, lyrical and loving natural history of the Arctic; of ships and seamen, whales and walruses; of explorers and eccentrics, of Baffin and Bernier; of the man who killed a million seals."

"Brown is a Canadian marine biologist who cautions readers against becoming hooked, as he is, on 'the dangerous drug of the Arctic.' And that is a risk run by any reader of this excellent story..."

"Brown evokes the teeming life of the polar world with a lyrical eloquence."

"Fresh and fascinating... A very good book written in the tradition of Farley Mowat."

"...not just a tale of a huge chunk of ice...(it) also describes the lives of those who encountered the iceberg, either closely or in passing, in the two years before it ripped open a hole in the side of the Titanic."