Review by Booklist Review
In 2010, National Geographic explorer Marquis set out on a three-year journey, walking around the globe from north to south. Covering six countries and 10,000 miles, all truly on foot, she trekked across Mongolia (including the Gobi Desert, which required three attempts before completion), China, Siberia, Laos, Thailand, and Australia. Illness and injury occasionally slowed her down, and she encountered quite a few unsavory individuals and epic weather (her Kindle melted!). But Marquis is stoic and determined, an experienced explorer matter of fact about the difficulties she endures and steadfast in her determination to reach her goal. Readers expecting wrenching emotional revelations à la Cheryl Strayed (Wild, 2012) will be disappointed, but those who love travel memoirs that are all about the journey rather than the inner struggle of the traveler will be delighted. Marquis steadfastly sticks to her plan, reading her maps and putting one foot in front of the other. Her tales of whom she meets and what she sees are as bracing as she is. Straightforward and forthright, this is adventure writing as it was meant to be.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Marquis chronicles the three years she spent traveling on foot through some of the harshest climates in the world, but what could have been an engaging story is ruined by poor writing. Trekking from Mongolia's Gobi Desert to Siberia and through Thailand to Australia's outback, Marquis's unparalleled adventure earned her recognition as a National Geographic Explorer of the Year. Her skills and raw talent are unquestionable, but her actual experience doesn't translate on the page. The jumpy, halting narrative fails to explain her mission; her long diatribes are preachy and sometimes border on culturally insensitive. The chapters are chronologically ordered but offer no consistent narrative thread to ground the reader. Certain incidents and places are given more of a focus than others; for example, a year in Mongolia is discussed over 100 pages, but the last year of the journey is condensed into 50. There are a few exciting moments when Marquis's incredible resourcefulness in the wild shines through, such as when she lists her techniques for gathering water in wilderness or recounts a chance encounter with wild buffalo in the middle of the night. Readers will be left wishing that they could enjoy a hike with Marquis, rather than be stuck reading her book. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Swiss explorer Marquis's stunning memoir cannot be compared with similarly themed accounts such as Cheryl Strayed's Wild. For one thing, Marquis is a professional explorer who prepares for walking expeditions and then completes them, no matter the level of difficulty or length of the journey. Her 2010-13 trek from Siberia to Australia, described here, took two and half years and covered over 10,000 miles. Though she encounters many dangers including dehydration, harassment, illness-and in one hair-raising sequence, machine gun-toting drug smugglers in Laos-Marquis also experiences deep communion with nature, which she describes in simple terms. Numerous YouTube videos by the author will enhance readers' experience. This title is destined to become a classic in the travel writing genre. The descriptions of time and place are just detailed enough to become animated with life, and the author's courage is inspiring. VERDICT Marquis's revelations of the size and beauty of the least-populated and most vast spaces of our planet conveys a sense of wonder and gratitude.-Erin O. Romanyshyn, Frances Morrison Central Lib., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A National Geographic explorer's account of the three years she spent trekking alone through wild and sparsely populated regions in Mongolia, China, Siberia, and Australia. Marquis undertook her six-country walkabout in June 2010, two years after she began to experience the "sublime sensation" of restlessness that told her it was time to depart her native Switzerland for another adventure. She began in Mongolia near the Siberian border, intending to work her way south to the Gobi Desert. The dusty, wind-swept terrain was as beautiful as it was harsh, and its inhabitants and animals did not always welcome her presence. Consciously pushing her body to the limit, Marquis endured scorching temperatures by day and subzero temperatures by night and managed to avoid becoming ill in a place that threatened her health with everything from diphtheria to the plague. But an abscessed tooth forced her to delay her journey across the Gobi, which she crossed in 2011. She resumed her travels in China, near the Yangtze River. After hiking the Sichuan Mountains and crossing a panda preserve, the Chinese police arrested Marquis to prevent her from possibly reporting on the immolation of a priest who died 12 miles from where she had been traveling. Undaunted, she headed to Siberia and crossed a portion of the taiga near Lake Baikal before moving on to Laos and Thailand, where she escaped an attack by drug traffickers and survived a case of dengue fever and, later, stomach worms. Marquis then sailed to Australia and trekked across a stretch of forbidding outback between Darwin and Cairns before finishing her remarkable journey in southern Australia. Though the pacing is uneven and the story at times haphazardly structured, the author's passion for exploring and testing her mind, body, and spirit are evident throughout. As she writes, "movement is lifesaving; it calls everything into question, everything that's around us that lives, breathes, moves." Liberating reading for armchair adventurers. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
