From the Yenisey’s headwaters in the wild heart of central Asia to its mouth on the Arctic Ocean, Colin Angus and his fellow adventurers travel 5,500 kilometres of one of the world’s most dangerous rivers through remotest Mongolia and Siberia, and live to tell about it.
Exploration is Colin Angus’ calling. It is not only the tug of excitement and challenge that keeps sending him on death-defying journeys down some of the world’s most powerful waterways, it is a desire to know a place more intimately than you could from the window of a train, to feel the soul of a place. Angus emphasizes that rivers have always been key to the development of complex societies and the rise of civilizations, offering as they do irrigation, transportation, hydroelectric power, and food. But, as Lost in Mongolia captures with breathtaking detail, while they giveth plenty, the great rivers also taketh away in an instant. In Lost in Mongolia, Colin Angus takes readers through never-before-seen territory and his wonderful sense of adventure and humour come through on every page.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Lost in Mongolia: Rafting the World's Last Unchallenged River Comment: As an explorer, Collin Angus has a deep respect for the natural wonders of earth. In "Lost in Mongolia," he makes an attempt to give readers a sense of what it is to travel down a river at the mercy of nature and he provides an excellent description of how the river acts like a living being with a personality of its own. Through the discoveries readers make about the process of moving from source to mouth, as well as how the water affects surrounding life, he establishes for others the same appreciation that he has for the Yenisey River. The book also doubles as a documentary of the full length of the waterway that is as unique and surprising as the river itself.
Collin has traveled the world on various expeditions since the age of nineteen and ever since has built up a thirst for exploration and adventure. He has rafted all of the world's major rivers including the Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze, with more adrenaline and fervor each time. Soon, adventure became a regular part of his life and would often turn out to be a priority. The Yenisey was the only major river that had not been fully explored by then, and Collin had become set on changing that fact. Angus has written books on most of his trips, and each one reveals more about his double life as a normal human being and an adventurer.
Though his writing does not use spectacular literary techniques to form a connection with the reader, the amazing detail with which he describes each activity and event of almost every day of his voyage is what captures readers. It successfully reels the reader in, slowly but surely and with increasing intensity, by starting with the everyday and at times, escalating to points of rare or special encounters and events. Though some of the curiosities are rather small and may seem unimportant in the grand scheme of things, by the time the reader reaches the middle of the book, all the little foreign wonders of the journey start to break through and impact the reader with a whole new sense of culture and living in a region unfamiliar to the West.
"Lost in Mongolia" is a relatively simple read for any teen or adult. Through simple writing and connections that are easily made, yet with more than enough individuality and detail to seem as if the memory of the expedition is just as much the reader's as it is Collin's, the documentary successfully leaves the reader with some sort of newfound knowledge of the region. Whether it is appreciation, thrill, or cultural wisdom, it will strike readers on a powerful, personal level that is definitely capable of providing insight much later in life.
Customer Rating: Summary: don't judge this book by its first seventy pages... Comment: Not knowing anything about Colin Angus and his past heroics, I picked up this book based on a personal interest in Mongolia and the paucity of travel literature on the region. About seventy pages in, I was utterly exasperated by the author's gloating about his impending accomplishment of being with the first documented group of travelers to run the fifth longest river in the world. There's one stretch where he makes no fewer than five comments over a five page span about how he'd be with the "first Westerners to lay eyes on the landscape." In the opening pages, he shows exruciating attention to detail that is irrelevant to the larger story. What's more, he makes a point of documenting instances where he makes his friends laugh, and points out a friend's failed attempt at making him laugh.
And then... his raft flips over, he loses track of his friends for a couple weeks, and as he slips out of self-absorption we actually see a remarkably humanistic portrayal of people in Mongolia and Siberia. There are some really colorful scenes... for example, playing charades and drawing pictures with rural Mongolians to explain his plight when he is lost; hearing about a doctor prescribing vodka for a leg wound; putting up with a babbling stranger who watches them repair a boat and warning them that they would never succeed. Ultimately, this is a heartwarming story, showing remarkable hospitality- warm meals and warm receptions in a cold climate. At one point a Russian sailor stalks him in his cabin as he is trying to write: "Write later. Drink now!" he insists. Angus embraces this hospitality, and as a result the strangers he encounters come to life in the book.
The river journey itself is thrilling- at times the only way I could assure myself that the travelers would survive was the fact that I was holding a finished book in my hands. And it's clear from the reactions the group receives from the locals that their journey is a remarkable feat, and the travelers are goal-driven achievers.
This is actually a very well-written book, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. You just have to be patient at the start, and the story may win you over just as they were won over by the east Asian hospitality- and the river itself. Customer Rating: Summary: Refreshing tale of fearless adventure Comment: Angus' straightforward and readable tale of daring adventure and relentless stamina is a refreshing insight into one of the least documented regions of earth.
Although not as well written as the version penned by his expedition team-mate Ben Kozel, "Five Months in a Leaky Boat", it is nonetheless a most enjoyable read and highly recommended to anyone with a spirit of adventure.
I suggest readers ignore Bozeman's review of this book on this page, as it looks suspiciously like a bad case of sour grapes from someone who didn't have the skills and perseverence to get his own dream expedition up and running.
Customer Rating: Summary: Impersonation ---- URGENT Comment: I am very concerned that a review of the book "Lost in Mongolia" by my son, Colin Angus, appears under my name in one of a series of reader reviews on your web-site. My name is Valerie Spentzos, and I DO live on Vancouver Island, but there is no way in the world that I would submit a review, plagiarized at that, on any web-site, for a book by a family member. Colin and I believe that someone is using my name (easily discovered in the book), to discredit his favourable reviews. Kindly remove this review, which I certainly did NOT write, from the web-site, and if possible, print my disclaimer, as such dishonesty is really reprehensible. Customer Rating: Summary: Magnificent!! Comment: I received this book on Christmas day and, much to the dismay of the rellies, I finished it on the same day. As the miserable weather outside lashed at the windows and my Aunt Jennifer babbled about napkin handling etiquette, I was far removed to another world; a land of gushing rivers, Russian mafia, indigenous people, and non-stop action. "Lost in Mongolia" is a true modern-day adventure and Angus vividly details the trials and tribulations that he and his team encounter as they attempt to become the first to fully navigate the length of the world's fifth longest river. It is obvious that the quest to be "first" comes secondary to the team's desire to simply get out and explore the most remote regions of our planet from a unique perspective. Angus' strongest writing comes through as he describes the varied characters that they enounter the whole way down the river. For me, the most haunting moment came near the end where, at 71 degrees lattitude in the perpetual grey twilight of the tundra, they come across a scattering of human bones, remnants of Stalin's period of terror. And amongst the bones a small rotted leather shoe is found, obviously from a little girl. It is a mystery that leaves the reader feeling uncomfortable, juxtaposed near the team's triumphant ending at the Arctic Ocean.
This adventure is definitely worth reading about. It is an insightful and difficult journey through one of the last regions on the planet untouched by tourism.
