Review
"Bruce Luyendyk is a highly respected geologist, whose research took him on three expeditions to Antarctica's Marie Byrd Land during the 1990s. He even has an Antarctic Mountain named after him. Mighty Bad Land tells the story of the first of these trips to one of the remotest places on earth in personal terms. You emerge with a true sense of the complex emotions and changing relationships that lay at the core of the field experiences. This is a vivid account of the challenges of Antarctic research which resulted in the discovery of a vanished continent: Zealandia. Luyendyk makes tough fieldwork come alive in this unique story." -- Brian Fagan, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, UC Santa Barbara, and author of The Little Ice Age
"Mighty Bad Land is an unvarnished account of a scientist and his team exploring one of the most remote wild places left on Earth. Now retired, Luyendyk tells this story firsthand. Readers will learn from him what kind of people do science at the uttermost end of the earth and how they do it. They will follow his team, and see his personal challenges, on their first expedition. They'll find the answer to the question: what does it take to prevail in Antarctica today? It takes the same sort of grit that it took 120 years ago from scientists traveling on the Discovery, Nimrod, and Terra Nova. Welcome aboard." -- Historian Edward J. Larson, 1998 Pulitzer Prize for History recipient for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion
"Explorers who enter the unknown not only learn about a world no other has ever seen before but they also discover themselves." -- Dr. Robert D. Ballard, Deep-Sea Explorer, and author of Discovery of the Titanic (Exploring the Greatest of All Lost Ships), and Into the Deep
"With this intriguing narrative, Bruce Luyendyk has created a new genre, the Geothriller. Humans and their agendas are upstaged by rocks, glaciers, and continents, where all seek mischievous outcomes. Once you read this book, you'll never look at a map the same way." -- Shelly Lowenkopf, Emeritus Instructor, U SoCal and author of Struts and Frets
"An eighth continent?! An expedition leader who has never set foot into Antarctica's Deep Field, with only primitive technology for an SOS?! "Mighty Bad Land" sweeps readers into a wild world of ice, blizzards, near-death accidents, and discovery by a team of geologists."--Elizabeth Lyon, book editor and best-selling author of Manuscript Makeover
"In this deeply personal account of his first Antarctic expedition, Luyendyk weaves a tale of adventure, peril, frustration, and awe...It is also a fascinating window into the interpersonal dynamics of a small, remote, field party and the complex mind of its author." -- Edmund Stump, Professor Emeritus of Geology at Arizona State University, and author of Otherworldly Antarctica (in press)
Luyendyk's memoir recounts a geological expedition to the "pure wilderness" of Antarctica's Marie Byrd Land. Vividly details the harshness and hazards of life in a "land of hypnotic chaos." — KIRKUS REVIEWS
Mighty Bad Land is an excellent memoir from Bruce Luyendyk, geologist and namesake of Antarctica's Mount Luyendyk, who writes of his and his team's dangerous, exciting, and eventful expedition to Antarctica... A testament to their dedication, drive, and grit to complete their research goals, Bruce and his team not only survived but thrived in this hostile environment. — Theresa Kadair, Seattle Book Review 4 Stars
Informative, fascinating, expertly written, fully reader engaging in organization and presentation, Mighty Bad Land by Bruce Luyendyk will prove to be of special appeal to readers with an interest in Antarctica history and exploration — Carl Logan's Bookshelf, Midwest Book Review
About the Author
EDWARD J. LARSON received the Pulitzer Prize for History for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. He is the co-author of Modern Library's The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison and author of The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783-1789, and A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800. He was an inaugural fellow at the National Library for the Study of George Washington. Larson is University Professor of History and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. He travels widely as a media commentator, visiting instructor, and guest speaker.
Bruce Luyendyk, Distinguished Professor Emeritus from the University of California, Santa Barbara, was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On his first expedition to West Antarctica in 1989, Luyendyk and his geology team found evidence that a large submarine plateau, a fragment from the Gondwana breakup, comprises a sunken continent beneath New Zealand. This eighth continent was named Zealandia by Luyendyk. In 2016, the United States Board on Geographic Names honored the author by naming a summit in Antarctica Mount Luyendyk. Luyendyk is a graduate of San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. His prior research in marine geophysics included exploration of deep-sea black smokers, i.e., hydrothermal vents, using the deep submersible ALVIN off western Mexico. For this, he and colleagues shared the Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Christopher Grove is an award-winning, veteran actor and narrator based in Los Angeles. He guest-stars on top network TV shows (recurring on Season 2 of David Fincher's Mindhunter, How To Get Away With Murder, Pretty Little Liars, Revenge, Scandal, Masters of Sex, Justified, Agent Carter, and more). He has performed at major theaters around the country, including the Mark Taper Forum and the Public Theater. Chris has lived and worked in London, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and some of the places in between. He's the son of a college professor and World War II veteran and of a social worker. He has degrees from the University of Toronto (history and political science) and the University of Southern California (print journalism), where he graduated in the top of his class. 
