“Rather than speculate, Mancall delivers the story of how Hudson’s crusade put him on a collision course with his men…. But the story is perhaps most compelling in its descriptions of the Northern territory itself.” –New York Post
“[Fatal Journey] recounts the puzzling episode of a captain overthrown by an enraged faction of his own crew…. [A] short and dependable guide to what befell a great but flawed explorer.” –Washington Post
“For fans of Mutiny on the Bounty and The Caine Mutiny, Fatal Journey will only add to the store and lore of desperate actions on the high seas…. [Mancall] combines forensic history with pulsing narrative to achieve a highly credible account of how the mission unraveled.” –Newark Star-Ledger
“Mr. Mancall writes with authority in tone and scholarship.” –Washington Times
“Mancall [is] a master storyteller and historian…. Any reader of Dr. Mancall’s account will be caught in an exciting adventure and overwhelming tragedy.” –Las Cruces Sun-News
“Fatal Journey is a rich, exhilarating narrative of exploration, desperation, and ice-bound tragedy.”–Boston Globe
“[Mancall’s] facility with primary sources is astounding. The story of Hudson’s last voyage becomes, in his experienced hands, a lucid, fascinating lens into early Atlantic explorations.”–Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Mancall places Hudson and the mutiny in the context of their age, a time when economic and cultural forces lured explorers and sailors into the dangers of a new world in search of profit and fame.” –History Magazine
“This is a story that stretches the imagination and leaves the reader with a shiver.”–Seattle Times
"In this impressive book, Peter Mancall, an expert on 16th- and 17th-century English exploration, explores Hudson's three polar voyages, situating them in the dynamic, expansionist, risk-taking world of late-Elizabethan and early-Stuart commerce." –Naval History
"Mancall writes with a sense of immediacy and realism not often seen in this genre, and the result is a memorable tale of hope, desperation and tragedy." –Time Out for Entertainment (Denver)
"Three things place Peter Mancall in the top ranks of history writers. Not one word of his spellbinding prose is wasted; he doesn't indulge in an iota of revisionism; and he doesn't collapse, weak-kneed, into political correctness, explaining away the foibles of Henry Hudson and his men through the rose-coloured glasses of our own century. Really, there's nothing more to do but settle in for a very satisfying read of the four-century-old Hudson mutiny. Scrupulously researched, but never ponderous, [Fatal Journey] reads like a thriller, and Mancall has pulled off nothing short of a miracle working with such slim archival material." –Naomi Lakritz, Canwest News Service
"Mancall's beautifully written narrative evokes all the wonder and terror of venturing into what was, for Europeans, terra incognita. The explorers' harrowing encounters with icebergs, polar bears, and Inuit, as well as the misery and 'horrors that extreme cold produced,' are all vividly depicted." –The Beaver
“Mancall’s account of the doomed voyage is exciting, tense, and tragic…. This is an excellent re-examination of [Hudson] and his final, sad effort.” – Booklist
“[A] well-researched study…. While this book does not solve the mystery of what happened to Hudson, it does offer general readers excellent insight into 17th-century maritime exploration. Recommended for both lay readers and students of early North American history.” – Library Journal
“Mancall vividly recreates the eager anticipation of the voyage, the lust for conquest and for spices, the voyage’s risks and the joy and terrors that Hudson and his crew faced…. As Mancall so eloquently points out, the resolute will that had served Hudson so well in reaching this summit of exploration also made him unwilling to abandon his goal and led to his demise.” – Publishers Weekly