An old-fashioned, rip-snorting Arctic yarn

The Ice Master A Novel of the Arctic. By James Houston (McClelland& Stewart, $29.99).James Houston, a Canadian-born novelist, artist, documentaryfilmmaker and master designer for Steuben Glass, takes us to theArctic in The Ice Master, a novel about an encounter between a Yankeewhaler, a young Canadian sea captain, and some Eskimos on a smallisland in the Cumberland Sound off Baffin Island in 1876.

This is a rip-roaring, old-fashioned adventure story, packedwith information about whaling and Eskimo life a century ago, andbeautifully illustrated with the author's sketches.

Caleb Dunston is an overbearing, temperamental whaler who isforced by his employers to sail with an inexperienced young captain,Titus Kildeer, who is courting Dunston's stepdaughter Kate. A fewdays out of New London, Conn., Kildeer's crew mutinies and he and hisfirst mate are murdered. Dunston manages to board Kildeer's ship andput down the mutiny, but he is forced to accept help from ThomasFinn, a young but capable Newfoundlander who specializes in guidingships through treacherous sea ice.Finn takes command of Kildeer's ship, replaces the crew withCanadian sailors and accompanies Dunston to the Yankee's favoritewhaling grounds off Blacklead Island.A sexual, architectural and whaling rivalry erupts between thetwo men that drives much of the plot. Dunston and Finn must worktogether, however, when two Scottish whalers arrive and all fourships are frozen in the ice for the winter. Finn leaves when the icebreaks up.Needless to say, he faces many more adventures before the end ofthe story, which is a predictable but satisfying close.