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North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther
From “one of our great artists of catastrophe” (Laura van den Berg) comes North Sun, or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther—an allegory of extraction and a tale of adventure and endurance during the waning days of the American whaling industry.
Setting out from New Bedford in 1878, the crew of the Esther is confident the sea will be in addition to cruising the Pacific for whale, they intend to hunt the teeming northern grounds before the ice closes. But as they sail to their final destination in the Chukchi Sea, where their captain Arnold Lovejoy has an urgent directive of his own to attend to, their encounters with the natural world become more brutal, harrowing, ghostly, and strange.
With one foot firmly planted in the traditional sea-voyage narrative, and another in a blazing mythos of its own, this debut novel looks unsparingly at the cost of environmental exploitation and predation, and in doing so feverishly sings not only of the past, but to the present and future as well.
Setting out from New Bedford in 1878, the crew of the Esther is confident the sea will be in addition to cruising the Pacific for whale, they intend to hunt the teeming northern grounds before the ice closes. But as they sail to their final destination in the Chukchi Sea, where their captain Arnold Lovejoy has an urgent directive of his own to attend to, their encounters with the natural world become more brutal, harrowing, ghostly, and strange.
With one foot firmly planted in the traditional sea-voyage narrative, and another in a blazing mythos of its own, this debut novel looks unsparingly at the cost of environmental exploitation and predation, and in doing so feverishly sings not only of the past, but to the present and future as well.
386 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 11, 2025
138 people are currently reading
5383 people want to read
About the author
Ethan Rutherford
7 books56 followersEthan Rutherford’s fiction has been published in Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, and The Best American Short Stories. He was a 2011 McKnight Artist Fellow and has taught creative writing at Macalester, the University of Minnesota, and at the Loft Literary Center. His first book, The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, is a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection for Summer 2013 and has been long-listed for the Frank O’Connor Award. He plays guitar for the band Pennyroyal. For more information, please visit: www.ethanrutherford.net
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October 31, 2025
NORTH SUN
Ernest Hemingway, Neil Gaiman, and John Williams walk into a bar. Hemingway and Gaiman likely share something impossibly lewd, perhaps unspeakably criminal while Williams, aloof at the edge of the bar, sips his whiskey neat and dreams up his next masterpiece.
Hemingway says he’s writing about a man pursuing a great fish. It’s got a lot going on. Short but packs a punch.
Gaiman says, I’m writing a weird one. A little more grown up than usual. There’s worms and portals and feathery demon birds ripping open interdimensional holes and such. It’s real sick, but real good.
Williams says, “Oh, I’m writing a western.” (A western?) “Yes, they’re going to slaughter a bunch of bison, it’s terribly gruesome but I anticipate a complicated message that will sit heavy in good readers’ stomachs.”
Yann Martel walks in. “Oh god here he comes” the three mumble. Hello Yann! Ernest bellows and grips his hand a bit too firmly. “Hi E!,” he says— “well I’m brainstorming this bizarre tiger book, it’s on a boat with a kid, there’s an island, some religious criticism, a sort of fable? Oh you’ll see. You’ll love it.”
Ethan Rutherford is sitting in the dark , candlelit corner of the bar by the broken jukebox. No one notices him, for now. Maybe he has an eyepatch on, a hook for a hand. He’s chewing whale blubber like gum. He’s drinking warm dark ale from a frothing mug. He’s tapping an ashtray with a cigarette he just rolled himself. He’s watching the men talk about their works in progress, knowing he’s already written all of them, all at once. Here it is. North Sun. An eerie, timeless masterpiece.
As I close the last page of this book, I know this is among my favorite books of 2025. It joins several other brilliant works. Haunting, downright freaking scary, and immeasurably meaningful across space and time, probably in several realms of existence, North Sun is IT.
Ive read several books like it, but none as comprehensively damned delightful as this one.
Ernest Hemingway, Neil Gaiman, and John Williams walk into a bar. Hemingway and Gaiman likely share something impossibly lewd, perhaps unspeakably criminal while Williams, aloof at the edge of the bar, sips his whiskey neat and dreams up his next masterpiece.
Hemingway says he’s writing about a man pursuing a great fish. It’s got a lot going on. Short but packs a punch.
Gaiman says, I’m writing a weird one. A little more grown up than usual. There’s worms and portals and feathery demon birds ripping open interdimensional holes and such. It’s real sick, but real good.
Williams says, “Oh, I’m writing a western.” (A western?) “Yes, they’re going to slaughter a bunch of bison, it’s terribly gruesome but I anticipate a complicated message that will sit heavy in good readers’ stomachs.”
Yann Martel walks in. “Oh god here he comes” the three mumble. Hello Yann! Ernest bellows and grips his hand a bit too firmly. “Hi E!,” he says— “well I’m brainstorming this bizarre tiger book, it’s on a boat with a kid, there’s an island, some religious criticism, a sort of fable? Oh you’ll see. You’ll love it.”
Ethan Rutherford is sitting in the dark , candlelit corner of the bar by the broken jukebox. No one notices him, for now. Maybe he has an eyepatch on, a hook for a hand. He’s chewing whale blubber like gum. He’s drinking warm dark ale from a frothing mug. He’s tapping an ashtray with a cigarette he just rolled himself. He’s watching the men talk about their works in progress, knowing he’s already written all of them, all at once. Here it is. North Sun. An eerie, timeless masterpiece.
As I close the last page of this book, I know this is among my favorite books of 2025. It joins several other brilliant works. Haunting, downright freaking scary, and immeasurably meaningful across space and time, probably in several realms of existence, North Sun is IT.
Ive read several books like it, but none as comprehensively damned delightful as this one.
November 28, 2025
A Captain Without a Ship
is Flightless...
NORTH SUN:
Or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther
by Ethan Rutherford
4 1/2 stars. In 1878, Captain Arnold Lovejoy delivered a letter to whaling magnate Clifford Ashley from Ashley's son-in-law, Benjamin Leander...
Leander was the Captain of the Dromo, a ship in Ashley's fleet, which had been crushed on the ice, then dismantled...
All the cargo was lost along with an Ashley possession, which Leander kept for himself. Leander's letter stated he would not be returning...
And he insisted Lovejoy leave him on the ice...
These were bad days for whalers and their families. Crews did three to seven years before the mast...
The Ashleys were famous and revered in and around New Bedford, MA. They were ruthless and had built a formidable fleet of whalers. They had no equal...
Later that night...
A young son of Ashley's found Lovejoy in the Davit Tavern enjoying a rum. He was there to deliver a proposal to Lovejoy from his father...
Ashley wanted Lovejoy to captain his vessel the Esther, bring back the errant Leander, take as many whales as possible along the way...
And...
Take along a passenger, Edmund Thule (not part of the crew), to retrieve something that Leander took from the ship before it was dismantled...
Four days later...
Lovejoy accepted the proposal because a captain without a ship is flightless...
This was an excellent seafaring story about a whalership. There are the usual perils: sharks, ship worms, a bully buggering young cabin boys, ice, and a mythical German folkloric creature known as Old Sorrel.
If you like seafaring stories about whalers, you might also like THE NORTH WATER by Ian McGuire, or a more modern Alaskan fishing boat adventure, THE NORTH LINE by Matt Riordan.
Warning to some readers: The killing of whales and walrus is depicted in this story, although the author spares a lot of the gory details.
is Flightless...
NORTH SUN:
Or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther
by Ethan Rutherford
4 1/2 stars. In 1878, Captain Arnold Lovejoy delivered a letter to whaling magnate Clifford Ashley from Ashley's son-in-law, Benjamin Leander...
Leander was the Captain of the Dromo, a ship in Ashley's fleet, which had been crushed on the ice, then dismantled...
All the cargo was lost along with an Ashley possession, which Leander kept for himself. Leander's letter stated he would not be returning...
And he insisted Lovejoy leave him on the ice...
These were bad days for whalers and their families. Crews did three to seven years before the mast...
The Ashleys were famous and revered in and around New Bedford, MA. They were ruthless and had built a formidable fleet of whalers. They had no equal...
Later that night...
A young son of Ashley's found Lovejoy in the Davit Tavern enjoying a rum. He was there to deliver a proposal to Lovejoy from his father...
Ashley wanted Lovejoy to captain his vessel the Esther, bring back the errant Leander, take as many whales as possible along the way...
And...
Take along a passenger, Edmund Thule (not part of the crew), to retrieve something that Leander took from the ship before it was dismantled...
Four days later...
Lovejoy accepted the proposal because a captain without a ship is flightless...
This was an excellent seafaring story about a whalership. There are the usual perils: sharks, ship worms, a bully buggering young cabin boys, ice, and a mythical German folkloric creature known as Old Sorrel.
If you like seafaring stories about whalers, you might also like THE NORTH WATER by Ian McGuire, or a more modern Alaskan fishing boat adventure, THE NORTH LINE by Matt Riordan.
Warning to some readers: The killing of whales and walrus is depicted in this story, although the author spares a lot of the gory details.
March 12, 2025
(3.5) It’s the late 19th century and a discontented sailor, Arnold Lovejoy, has been charged with a task by the Ashleys, a powerful whaling family. He must cross the Chukchi Sea on board a ship, the Esther, and find their daughter’s husband, who has settled on the ice and refuses to return home. This voyage is stark and punishing, rendered in long, brutal scenes of whale-hunting. But as it progresses, it grows stranger. Notably, there’s the presence of a giant bird-man who can only be seen by the ship’s two youngest sailors. And of course the climactic sequence, when Lovejoy and Thule actually reach Leander’s cabin; I won’t spoil it except to say it is wonderfully dreamlike, surreal and lucid.
Told in more than two hundred short chapters, North Sun has a pleasingly abstract texture and is full of evocative description. Characters talk in riddles – Lovejoy’s first line of dialogue is this: ‘Your frown is like a symbol in some long-lost alphabet.’ It’s as if a story about adventure at sea had been reworked by a writer like Sarah Bernstein or M. John Harrison. This is a novel that would slot straight in to one of those ‘books that feel like A24 films’ lists.
I received an advance review copy of North Sun from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Told in more than two hundred short chapters, North Sun has a pleasingly abstract texture and is full of evocative description. Characters talk in riddles – Lovejoy’s first line of dialogue is this: ‘Your frown is like a symbol in some long-lost alphabet.’ It’s as if a story about adventure at sea had been reworked by a writer like Sarah Bernstein or M. John Harrison. This is a novel that would slot straight in to one of those ‘books that feel like A24 films’ lists.
I received an advance review copy of North Sun from the publisher through Edelweiss.
October 7, 2024
Seasickening and fascinating. This is horror-fantasy in the vein of “The Terror” or “1899.” The style, though, is more experimental. Short chapters move the story along briskly while the actual events are dreamlike and slow, creating an unsettlingly propulsive lull. The writing is poetic and stark.
I’m so impressed with Rutherford’s ability to draw fraught, intense relationships between characters in very, very short scenes. Obsessed with whatever is going on in the wild quadrangle between Arnold Lovejoy, Edmund Thule, Sarah Ashley and Benjamin Leander.
Content warning for rape, including against children.
I’m so impressed with Rutherford’s ability to draw fraught, intense relationships between characters in very, very short scenes. Obsessed with whatever is going on in the wild quadrangle between Arnold Lovejoy, Edmund Thule, Sarah Ashley and Benjamin Leander.
Content warning for rape, including against children.
December 4, 2025
Nominated this year for the National Book Award, North Sun is a magical book that takes place on the open sea during the late 1800s. It had some captivating moments for sure, but there was just something missing in it for me. I know many were put off by some of the immoral occurrences aboard the ship, but that isn't what bothered me. The writing was decent, and I actually appreciated some of the very short passages. I will admit, I just don't think I'm the right audience for this book. I did appreciate the fantasy/magical realism aspects the most.
September 25, 2025
My original review was this is...fine. But I thought I should expand a bit.
--------
With a title that alludes to both Melville and McCarthy, my expectations were high. Unfortunately this ended up being merely fine, at times frustrating and hollow (frustratingly hollow?)
This book is written in vignettes, chapters will end mid conversation or scene and immediately pick up in the next chapter. Why?? I’m sure the vignettes were meant to allow the story to move quickly, to speed along the repetitive nature of a sea journey, or to reflect a captain’s log or even the rhythm of the sea. Somehow this ended up having the opposite effect on me. I FELT the length of this book, one that in the end isn’t even that long once you remove all the empty space. That emptiness is probably the heart of the matter; I wanted that barrenness to be filled in.
There’s a lack of interiority in these pages, I would say almost a lack of humanity. There’s a very distant third person that floats along, there really aren’t conversations or thoughts or a true protagonist.I wanted some reflection. The characters are symbols more than anything, which made this feel more like a fable or folklore than a novel. Religious allusions abound - there are falling fish, a golden egg, even the numbering of the chapters resemble a bible. I did like how Rutherford just lets myth mix with reality, he lets the weird just hang there in an almost Lynchian way, reminding the reader that they’re reading a story.
This is a horror story in a sense, if the horror is the violence capitalism breeds. And while it’s about endings -the ending of the whaling industry, the ship, a way of life, of (almost) whales themselves - capitalism itself will just take a new form and continue on, everlasting. I would call this a weird lit book, albeit a light intro to that genre. The book becomes more exciting once we reach the Chukchi Sea, but, again, I wanted more. I wanted it to really lean into the uncanny and the body horror. It’s my fault that I’m asking the book to be something it’s not.
There was enough here to keep me going to the end, but not enough to sweep me away.
--------
With a title that alludes to both Melville and McCarthy, my expectations were high. Unfortunately this ended up being merely fine, at times frustrating and hollow (frustratingly hollow?)
This book is written in vignettes, chapters will end mid conversation or scene and immediately pick up in the next chapter. Why?? I’m sure the vignettes were meant to allow the story to move quickly, to speed along the repetitive nature of a sea journey, or to reflect a captain’s log or even the rhythm of the sea. Somehow this ended up having the opposite effect on me. I FELT the length of this book, one that in the end isn’t even that long once you remove all the empty space. That emptiness is probably the heart of the matter; I wanted that barrenness to be filled in.
There’s a lack of interiority in these pages, I would say almost a lack of humanity. There’s a very distant third person that floats along, there really aren’t conversations or thoughts or a true protagonist.I wanted some reflection. The characters are symbols more than anything, which made this feel more like a fable or folklore than a novel. Religious allusions abound - there are falling fish, a golden egg, even the numbering of the chapters resemble a bible. I did like how Rutherford just lets myth mix with reality, he lets the weird just hang there in an almost Lynchian way, reminding the reader that they’re reading a story.
This is a horror story in a sense, if the horror is the violence capitalism breeds. And while it’s about endings -the ending of the whaling industry, the ship, a way of life, of (almost) whales themselves - capitalism itself will just take a new form and continue on, everlasting. I would call this a weird lit book, albeit a light intro to that genre. The book becomes more exciting once we reach the Chukchi Sea, but, again, I wanted more. I wanted it to really lean into the uncanny and the body horror. It’s my fault that I’m asking the book to be something it’s not.
There was enough here to keep me going to the end, but not enough to sweep me away.
December 21, 2025
Just when you think you’re settling into a run‑of‑the‑mill historical novel about a whaleship sent to locate the missing captain of another vessel lost in Arctic waters… North Sun veers gloriously off the map. What begins as a straightforward maritime rescue tilts into something stranger and far more intoxicating than I had expected.
Told in sharp, stunning chapters, the novel follows Arnold Lovejoy, a whaleman recruited by the powerful Ashley family to find their missing son‑in‑law, Leander, and retrieve a prized heirloom believed to be stranded with him on the ice. Lovejoy—hopelessly smitten with the Ashleys’ daughter, Leander’s wife—leaps at the chance to return to sea, chase a little whale, and maybe win her favor along the way.
But the farther the ship sails, the more the story mutates. What starts as a simple search‑and‑rescue spirals into a gruesome, violent, fantastical descent into the deep. Think Moby-Dick with a heavy pour of McGuire’s North Water, Rawson's From the Wreck, and Nahill’s From the Belly—a dark, atmospheric, haunting debut that only grows more feral and hypnotic the deeper you go.
By the final pages, you’re not just reading a whaling tale—you’re swallowed whole by it.
Love love love!
Told in sharp, stunning chapters, the novel follows Arnold Lovejoy, a whaleman recruited by the powerful Ashley family to find their missing son‑in‑law, Leander, and retrieve a prized heirloom believed to be stranded with him on the ice. Lovejoy—hopelessly smitten with the Ashleys’ daughter, Leander’s wife—leaps at the chance to return to sea, chase a little whale, and maybe win her favor along the way.
But the farther the ship sails, the more the story mutates. What starts as a simple search‑and‑rescue spirals into a gruesome, violent, fantastical descent into the deep. Think Moby-Dick with a heavy pour of McGuire’s North Water, Rawson's From the Wreck, and Nahill’s From the Belly—a dark, atmospheric, haunting debut that only grows more feral and hypnotic the deeper you go.
By the final pages, you’re not just reading a whaling tale—you’re swallowed whole by it.
Love love love!
November 10, 2025
From its opening pages, this novel aligns itself with the great tradition of seafaring literature—there’s the obvious Moby-Dick lineage, but also the more contemporary, gritty novels I’ve loved, like Ian McGuire’s The North Water and Ottessa Moshfegh’s McGlue. Like those works, this book has its sights on the grimmer edges of life at sea, diving straight into the violence, the rot, the feral instincts of men who feel more at home surrounded by saltwater and slaughter than by any of the structures of civilization.
Each chapter is composed of short, sharply delineated scenes, and these fragments are stacked together to build a hallucinatory portrait of life aboard the ship, a world defined by rituals, cruelty, and a constant sense of impending violence. Rutherford’s research feels vast, but it never weighs the story down; it’s integrated so organically that I felt I could step right into “the dark, delectable sea” or the cramped quarters of the Esther without being distracted by the details.
The book opens with children torturing a dog—a chilling indicator of the cruelty that will shape everything that follows. Violence is constant. Whale hunting is depicted in gruesome detail, but the violence also extends to the men themselves. In one horrifying scene, a man is murdered and dissected with the same cold efficiency used on whales, showing how easily human bodies can be reduced to resources to be exploited.
Rutherford also leans heavily into the surreal, weaving in dreams, visions, and supernatural phenomena. The book becomes hallucinatory in the northern waters, delirious with scenes featuring magical talismans, rituals, and omens that echo the way these men imbue their journey with philosophical and spiritual meaning. It’s as if they’re trying to elevate their brutality into a divine mission, using superstition to cloak their simple greed.
I love that Rutherford doesn’t pretend these men are victims of circumstance alone. There’s a clear-eyed recognition that they choose this life, that they prefer it. They would rather confront death, madness, and the wrath of the sea than live on land among the “unfathomable social structures and obligations” of society. It quickly becomes clear that the real story is about the extinction of an entire way of life and the destructive forces that both shape and consume these men.
Rutherford’s insights on violence, masculinity, and obsession are sharp and unflinching, and his writing shows off an immersive, keen intelligence that I really enjoyed.
Each chapter is composed of short, sharply delineated scenes, and these fragments are stacked together to build a hallucinatory portrait of life aboard the ship, a world defined by rituals, cruelty, and a constant sense of impending violence. Rutherford’s research feels vast, but it never weighs the story down; it’s integrated so organically that I felt I could step right into “the dark, delectable sea” or the cramped quarters of the Esther without being distracted by the details.
The book opens with children torturing a dog—a chilling indicator of the cruelty that will shape everything that follows. Violence is constant. Whale hunting is depicted in gruesome detail, but the violence also extends to the men themselves. In one horrifying scene, a man is murdered and dissected with the same cold efficiency used on whales, showing how easily human bodies can be reduced to resources to be exploited.
Rutherford also leans heavily into the surreal, weaving in dreams, visions, and supernatural phenomena. The book becomes hallucinatory in the northern waters, delirious with scenes featuring magical talismans, rituals, and omens that echo the way these men imbue their journey with philosophical and spiritual meaning. It’s as if they’re trying to elevate their brutality into a divine mission, using superstition to cloak their simple greed.
I love that Rutherford doesn’t pretend these men are victims of circumstance alone. There’s a clear-eyed recognition that they choose this life, that they prefer it. They would rather confront death, madness, and the wrath of the sea than live on land among the “unfathomable social structures and obligations” of society. It quickly becomes clear that the real story is about the extinction of an entire way of life and the destructive forces that both shape and consume these men.
Rutherford’s insights on violence, masculinity, and obsession are sharp and unflinching, and his writing shows off an immersive, keen intelligence that I really enjoyed.
Read
October 12, 2025This was… kind of a mixed bag? I loved the opening. Rutherford is great at building atmosphere: the whaling town, a once-dominant industry in its twilight, a lost ship, a desperate expedition taking shape. The chapters are short (1-3 pages) and tightly written, the prose moody and spare - not always my thing, but so confidently done that I was on board. To a point.
After the ship set off, the book started to lose me. There's not a lot happening at the character level, so the story becomes a fairly bleak loop of ocean and weather updates punctuated by occasional violence - against both humans and nature. (And some of this is... quite dark.) It's well-written, but emotionally distant and a bit flat. In Moby-Dick, I actually liked the much-maligned digressions about whaling and whales and even the color white - they gave that book a texture that was missing here. What we have instead in North Sun is a surreal thread that picks up during the sea journey - some quasi-mythical occurrences that I wasn't entirely sure what to do with.
This book is clearly addressing big themes - environmental destruction, capitalism, greed - and a lot of that is taking place at the surface level. But it's also clear that symbolism is playing a big role here, and I struggled a bit to grasp it or even understand how much - if anything - I was missing. I don't mind ambiguity, and I tend to dislike heavy-handedness, but this felt frustratingly just out of reach.
Tl;dr the writing was great, but probably too symbolic for this reader. I loved the land-based parts!
After the ship set off, the book started to lose me. There's not a lot happening at the character level, so the story becomes a fairly bleak loop of ocean and weather updates punctuated by occasional violence - against both humans and nature. (And some of this is... quite dark.) It's well-written, but emotionally distant and a bit flat. In Moby-Dick, I actually liked the much-maligned digressions about whaling and whales and even the color white - they gave that book a texture that was missing here. What we have instead in North Sun is a surreal thread that picks up during the sea journey - some quasi-mythical occurrences that I wasn't entirely sure what to do with.
This book is clearly addressing big themes - environmental destruction, capitalism, greed - and a lot of that is taking place at the surface level. But it's also clear that symbolism is playing a big role here, and I struggled a bit to grasp it or even understand how much - if anything - I was missing. I don't mind ambiguity, and I tend to dislike heavy-handedness, but this felt frustratingly just out of reach.
Tl;dr the writing was great, but probably too symbolic for this reader. I loved the land-based parts!
October 21, 2025
spooky moby dick.... might be one of the best books I’ve ever read
April 28, 2025
A wild, delirious wonder of a book.
October 21, 2025
an excellent, tension-building narrative that careens from seafaring adventure to surrealist horror without ever losing its groundedness. allegorical and deeply personal, on exploitation, violence, predation; at once claustrophobic and cosmic. delicious!
November 5, 2025
How I loved this book in the first half. There’s a feeling I get when I’m reading something special, something memorable and maybe important, and I really had that feeling. The quality of the writing was excellent, and I felt the 19th century whaling life in a sensual way. The descriptions of whale hunting and processing definitely grabbed me, and the descriptions of the natural world in the north were vivid. The narration was either with the captain or with two young cabin boys, brothers ( I didn’t notice at first that neither of the three of them really seemed to have a very well defined character). I was even fine with the first intimations that some kind of magical realism was going on. I like magical realism– when it makes sense and has some sort of logic to it.
In the second half of the book, I felt that this author squandered the considerable amount of trust that had been built for me in the first half. Weird shit was happening– and it was all kind of arbitrary. I mean, it maybe had something to do with climate change and with capitalism. There’s a magical creature who is also maybe an albatross- he comes, he goes, it seems random. It wound up being really boring.
The author pulled it together a bit at the end, but not enough to prevent this from being a disappointment.
Oh, and big trigger warning for sexual assault.
In the second half of the book, I felt that this author squandered the considerable amount of trust that had been built for me in the first half. Weird shit was happening– and it was all kind of arbitrary. I mean, it maybe had something to do with climate change and with capitalism. There’s a magical creature who is also maybe an albatross- he comes, he goes, it seems random. It wound up being really boring.
The author pulled it together a bit at the end, but not enough to prevent this from being a disappointment.
Oh, and big trigger warning for sexual assault.
March 28, 2025
actually 3.5 but i'm being kind.
October 31, 2025
What a twisted little nugget this turned out to be!
Beginning of book - The disgraced Captain Lovejoy has returned to New England from his expedition with something, even if it isn’t his ship. A man walked up to him in the Arctic ice, gave him a message to deliver, then moseyed off again into the ice and fog on foot. Lovejoy succeeds in delivering the message to the odd and filthy rich Ashley family, owners of whaling ships and businessmen of whaling products. The message was basically “I’m not coming home, bitches!!”, from the captain of one of their ships who is also the husband of Sarah Ashley. The Ashleys then offer Lovejoy the job of going back to the Arctic to forcibly remove his ass (and something he carried with him) if he hasn’t frozen to death. Remind hubby this is no trip to get milk or cigarettes; he is a husband and father and will return, they say in their woo woo creepy way. Kinda like those dudes in The Godfather. They tell Lovejoy to go ahead and get as many whales as possible on the way. Lovejoy accepts the offer because he needs the job, he needs the money, and because his wife and children feel extremely meh about him being home anyway. Plus you can’t really say no to a job given to you by the magical ghosty woo woo whale mafia.
Middle of book - completely insane, gross, depraved stuff. So much weirdness. So much creepiness. So much evil.
End of book -still pretty weird, with some heart-eyes mixed in.
There are some great modern themes in this book masquerading as a whaling adventure story. Fishing to extinction, accessing resources without regulation, hunting for entertainment rather than sustenance, melting ice caps, and other environmental issues are part of the novel but I never felt I was being beaten over the head with it. The book is on the shorter side, with each chapter sectioned off into subchapters that are 1-2 pages long or even 1-2 sentences sometimes, making it both easy and difficult to find a stopping point. I was engaged the entire time.
5 huge stars from me. Trigger warning for rape of children and its emotional/mental aftermath.
Beginning of book - The disgraced Captain Lovejoy has returned to New England from his expedition with something, even if it isn’t his ship. A man walked up to him in the Arctic ice, gave him a message to deliver, then moseyed off again into the ice and fog on foot. Lovejoy succeeds in delivering the message to the odd and filthy rich Ashley family, owners of whaling ships and businessmen of whaling products. The message was basically “I’m not coming home, bitches!!”, from the captain of one of their ships who is also the husband of Sarah Ashley. The Ashleys then offer Lovejoy the job of going back to the Arctic to forcibly remove his ass (and something he carried with him) if he hasn’t frozen to death. Remind hubby this is no trip to get milk or cigarettes; he is a husband and father and will return, they say in their woo woo creepy way. Kinda like those dudes in The Godfather. They tell Lovejoy to go ahead and get as many whales as possible on the way. Lovejoy accepts the offer because he needs the job, he needs the money, and because his wife and children feel extremely meh about him being home anyway. Plus you can’t really say no to a job given to you by the magical ghosty woo woo whale mafia.
Middle of book - completely insane, gross, depraved stuff. So much weirdness. So much creepiness. So much evil.
End of book -still pretty weird, with some heart-eyes mixed in.
There are some great modern themes in this book masquerading as a whaling adventure story. Fishing to extinction, accessing resources without regulation, hunting for entertainment rather than sustenance, melting ice caps, and other environmental issues are part of the novel but I never felt I was being beaten over the head with it. The book is on the shorter side, with each chapter sectioned off into subchapters that are 1-2 pages long or even 1-2 sentences sometimes, making it both easy and difficult to find a stopping point. I was engaged the entire time.
5 huge stars from me. Trigger warning for rape of children and its emotional/mental aftermath.
October 27, 2025
This is a difficult book to describe. It takes place in the 1870s, at the end of the Whaling era. Whale have become more scarce, and petroleum has become easier to extract. Times are changing. The story opens with a whaling captain, Lovejoy, freshly returned from a failed expedition. Years at sea with very little whale oil to show for it. Ruined finances and little in the way of prospects.
On the journey he'd encountered another whaling ship that had succumb to the ice and the captain of that vessel sends him away with a letter to his employer, The Ashleys, who are also his in-laws, telling them he plans to stay in the north forever, never to return.
This kicks off the story as Lovejoy is hired by the Ashleys to redeem himself, he is given command of a new ship and tasked with collecting both a ship full of whale oil and the rogue son-in-law both of which will make him a rich man.
The actual story ends up being more like a fever dream with mythological undercurrents. Nothing is as it seems and madness both at sea and on the ice lie ahead. I absolutely could not put it down.
Trigger Warnings for SA against children and graphic depictions of the whaling hunting and processing which are gruesome.
On the journey he'd encountered another whaling ship that had succumb to the ice and the captain of that vessel sends him away with a letter to his employer, The Ashleys, who are also his in-laws, telling them he plans to stay in the north forever, never to return.
This kicks off the story as Lovejoy is hired by the Ashleys to redeem himself, he is given command of a new ship and tasked with collecting both a ship full of whale oil and the rogue son-in-law both of which will make him a rich man.
The actual story ends up being more like a fever dream with mythological undercurrents. Nothing is as it seems and madness both at sea and on the ice lie ahead. I absolutely could not put it down.
Trigger Warnings for SA against children and graphic depictions of the whaling hunting and processing which are gruesome.
December 1, 2025
This was an especially rich read for me since I read Moby Dick for the first time earlier this year. I enjoyed comparing in my head the similarities between the two ships (the Esther and the Pequod) and also the differences. The language here, unlike Moby Dick, is generally very clean and precise though occasionally I get hints of Cormac McCarthy. In fact if I had to describe this book through other books, I would call it Moby Dick meets Blood Meridian plus something else. I'm glad I read it and I'm still thinking about how I feel about the second half (I consider these lingering thoughts to be a good thing).
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April 25, 2025During the dying days of New England whaling — with a cast of disturbed and deeply lonely men — a strange ship sets out to sea with a mission. It’s faced with ghostly obstacles, inexplainable encounters.
Perfectly weird, eerie, mythological, dark and funny. The exact type of book to get from Amy ;) If you know about anything it’s that I’m drawn to stories of shipwreck, probably because shipwreck itself is my biggest irrational fear. After reading In the Heart of the Sea, I’d say I’m also drawn to stories of whaling.
I fear that I ruined my enjoyment of this book by reading it in the middle being evicted/unevicted. Then spring came and the flowers bloomed and the sun lured me away. This took me a while, but I genuinely feel like I would have been hooked if not for the timing.
Perfectly weird, eerie, mythological, dark and funny. The exact type of book to get from Amy ;) If you know about anything it’s that I’m drawn to stories of shipwreck, probably because shipwreck itself is my biggest irrational fear. After reading In the Heart of the Sea, I’d say I’m also drawn to stories of whaling.
I fear that I ruined my enjoyment of this book by reading it in the middle being evicted/unevicted. Then spring came and the flowers bloomed and the sun lured me away. This took me a while, but I genuinely feel like I would have been hooked if not for the timing.
October 30, 2025
If Anti-Climactic was a book
October 21, 2025
"what in the actual fuck" is about all I can think of as a review for this book. a deserved finalist for the national book award and I sincerely hope it wins
July 1, 2025
The opening scenes of this novel suggest that it will be a traditional maritime adventure—maybe a little dark but reminiscent of Melville, Conrad or Forester. Nonetheless, it slowly morphs into something stranger and more elegiacal. Rutherford uses the claustrophobic setting of a ship on an extended voyage during the waning years of the whaling industry to explore larger questions that still resonate today. How much of our environment are we willing to sacrifice for short term profits? Can mankind’s ingenuity ever overcome nature or are we doomed to a creeping devastation? In addition to man’s hubris, the setting gives Rutherford an opportunity to explore other issues like colonialism, toxic masculinity and brutality, isolation and endurance. Also, he introduces mythical and allegorical elements to the classical nautical genre.
The third-person narrator doesn’t particularly engage with the action. Instead, he is passive and merely observational. Moreover, there is no real protagonist in the story. The ironically named captain, Arnold Lovejoy, is anything but joyful. He is estranged from his family and has recently returned from a failed whaling expedition only to take on another extended voyage. This one will be aimed at hunting in the Pacific and Arctic for the greatly diminished whales, while also returning a missing whaling captain who may have absconded with the proceeds of a lost Arctic expedition. Lovejoy seems willing to use questionable methods to please the ship’s owner and to achieve his goals.
With the exception of two young brothers, the remainder of the ship’s crew seems equally joyless. They doggedly go about the work of whaling, the brutality of which Rutherford captures in vivid detail. Many of the other principal characters seem more allegorical than real. Leander, the missing captain, is a Kurtz-like figure, disillusioned with life and with what he was required to do for his employers; Thule, the mysterious man sent along by the owner to make sure Lovejoy succeeds is definitely a loyal company man willing to stoop to anything for his boss; Eastman, a prominent member of the crew, is evil incarnate; and Old Sorrell, a strange creature—half man half bird—seems to be some kind of divine protector of the innocent and the environment. Rutherford focuses on the two young boys to provide a hint of redemption. As the least skilled members of the crew, everyone takes advantage of them in multiple ways, both mundane and malicious. If the novel has any uplifting message, however, it is through the mutual caring that the brothers have for each other.
Rutherford’s overarching mood is moral ambiguity. This evokes a sense of foreboding and unease that increases with the claustrophobic setting, the unrelenting brutality and danger, and the strangeness of the environment and events. Although effective, this approach leaves one wishing for more resolution and emotional reckoning. Rutherford’s emphasis on mood over plot also makes this a slow-paced read. Notwithstanding these flaws, the writing is sparse and lyrical with particular emphasis on the imagery of the Arctic and the unflinching descriptions of what it takes to extract profit from the environment.
The third-person narrator doesn’t particularly engage with the action. Instead, he is passive and merely observational. Moreover, there is no real protagonist in the story. The ironically named captain, Arnold Lovejoy, is anything but joyful. He is estranged from his family and has recently returned from a failed whaling expedition only to take on another extended voyage. This one will be aimed at hunting in the Pacific and Arctic for the greatly diminished whales, while also returning a missing whaling captain who may have absconded with the proceeds of a lost Arctic expedition. Lovejoy seems willing to use questionable methods to please the ship’s owner and to achieve his goals.
With the exception of two young brothers, the remainder of the ship’s crew seems equally joyless. They doggedly go about the work of whaling, the brutality of which Rutherford captures in vivid detail. Many of the other principal characters seem more allegorical than real. Leander, the missing captain, is a Kurtz-like figure, disillusioned with life and with what he was required to do for his employers; Thule, the mysterious man sent along by the owner to make sure Lovejoy succeeds is definitely a loyal company man willing to stoop to anything for his boss; Eastman, a prominent member of the crew, is evil incarnate; and Old Sorrell, a strange creature—half man half bird—seems to be some kind of divine protector of the innocent and the environment. Rutherford focuses on the two young boys to provide a hint of redemption. As the least skilled members of the crew, everyone takes advantage of them in multiple ways, both mundane and malicious. If the novel has any uplifting message, however, it is through the mutual caring that the brothers have for each other.
Rutherford’s overarching mood is moral ambiguity. This evokes a sense of foreboding and unease that increases with the claustrophobic setting, the unrelenting brutality and danger, and the strangeness of the environment and events. Although effective, this approach leaves one wishing for more resolution and emotional reckoning. Rutherford’s emphasis on mood over plot also makes this a slow-paced read. Notwithstanding these flaws, the writing is sparse and lyrical with particular emphasis on the imagery of the Arctic and the unflinching descriptions of what it takes to extract profit from the environment.
March 5, 2025
This book and its Moby Dick sounding title immediately caught my eye. It looked new and was on display at my local book shop, but had no price listed on its cover. A quick search offered up more mystery: It wasn’t due to be released for another month. All I could garner was that it’s the debut novel of a short story writer described as “an artist of catastrophe.” Ultimately, I couldn’t resist a book with some lore, let alone the promise of a sea-faring adventure.
“North Sun” did not disappoint. Like Moby Dick the tale begins in a 19th century New Bedford, but a few decades after Melville’s setting, with a whaling industry already in decline. Arthur Lovejoy, the captain introduced as our protagonist, has returned home after a failed years-long voyage. But he carries a letter whose contents will end up sending him on his next trip — a whaling journey with the additional objective of tracking down and returning another ship captain, the son-in-law of New Bedford’s most powerful and legendary whaling family, who has inexplicably abandoned ship to live alone in the oblivion of the Arctic.
The Melville and Conrad influences are clear. But what makes this book unique are the more contemporary touches, with elements of horror (akin to The Terror) and even the mythical sci-fi of Octavia Butler’s Patternist series. What’s more, it’s uniquely short but often lyrical chapters lend a fast pace to the slow-burn / dread-building narrative which will propel you to its unsettling but satisfying end. What a great journey.
“North Sun” did not disappoint. Like Moby Dick the tale begins in a 19th century New Bedford, but a few decades after Melville’s setting, with a whaling industry already in decline. Arthur Lovejoy, the captain introduced as our protagonist, has returned home after a failed years-long voyage. But he carries a letter whose contents will end up sending him on his next trip — a whaling journey with the additional objective of tracking down and returning another ship captain, the son-in-law of New Bedford’s most powerful and legendary whaling family, who has inexplicably abandoned ship to live alone in the oblivion of the Arctic.
The Melville and Conrad influences are clear. But what makes this book unique are the more contemporary touches, with elements of horror (akin to The Terror) and even the mythical sci-fi of Octavia Butler’s Patternist series. What’s more, it’s uniquely short but often lyrical chapters lend a fast pace to the slow-burn / dread-building narrative which will propel you to its unsettling but satisfying end. What a great journey.
March 19, 2025
I really enjoyed this. It was a dark, maritime fairy tale. An unusual fusion of magic and granular history. Cool structure, too.
October 16, 2025
I wouldn’t have picked up North Sun if not for its nomination for the National Book Award. Normally when I start a review like that, the next thing I say is something like “but I’m so glad I did!” Wellllll…not so much this time, but it’s also not the book’s fault. This was a classic case of mismatch between book and reader.
As its subtitle suggests, North Sun is about a whaling ship. It takes place in the late 1800s and features a captain who is hired by the most powerful whaling family to retrieve a formerly employed captain (and something he possesses) from where he’s trapped (or maybe not trapped) on the ice. Then let’s just say the figure on the book’s cover shows up, and things get weird. It’s written in 200+ vignettes.
Ultimately, this is part horror novel, part fable. But unfortunately for me and my taste, it is much more horrific than fabled. There is a lot — and I mean a LOT — of graphic animal slaughter and harvesting in this book, plus some very terrible things done to children (although that, at least, is not described graphically). It was just too much for me, fully distracting from anything the book was doing from a literary perspective. I rushed through, wanting to just be done, waiting for the promised shift, which I thought would bring an end the horrific parts but did not. And that is a shame, because I can tell that Rutherford is extremely smart; this book just requires the reader to engage with it more than I had the stomach for.
TLDR, my feelings about this book are much more about me than the book, and I’ve heard from plenty of others who like it — so if you think it might be for you, don’t let me dissuade you! Just go in with eyes wide open.
Content and trigger warnings:
Animal slaughter and cruelty (graphic); Pedophilia / child abuse / rape; Marital rape; Death and violence; Suicide attempt
As its subtitle suggests, North Sun is about a whaling ship. It takes place in the late 1800s and features a captain who is hired by the most powerful whaling family to retrieve a formerly employed captain (and something he possesses) from where he’s trapped (or maybe not trapped) on the ice. Then let’s just say the figure on the book’s cover shows up, and things get weird. It’s written in 200+ vignettes.
Ultimately, this is part horror novel, part fable. But unfortunately for me and my taste, it is much more horrific than fabled. There is a lot — and I mean a LOT — of graphic animal slaughter and harvesting in this book, plus some very terrible things done to children (although that, at least, is not described graphically). It was just too much for me, fully distracting from anything the book was doing from a literary perspective. I rushed through, wanting to just be done, waiting for the promised shift, which I thought would bring an end the horrific parts but did not. And that is a shame, because I can tell that Rutherford is extremely smart; this book just requires the reader to engage with it more than I had the stomach for.
TLDR, my feelings about this book are much more about me than the book, and I’ve heard from plenty of others who like it — so if you think it might be for you, don’t let me dissuade you! Just go in with eyes wide open.
Content and trigger warnings:
Animal slaughter and cruelty (graphic); Pedophilia / child abuse / rape; Marital rape; Death and violence; Suicide attempt
July 25, 2025
Through short chapters we follow the Esther on a whaling expedition in the late 1800s. Things are incredibly bleak for everybody aboard the ship and the descriptions of the whaling had me grimacing in their detail. That being said it was really wonderful . to read. A friend of mine gave it to me as a galley. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't get to it pre-pub but I am really glad that I was put on to it and finally read it. I don't think I would've necessarily picked this up myself but it had a lot of what I love in a novel - short vignette-y chapters, changing pov, mystical / strange elements, family history / drama, etc. This feels almost silly to say but in some ways it gave me a similar feeling to the show Game of Thrones - both are difficult and gruesome at times but really pleasurable to consume.
November 19, 2025
I am somewhat at a loss on how to describe this - it starts out as a relatively straight forward tale - the whale ship Esther is dispatched both for whaling, but also to bring back the captain of a ship that was lost to the ice. Somewhere near the middle of the book, elements of magical realism show up, by the end it feels like a work of surreal horror and mythology. The rhythm and pace of the writing stands out on this one - it felt like it was reflecting the rhythm and paving of traveling by water - an impressive accomplishment for the author. The world of whaling was brutally violent and this probably isn't a read for everyone, but I'm glad I picked it up even if I will be trying to understand everything the author was doing for a while.
December 7, 2025
This filled my Moby Dick hole. A sea voyage with magical realism!!! So good, I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did.
December 25, 2025
This read like a fever dream. Glorious and strange.
December 26, 2025
“The particulars may not make sense, but the story, which takes longer to tell, will, in time, make itself legible.”
I’m in awe of this book.
I’m in awe of this book.
October 12, 2025
Jeff VanderMeer fans you need to get on this one ASAP
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