The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda

by Nathalia Holt

A 2025 Wall Street Journal Summer Book to Get Lost In A 2025 New York Times Nonfiction Summer Preview Pick “A beautiful and powerful book.” —Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author “Valuable, revelatory, and contagiously page-turning.” —David Michaelis, New York Times bestselling author For lovers of history, nature, and adventure, the stunning true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons and their 1929 Himalayan expedition to prove the existence of the beishung, the panda bear, to the western world, from the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls. The Himalayas—a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world. During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology. Along the way, the Roosevelt expedition faced an incredible series of hardships as they disappeared in a blizzard, were attacked by robbers, overcome by sickness and disease, and lost their food supply in the mountains. The explorers would emerge transformed, although not everyone would survive. Beast in the Clouds brings alive these extraordinary events in a potent nonfiction thriller featuring the indomitable Roosevelt family. From the soaring beauty of the Tibetan plateau to the somber depths of human struggle, Nathalia Holt brings her signature “immersive, evocative” (Bookreporter) voice to this astonishing tale of adventure, harrowing defeat, and dazzling success.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Adventure, Animals, China, Nature, Travel

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2025

About the author

Nathalia Holt, Ph.D. is the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls, The Queens of Animation, Wise Gals, and Cured. She had written for numerous publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Science, PBS, and Time. She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Pacific Grove, CA.

Reviews

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never wanted the main characters of a book to fail as much as I did with The Beast in the Clouds by Nathalia Holt. You see, this book follows the journey of Teddy Roosevelt's sons as they hunt the elusive...(checks notes)...panda?! Yes, the friendly, sweet, and docile panda bear. Literally the nicest type of bear (yes, even according to science and not just my personal feelings). Did you know that there is no documented evidence of a panda killing a human? However, based on how we have treated pandas, maybe they should be more like polar bears who just love killing humans. I digress!

Holt tells a very lean story unlike the subject of the book (panda zinger for you). I love adventure books, but for some readers, they find the beginning of these books to be a bit tedious with their stories of how the expeditions come together and the minutiae of the planning. I love that stuff, but I get it. Holt wastes no time. The book opens with the players already on the trail and it never slows down. I hesitate to reveal too much. This book can be more in the vein of Heart of Darkness than a traditional story of an arduous scientific expedition. I very much enjoyed not knowing where Holt was going with the characters and I'll leave it at that.

This is one of those narratives that will stick with you once it's over. It is succinct for a history book, but it is not short on impact at all. A must read.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Atria Books.)

[Barbara K · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that I appreciated more for the content than the way it was written. There is no doubt, I learned a lot. Among other things, I’d never before heard of this expedition, I didn’t know that it validated the existence of the panda to the outside world, and I previously knew next to nothing about western China. In particular, I was unfamiliar with the upheaval there in the late 1920s as the Kuomintang fought to establish control over the local principalities.

Holt’s writing is competent but uninspired. She lacks that gift for building tension and engaging us with the characters that the most successful authors of adventure-based narrative non-fiction possess. And she makes questionable choices about what to include and what to omit.

Ted and Kermit, the Roosevelt brothers, had hoped to put their stamp on history with this expedition. In the event, things didn’t work out exactly as they’d planned. Holt is caught up with the idea that their search for the panda “changed” the brothers. That may be true, but since she spends minimal time illustrating for us who they were previously, her effort falls flat. After receiving the anticipated accolades for their successful efforts to locate the elusive panda (as well as the financial reward offered by the sponsors), their lives seemed to continue pretty much as they had done previously.

The Roosevelts were stunned to learn that the giant panda was not a ferocious bear, but a gentle creature who shied away from its own kind, much less humans. They shot it anyway since they had a commitment to the expedition sponsors to bring back the skeleton and skin. They were appalled when one of the local hunters who accompanied them shot a female golden monkey with a newborn. Of course, they themselves had shot 9 golden monkeys earlier the same day.

It appears that it is these events that triggered the change Holt speaks of, but something in the narrative is missing. Perhaps there just isn’t enough information available to construct a more complete argument in support of her contention, but I tend to think a different author might have done a better job of presenting the facts that would uphold her thesis.

That aside, I did appreciate the commentary on local residents and customs, particularly the many paradoxes evident in different communities. Foot-binding was still a part of the culture in many areas, but on the other hand, the guides who led the Americans through the mountains and jungles were often women who were equally capable and received equal pay to the men. The residents of some villages were described as robust and healthy, but another town was so devastated by illnesses of various kinds that the Roosevelts didn’t feel comfortable spending even one night there. It seems that the level of human diversity in the area matched that of the flora and fauna.

Overall, this is a solid 3.5, but for some reason, I’m disinclined to round up, so three stars is what it gets from me.

[N M · Rating 1 out of 5]

More historical fiction than history, The Beast in the Clouds is an at times fantastical rewriting of an actual expedition. Closer to a movie or tv series “inspired by true events” than a serious work of history, Dr. Nathalia Holt has wasted an opportunity to provide an accurate retelling of the Kelley-Roosevelts Asiatic Expedition. A little-known slice of science history (although, counter to Holt’s claims, it has been told before—it has its own Wikipedia page, published in 2015), Holt could have provided readers with a glimpse into a fascinating era in a culturally and ecologically rich corner of the world. Instead she chose to twist the record into a cheap melodrama full of fabrication and factual errors.


The problems start from the Prologue and never stop. Introducing the Roosevelt brothers’ goal of being the first white men known to have shot a giant panda, Holt exaggerates how mysterious the animal was, going so far as to say it remained undiscovered. She claims that the novelty of the first specimens sent to Paris “did not mean scientists were ready to believe that this odd creature was real,” and that “they did not intend to name a new species that, for all they knew, only a handful of Chinese hunters had ever seen alive.” This is a blatant falsehood. David’s description and designation of it as Ursus melanoleucus was published in Nouvelles Archives du Muséum in 1869. In 1871, after thoroughly examining the pelts and skeletons, Alphonse Milne-Edwards published his own article in Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères revising the name to Ailuropus melanoleucus based on his conclusion the species was not a bear, but related to raccoons and red pandas. In 1874 Paul Gervais responded with a thorough defense of David’s original designation in Journal de zoologie.

In fact there is no discernible doubt about the legitimacy of the giant panda’s existence in any of the scientific or even popular writing from the time of its discovery up to the Roosevelts’ expedition. English accounts of David’s and Milne-Edwards’ writing appeared as early as 1873. The scientific name Ailuropus (or Æluropus) melanoleucus was how it was most often referred to, as most authors accepted Milne-Edwards’ judgment that the giant panda was not a bear. Look for Ailuropus in dictionaries and encyclopedias from the time, and you will find it, often with an illustration and described as feeding on bamboo.

Holt’s later and repeated assertions that people thought the giant panda potentially a cross between black bears and polar bears, or even “a giant cat or canine” exaggerate the confusion around the panda’s taxonomy to the point of absurdity. The only possibilities debated were that it was 1) a unique species of bear; 2) related to the Procyonidae and red panda; or 3) in a family of its own (the matter was only settled with genetic testing in 2015—it’s a bear). Similarly, she paints people as fearing the giant panda to be fiercely aggressive, but there is no suggestion of that in any published accounts prior to the expedition. This use of mischaracterization and falsehood in pursuit of melodrama continues throughout the book.

Holt says that “No one, not even naturalists who had worked in China all their lives, could say precisely where the creature lived, what it ate, or how it behaved.” This is a gross exaggeration of what was then unknown. Milne-Edwards’ 1871 description of the giant panda noted that it “lived in the most inaccessible mountains of eastern Tibet, and never descends to ravage fields as the black bear does. Hunting this animal presents great difficulties. It feeds primarily on roots, bamboo, and other plants.”

The Roosevelts would have known this. They were familiar with the currents in natural history and in touch with many of the men who had searched for the giant panda before them. They likely knew of the bear from childhood; in 1895 their father edited a book on hunting that included a passage on the “mottled bear,” complete with a surprisingly accurate 1894 illustration of the “coon-bear” from the magazine Forest and Stream.


The problems do not end there. As soon as Holt turns to the expedition, she continues to twist the historical record. The whole account of the expedition’s encounter with an English-speaking local nobleman at Kanai (Yingjiang) is an embellished mess. The circumstances of his first meeting with Stevens, as well as with Kermit and Jack Young, are embellished to the point of fiction. His name is also wrong. Holt has him introduce himself as “Saw Bwa Fang Tao.” Saw bwa is not a name but a title used by hereditary rulers of Shan states. Besides, he was not the saw bwa; his brother was. The expedition members refer to him by his family name Tao (刀) or his English name Philip. I cannot discern where Holt found the name “Fang,” as his full Chinese name was 刀保圍 (Tao Pao Wei). The same for his elder brother, who Holt names “Fang Yu-chi,” when in fact his name was Tao Ching Pan (刀京版) or Tao Pao T’u (刀保图).

Holt uses Philip Tao’s elder brother as a segue into the effects opium addiction had on Chinese society at the time. He is portrayed as a hopeless addict who has abandoned his responsibilities as saw bwa. Neither Stevens nor Cutting say a word about this, and the Roosevelts say only that Philip told them his brother was an addict, and that he had encouraged him to quit three times, but was unsuccessful. The saw bwa may have been an addict, but he was a functional one or at least overcame it. Having passed his title to his eldest son in 1930, during the Second World War he was active in organizing and leading resistance to the Japanese. According to Chinese-language sources, however, his brothers—both Philip and Tao Pao Ku (刀保固), who had grown up in Japan—conspired with other local bigwigs to form a breakaway state and help the Japanese attack the nearest major city of Yungchang (Baoshan).

The end of Chapter 1 sees the first instance of Holt jumbling the expedition’s timeline. As the party takes leave of Philip Tao, she has Stevens call a halt and order the Roosevelts and others to drop their guns to the ground so that he can get a close look at a herd of sarus cranes. Stevens’ own description of sighting the cranes is hardly so dramatic. He also makes no mention of the Roosevelts, Cutting, or Young, for the simple reason that they weren’t there. He sighted the birds a full week after leaving Kanai. Their parties had already separated days earlier at Tengyueh (Tengchong), but would rejoin at Talifu (Dali) two weeks later before separating a final time in Likiang (Lijiang). Holt omits all this, and simply has the party together at places where in fact they were apart.

Such changes to the record are so frequent and egregious that the story becomes more fiction than fact. Holt repeatedly makes a point to highlight local women the expedition meets. But she does this by misrepresenting the Roosevelt’s actual words. In Chapter 2, with the expedition still in the Salween Valley, she quotes Theodore: “More than half our porters were girls and women,” implying this was true of a large portion of the expedition. That passage is in the book (although Kermit wrote it), but about two months later than her placement would suggest, and referring to a different place. Just a page later she reports that Theodore wrote that Western China was “the land of women's emancipation…The custom of polyandry is largely, if not entirely, responsible for the amelioration of women's lot.” Again, Kermit wrote the passage, but not about the women of Western China. He wrote it in East of the Sun and West of the Moon, his and Theodore’s 1926 book about their Central Asian expedition. The passage referred to the women they encountered in Ladakh. They wrote nothing similar about the Karen or Shan, simply because it would not have been true. Polyandry was practiced among the Tibetans, and to some degree the Mosuo they later encountered, but they made no particular note of those women’s power.

Yet Holt wanted to have the stage set for an action scene at the end of the chapter, where a group of women porters encounter and runoff a group of bandits. She has them outwit the brigands, sending them fleeing, only to chase after and beat them for attempting to escape with a stolen mule. The Roosevelts reported a similar incident, but say nothing of women porters (as there likely were none at the time). Instead a porter rushed back to report the theft of a mule, and the group’s escort of local soldiers went off to retrieve it. Succeeding, they soon returned, but “having recovered the mule…The soldiers did not return it to the owner, saying that now it was theirs.”


Such exaggerations eventually turn into fully invented stories, spun from the barest threads of truth. Holt’s story of the “Crim” in chapters 3 & 4 is perhaps the best encapsulation of this. She mixes a local superstition Jack Young mentions from the Salween Valley (in a passage he copied almost verbatim from E. Coleridge Baber’s 1886 account of the region) with another the Roosevelts hear from a Kashmiri servant when crossing the Mekong several days later. The Roosevelts note the similarity of the Kashmiri’s “Crim” (which they’d heard before in Central Asia), with Baber’s Salween monster. That’s all they say of the matter.

Holt turns this into a sighting of an Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), with the travelers transfixed and Stevens sketching the animal, then tasting the river water and finding it brackish. But Stevens did not cross either the Salween or Mekong with the rest of the expedition (or say anything about tasting the water, which is not brackish in that stretch). Neither does he nor anyone else mention dolphins in the Mekong or any other river. This is for the simple reason that there are no Irrawaddy dolphins in that stretch of the Mekong, and there never have been. The Khone Falls to the south block them reaching that far upriver. But not only does Holt invent a fake wildlife sighting of a species outside of its range by someone who wasn't there, later in the text she seems to confuse the Irrawaddy dolphin with a different species, the Yangtze River dolphin.

But Holt wanted to insert a long aside about freshwater dolphins and evolution (getting much of that science wrong as well), so we are given a fabricated story of something that did not and could not have happened, filled with exaggeration, embellishment, and factual errors. The rest of the book follows this same pattern, with so many mistakes, half-truths, omissions, and fabrications that properly cataloging them all would likely result in a text longer than Holt’s.


More fictional episodes pop up throughout the book. We’re told the expedition passed through Tiger Leaping Gorge, when in fact they never saw it, following a path to the east roughly analogous to today’s S223 highway. Later, while finally hunting a giant panda, Holt has the Roosevelts stop to rest under the hanging roots of a sprawling banyan tree they never mentioned, probably because they were hundreds of miles north of its range, in a forest where no banyans are found. But she wanted to write an aside about banyan trees, so there it appears.

Needing a dash of mental drama, Holt depicts the party camping on a high mountain pass on the night before reaching Tatsienlu (Kangding). They suffer extreme altitude sickness, to the point that the Roosevelts “had never known pain like this before,” and “grasped their heads in confusion, pulling their hair, as hallucinations overtook their brains…with tears streaming down their faces, the only answer to the horrific pain was death.” An experience so intense that the brothers “had died the night before…the experience of extreme suffering had changed them in a real and perceptible way, letting them leave behind past failures and insecurities and enter the next stage of their journey with a newfound humility.”

All the Roosevelts say of that specific night (actually two nights before reaching Tatsienlu) was “The pass that led into the next valley was close to seventeen thousand feet high, and we dropped down three thousand feet to where the caravan encamped near a magnificent frozen waterfall.” Although they mention mild altitude sickness in other places, they never even hint at anything so dramatic.

Events are also misattributed, such as when Holt describes Jack Young, leading a caravan on his own, escaping the depredations of a bandit gang by simply ignoring them. But Young never mentioned the incident. It was Cutting who wrote of it, saying it happened to him and the Roosevelts. Curiously, the Roosevelts make no mention of the encounter, which raises it own questions.

Earlier in the book, Holt tells how Young, while seeking help for an ill Kermit Roosevelt, questions locals not only in different Chinese languages, but also Arabic, Hindustani, and French. But he didn’t. The Roosevelts’ original passage—in fact referring to a separate incident—reads “Jack Young spoke to him but failed to make him understand. Then in succession we used Hindustani, Turki and Arabic, without avail. At last in desperation we tried French…” An accomplished polyglot, Kermit spoke Arabic, having learned it while serving in Mesopotamia during World War I. He also spoke French. The Roosevelts, Cutting, and Stevens all spoke Hindustani to some degree. It was how they communicated with the Kashmiri guides who accompanied them throughout the entire journey, and who Holt fails to mention (aside from mentioning “guides"), despite their frequent appearances in the original writings.

There are far more instances of such problems throughout the book. Some are substantial, such as Holt’s depiction of the Roosevelts’ feeling despondent and joyless upon finally shooting a panda. Kermit is said to have been struck by its gentle nature and could only describe it as “a gentleman.” Not quite. Kermit wrote “our Kashmiri shikaries remarked that he was a sahib, a gentleman, for when hit he had remained silent, and not called out as does a bear.”

Kermit described the panda as “a splendid old male,” and noted that the Kashmiri “shikaries, the Lolos, and ourselves held a mutual rejoicing, each in his own tongue,” after the panda was shot. Kermit himself was so enthused with their success that he and a Kashmiri shikari made a rushed fourteen-mile roundtrip to fetch their camera.

Aside from the myriad major mistakes and misrepresentations, there are many minor problems. The text is full of them, with at least one thing on nearly every page. But even the map (wrong species illustrated) and cover (scenery and trees from wrong area of China) have their share. Small things, such as consistently including modern place names so that readers could easily follow the expedition’s journey would have been welcome. But they pale in comparison to Holt’s constant fictionalization of the expedition and its members.


The Beast in the Clouds is ultimately fiction masquerading as history. Perhaps this book will inspire someone to delve into the records themselves, and eventually to write something that tells the actual history of the expedition. Treat this as historical fiction. If you want something more factual, you’re better off reading the brief Wikipedia page, then going to Archive.org and perusing the expedition members’ own writings.

Review edited for minor errors and to add Wikipedia link.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Beast in the Clouds is a very interesting and exciting story of the 1929 quest of Ted and Kermit Roosevelt to find the almost mythical creature of China, the great panda. Both had experience as explorers and hunters in the past in Africa, and, perhaps most notably, Kermit on the nearly deadly expedition to the Amazon with his father, the former President. Now the father they both loved and admired was gone and they had their own goal to find an animal that no Westerner had ever seen.

Nathalia Holt combines biography, useful details of history of the countries involved (as well as provinces within China), culture of the various peoples the expedition encountered, and knowledge of nature and environment to enhance the story of the trek across China into the Himalayas, bordering Tibet. Excerpts from the brothers’ field notes are included as well as notes of other members of the group. The story and action moves briskly in a book that rewards readers with information and insights. This is a fascinating tale of a long ago world when much of the earth’s surface was still unknown and true exploration still existed with all its dangers and rewards. All of this in a relatively compact package for a history text.

Highly recommended for history and adventure lovers.

Thanks to Atria and NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long time ago I went to a museum devoted to Theodore Roosevelt (I can’t remember its name). It was full of the stuffed skins of animals that Roosevelt had killed. I hated Roosevelt for years, and only recently have I come around to finding his life interesting. Well, his two oldest sons, Ted and Kermit, followed in his footsteps. In 1928-29 they went on a mission to find, kill and retrieve the pelt of the elusive panda. Their expedition was financed by a museum that basically wanted a sample of every animal that the brothers managed to kill. There were a lot of them.

I admit that I do not understand the explorer (or hunter) mentality. Explorers all seemed to undergo an incredible amount of hardship for no compelling reason. On this particular expedition, they encountered cold, illness, robbers and very thin air. Even the mules had the good sense to run away repeatedly. According to the book, the brothers did have a change of heart after the trip ended, and never went on another specimen-gathering rampage. The book did hold my interest, but maybe I was just too turned off by all the killing. Also, the brothers were no way near as interesting as their father. I suggest reading “The River of Doubt”. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Caleb Fogler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun adventurous read about the Roosevelt brother’s expedition into the Himalayan mountains to hunt a panda. It reminded me of Disney’s Tarzan (1999) character Clayton and his quest to capture gorillas. The reader’s perspective is from the hunter in this story so a little different but no less sad in my opinion. I also enjoyed learning about the different animals of this region such as Marco Polo’s sheep and the golden snub-nosed monkey. My favorite parts were when the expedition would encounter these remote Himalayan cultures such as the Muli Kingdom.

Overall a fun book if you’re interested in early 20th century adventures.

[Bonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Beast in the Clouds is a fascinating blend of adventure, history, and science, chronicling a little-known chapter in the lives of the Roosevelt brothers—Theodore Jr. and Kermit—on their ambitious and dangerous 1920s expedition to China in search of the mythical giant panda. Nathalia Holt brings a sharp eye to the historical detail, placing this journey in the broader context of Western imperialism, scientific exploration, and family legacy.

The book shines when it digs into the Roosevelt family dynamic, particularly the pressure the brothers felt to live up to their father’s name. Their psychological struggles, especially Kermit's lifelong battle with depression, are handled with nuance. Holt also gives us a vivid portrait of the expedition itself, from treacherous mountains to cultural misunderstandings, and paints a complex picture of China at a moment of political upheaval.

That said, the pacing occasionally lags, particularly in the midsection, and the book sometimes feels torn between being an adventure story and a historical analysis. I also would have appreciated more in-depth coverage of the ecological and zoological significance of the panda, beyond its role as a symbol or trophy.

Still, Holt’s research is impeccable, and her prose is accessible and often poetic. This is a compelling story about obsession, legacy, and the fine line between scientific curiosity and colonial arrogance. A great read for fans of narrative nonfiction and those curious about forgotten corners of exploration history.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on July 1, 2025.

[KDub · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 🌟 rounded up

It's weird to read such an interesting and adventurous book where you're rooting for all the main characters not just to fail, but fail spectacularly. Because let's be real - what kind of asshole HUNTS A PANDA BEAR? (I know, I know - the knowledge at the time, conservation efforts, it was a hundred years ago, blah blah blah).

This book was fascinating, and I learned a great deal from it. It was a slow-going read for me because I spent a reasonable amount of time googling various animals, plants, and locations mentioned in the book. This isn't a complaint, though. For example, how cool looking are Himalayan Snowball Plants?

I really can't imagine going through the journey that they went on. The guides with the Roosevelt brothers were even more impressive, especially the women.

Recommended for nonfiction readers who enjoy reading about adventurous journeys and pandas. 🐼

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

[LeeAnn Heringer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story, well told.

But I felt the author was a bit harsh on the Roosevelt brothers, continuing to return to a theme that they were entitled white bros. Ok, you've just described the entire National Geographic Society age of exploration. Yes, they were often ignorant of the dangers the locals were protecting them from, yes, they didn't clearly understand the possible negative impact they were having on the people and animals of this region. For example, when one of the scientists get lost the first day on the trail and has to rescued by the local ruler, during the subsequent conversations, the local Chinese ruler tries to explain to them the horrific impact of the British forcing opium on China to balance the tea trade, the author is offended that the Roosevelt brothers don't immediately apologize for what Western civilization has done to China. Because (1) they're not British and (2) they have nothing to do with the opium trade. So, the end summary of how the Roosevelt brothers suffered enormous guilt and depression for their actions... Might be true, but feel a bit too modern. Like she's trying to force twenty-first century sentiments on the protagonists.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Kathy M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read, every step of the trail! And after..

[Kristen Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far one of the best books I have ever read. It read like a fiction novel but was so packed with facts and data that I feel like it could be a whole college course (in the best possible way). I would give it 10 stars if I could.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic page turner that accounts for the “discovery of the panda” and the beginning of conservation. The conversational method of writing that this book exhibits is a testament to the research of the author and a skill with narrative.

A much better read than its spiritual successor Millard’s “The River of Doubt” (about Roosevelt’s exhibition to the Amazon in the 1910s) it reminded me of the “Third Pole” by Mark Synnott (a journey to the peak of Everest in the 2010s).

[Jifu · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this work courtesy of NetGalley)

This turned out to be quite fascinating on multiple different levels. First and foremost is the general plot itself - the sons of Theodore Roosevelt going off on an expedition into Western China to find evidence of the giant panda in an era where that animal’s very existence was in doubt by many. That sentence sounds like too much to be true at first glance, but it was in fact a real event, and here it is being brought to our attention in detail.

However, author Nathalia Holt however very successfully takes things several further from there. The narrative goes on numerous little detours to go into a little more depth on a far-spanning range of related topics, including flora and fauna of the Himalayas and little bits of culture and history of the various peoples living in the corner of the globe that the Roosevelt brothers trekked about in. And each one of said little detours not only proved to be quite interesting in their own right, but several times my curiosity was so piqued that I paused my reading to look up a little more about them.

Also, from the very start of the book the brothers Kermit and Theodore Jr. (referred to as Ted by Holt), are treated like anything but bold explorers going out on an adventure with nothing but their own brit and determination. Instead, they’re treated as the complex human beings they are, complete with their own personal flaws and struggles (including trying to live in the massive shadow cast by their father). As part of this, the fact that they did not complete this expedition in a vacuum is emphasized from the get-go, and Holt spends a great deal of time paying attention and highlighting the work of all those women and men who made the Roosevelts journey possible. In other words - the approach taken to the brothers is anything but hagiographic, and all the care taken to include all of the detailed realities of the lives of these men and those in their orbit frankly made for far more interesting reading than the alternative.

Combine all the aforementioned with the themes of conversation threaded thoughtfully throughout the whole book, and the end result is a informatively juicy nonfiction read - and one that will go by far quicker than one may expect. Or at least, such was my own personal case, writing as someone who found it hard to put down The Beast in the Clouds for very long.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nathalie Holt’s “The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda” is an exhilarating blend of adventure, family rivalry, and early 20th-century exploration that reads like Indiana Jones with a pinch of sibling drama and Roosevelt grit. Holt resurrects a forgotten episode of history—the 1929 expedition of Theodore Roosevelt’s two sons, Kermit and Theodore Jr.—into the forbidding mountains of China’s Sichuan province, where rumor and legend spoke of a “white bear” unknown to Western science. The story is part natural history, part psychological portrait, and entirely addictive. Holt writes with the pacing of a thriller, describing treacherous ravines, endless rain, and the perils of primitive travel in a land barely mapped. Yet she never loses sight of the human heart at the center of the expedition: two brothers trying to live up to the impossible shadow of their father. Kermit, haunted by demons of depression and war trauma, contrasts sharply with Theodore Jr., the soldier-explorer determined to prove himself the true heir to the Roosevelt adventuring legacy. The tension between duty, pride, and affection gives their pursuit of the elusive panda almost mythic weight. Holt’s command of archival material is impressive, yet her prose remains lively and cinematic. Readers can almost smell the damp earth of bamboo forests, feel the exhaustion of the porters, and sense the eerie quiet before a potential encounter with the “beast.” She also draws fascinating connections between the Roosevelts’ quest and the emerging Western fascination with wildlife conservation—a theme tinged with irony, given that their expedition aimed to secure a specimen through the barrel of a rifle. By the time the hunt reaches its haunting conclusion, “The Beast in the Clouds” becomes more than just a tale of exploration; it’s a meditation on obsession, legacy, and the fragile boundary between wonder and destruction. Holt proves, once again, that history’s best stories aren’t found in dusty archives but roaring through the wild, cloud-wrapped margins of human ambition.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a piece of narrative nonfiction reminiscent of the exploration-oriented works of Candice Millard (specifically, River of Doubt and River of the Gods), Author Nathalia Holt follows the 1929 expedition led by Theodore Roosevelt's two oldest sons, Kermit and Ted, to the border of Tibet and China in search of the giant panda, whose existence was rumored but not confirmed at that time. (One explorer had brought back one pelt from that area, and museums were not considering that credible verification of the panda's existence). The expedition comprised 4 white men, a Chinese -American interpreter, and a number of local guides and porters. The group encountered a number of dangers --unfriendly Chinese inhabitants, oxygen deprivation in the high mountains of Tibet, bandits, and really awful weather, to name a few -- the description of which keeps the book moving along.

A sub-theme is the impact of such explorations, largely funded by museums ( in this case the Field Museum in Chicago) in the very existence of exotic animals. The explorers killed the animals and skinned them, bringing back the pelts so they could be reconstructed into museum exhibits. Often the result was to encourage more big game hunting. leaving these animal species vulnerable to extinction, particularly since many of them were already rare. The panda was generally characterized as a fierce and brutal bear; Kermit and Ted perceived the animals they killed (yes, they found one) as a gentle giant, and the fact that they had killed him impacted the them for the rest of their lives.

The book is well-written and well-researched from primary sources (trip journals kept by the participants, and enjoyable reading.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a hard time imagining a world where the panda is considered a potentially mythical creature with no one truly sure of its existence. But that’s how it was in the 1920s until two sons of Theodore Roosevelt went on a long, arduous, nearly deadly journey in China to find one. They did find one (spoiler but also obvious), and shot and killed it in the name of conservation and to prove its existence. And thus began years of “panda-monium” as they say whenever the DC zoo panda has a baby.

Their journey was pretty intense, interesting to read about, and well-told. I found the book mostly enjoyable except for a few quibbles.

The author said a few times something along the lines of “But one of them would not survive the trip” in very ominous foreshadowing. But both Roosevelt brothers DO survive the trip. Is this referring to that one scientist who joined very late and barely was on their journey before he died? He had maybe a few paragraphs in the whole book. Or does she mean Kermit Roosevelt who committed suicide a decade or so later? The author draws the conclusion that his guilt over shooting the panda causes him to commit suicide, but she seems to dismiss his failing business, failing marriage due to his unfaithfulness, alcoholism, and dismissal from the army during World War 2 as contributing factors. I just wish she had let the audience draw their own conclusions and not made ominous warnings that didn’t really make sense.

I did come away with a greater respect for the biodiversity found in remote areas of China.

[Alena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to read non-fiction about nature or history. The Beast in the Clouds combines my two favorite subjects.
It’s 1929, and the Roosevelts will make an expedition to China to find the giant panda. In the West, they don't know it, even for the Chinese, it is an elusive species. Being a historical book, it’s a very different expedition from the current ones, nowadays it is about studying the animals without harming them and learning from them to preserve them, in the 20th century, they were hunted for their study without caring if they were in danger of extinction (this concept or animal conservation was not yet in place) or the consequences of hunting them.

I enjoyed the adventure, the journey through forests, mountains, inhospitable and dangerous rural areas, and also getting to know a little more about the Chinese culture of that time. Also, how an expedition was an expedition is logistically created. This is one of the first American expeditions to go to China. The only thing I don’t enjoy is the hunting, but I understand it; without that having happened in past centuries, we would not have animal conservation as we have it today.

The writing is detailed and evocative; it includes many photographs, which makes it more immersive. I liked the description of the landscape and the flora and fauna; it is very different in the mountains near the river than in the Himalayas. It was a long journey, several months, which not only needed physical strength, but also mental strength. It’s a trip that will change the way of thinking of the brothers think. The author does not describe them as heroes or fearless, but quite human, with struggles, before, during, and after the expedition. At first, they are excited about the trip, but the road is rough and they begin to question whether it is worth hunting a panda for study purposes.

Overall, it's informative, interesting, and well researched, a mixture of biography, historical commentary, and adventure.

Thank you, Atria Books, for the copy.

Read it if you like:
Historical Expedition
Adventure
Description of Wild China

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a difficult book to judge. Who doesn't love the charismatic megafauna that is the giant panda. It is hard to get rid of our modern prejudices and remember that the Roosevelt brothers really were doing what they thought was right at the time. Learning about the animal, having type specimens for museums, was all part of conservation . For someone who is not reading any of the original books, I think this book gives a nice general feel of the expedition. The author takes quotes from several books that the Roosevelts wrote about other expeditions. I do recommend keeping an iPad nearby so you can get some great visuals of the animals, plants and people. I felt like the book would have benefitted from additional illustrations

[Theresa Pankey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 This is a bonkers true story that I don’t think a lot of people know about now. I will never look at a panda without thinking of Ted, Kermit, Jack, and Herbert. The glimpse into remote China, Tibet, and the Himalayans is enlightening. I wish there had been more photographs or drawings of the area, animals, and fauna included. It would have been nice to see some of their field journals, at least in an index. I think it would have helped flesh this story out more for me.

[Victoria Wiedrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has it all. Exploration, mountain climbing, hiking, nature, and Theodore Roosevelt’s sons all combined make this a must-read. The book is fast paced and exciting from the first page. The journey to find the giant panda is told like a mystery with great characters and enough intrigue to keep you reading far past your bedtime. Does the panda exist in those mountains? Did anyone ever really see it? Can it be seen without risk to life and limb? No spoiler alerts but the end will have you questioning whether the cost of reaching a goal is worth it.

[Kim Gorode · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn’t get past the name Kermit.

[Stephen Ditman · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 stars

[Cathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating narrative about Kermit and Ted Roosevelt's trip into China to hunt a Giant Panda Bear. This book drove me into a video exploration of what this countryside looks like then and now and learning more about this incredible animal.

[McKay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story and plan to read the book about this expedition written by the men who endured it. This was a fascinating tale of a different time in the biological and scientific world where collecting specimens was thought of as the best way to conserve them. Part of me would love to have lived during this time and had a part in an expedition like this, but this would have been a grueling hardship to say the least. My biggest complaint of the book was the inaccuracies in some of the hunting/firearms among the Roosevelt party. This planted doubt in some of the other details in the story, but other than that, an intriguing read! (SPOTIFY)

[Marion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little story, but is fact-checking dead? Are we all just saying stuff now?

Take the little side note in chapter 4, for example, claiming that “the Neanderthals went extinct” 800,000 years ago or that there were only 1,000 “humans” left at that time that then evolved to triple their brain size.

What??

Neanderthals evolved later (c. 400,000 years ago) and went extinct much later (c. 40,000 years ago).
Modern humans did not exist 800,000 years ago.

This isn’t even contested (literally just google Neanderthal extinction and note that the entire first page of results says 40,000 years). If the author is working with exciting new evidence that would justify diverging by more than 750,000 years from commonly accepted estimates, that would be worth a book in itself. Otherwise, sentences like that feel AI-written, made up, not peer reviewed, and like fake news that we don’t need to buy a book for

Oversimplifications and lazy/absent research aside, the storytelling is good, and the audiobook narrator’s performance is 5/5 as always.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a rumor of a rare species of bear in the Himalayan mountains. Described as a white bear with black markings, it was rarely seen and was considered a myth by many. There was part of an existing pelt, a picture, a few reported sightings, but very little else. The sons of Theodore Roosevelt took after their father, in his love of hunting and time spent in rugged wilderness areas around the globe. Catching the imagination of the brothers, they were supported by American Museum of Natural History and mounted an expedition to search for this mythical elusive creature. The details of this expedition are fascinating, covering bare trails that trekked up and down through the Himalayas. Battling intense cold, rain, snow, illness, bandits, and other unbelievable hardships they spent months traveling through remote regions. While they found, and documented, an enormous variety of new flora and fauna, there was no sign of the elusive panda and almost all villages and people they encountered had never seen this animal.

After many months, April approached, heralding the beginning of the monsoon season. Hunting would be impossible for months. They decided to make one last try through an inhospitable area ruled by the LoLo or Yi. Few people returned from this area and local natives and guides refused to enter this region. They finally enlisted a few guides and entered this area. Once it was determined they weren’t Chinese or white missionaries, they were accepted by the inhabitants of this area, however, again no one had seen this elusive bear. There was a rumor of a remote village whose apiary had been raided by a bear of this description. Excited and hoping to track it down they went deep into the inhospitable bamboo jungle. They found scat and tracked the animal deeper into the jungle. Literal at the last minute, they spotted the bear. Expecting a ferocious animal, similar to the brown, black, and polar bear, they killed the bear. Making scientific measurements of the bear physiology, stomach contents, etc the bear was carefully skinned and the pelts and skeletal remains were collected. Only afterwards, did they begin to understand that this was a gentle, solitary creature. Both brothers were profoundly changed after this event.

They returned to the States to much acclaim proving the existence of this rare creature. Unfortunately, this excited the public and many private and sponsored expeditions set out to hunt this species. The brothers had keep detailed notes and a map making it easier to find the location of these bears. Bears were hard to locate but were ruthlessly hunted as the pelts were highly prized and worth a lot of money. Young bears were transported out to be sold at enormous profit ; however, none of these pandas survived in captivity. There was little to no understanding of what these gentle animals required. The population of this rare and special bear were hunted almost to extinction.

The final chapters detail the unhappy lives of the brothers after returning to the Stated. Both were changes, but not necessarily in a positive way. The book continues to discuss the extinction of so many species and mostly futile attempts at conservation, rather than destruction of species and habitats. Progress has been made in many area and countries, but there always poachers and others who don’t see the need to protect and preserve the biodiversity around us. We have driven so many species of both plants and animals through deforestation, dams, destruction of habitats, hunting, and poaching, that the fate of many species of plant and animals are being driven to the edge. The Panda has been lucky, in that they, and their habitat, have been protected by the Chinese government. The panda has become the symbol of China and also the logo of many environmental groups. Specialized breeding programs have helped this species and many others. However,
, many are lost and will not be recovered.

This is a fascinating book about adventure, cultures, biodiversity, and the unimaginable travels of exploration undertaken by these brothers. Finding, and ultimately almost destroying the giant panda, this is a story of adventure, but it is ultimately a reflection on humans and our relationship to the world in which we reside.

[Stephany (Goombah) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun adventure but not particularly well written. Sometimes the story was engaging, other times scattered and hard to follow. I also must note that the lessons would have been more impactful if the author wasn’t constantly letting the reader know how they should feel. In the best historical books and biographies, the story will speak for itself.

[Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Nathalia Holt and Simon & Shuster for sending me an advanced reader’s copy.

The Beast in the Clouds recounts the under discussed but richly fascinating quest Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Kermit Roosevelt—the sons of Theodore Roosevelt—embarked on through China in 1928-1929 on behalf of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. The aim of this expedition, like several others done by the former president, was to collect specimens for the museum for conservation and research purpose with the most desired specimen being the extraordinarily rare panda. While knowledge about pandas today is readily available and they’re a key feature at both the National Zoo in Washington DC and the San Diego Zoo, this understanding and global recognition of them didn’t occur until relatively recently. The Roosevelt brothers set out on a quest after an animal often mischaracterized as being aggressive like the polar bear or brown bear. There were even doubts about the even existence of the panda and little known about its range, diet, or behavior prior to this exploration. Within this book, Holt expertly details the quest itself, the brothers as complex and flawed individuals striving for greatness out of the shadow of their famous father, and the history of the regions the brothers explore. With similarities to Candice Millard’s The River of Doubt, Holt is able to detail a great deal with exceptional brevity and clarity, never having dry patches or tedious exposition dumps. This reads like a novel; fascinating, introspective, and compelling, and certainly a much easier experience reading this than living out the grueling adventure itself like the Roosevelts.

The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’ Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda is available for preorder now and will debut on July 1.

[Lars (theatretenor) Skaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed my time with this book. I don’t spend near enough time reading nonfiction, but I saw this on the shelf at my local indie bookstore and it kind of called to me and I knew I needed to read it. Really fascinating stuff here. Kind of sad in the end to be honest. A great read tho.