Reviews - Riverside Public Library

BookPage Reviews

Into the Planet

"When I describe the act of cave diving to most people, they think I have a death wish," notes Jill Heinerth, who has spent over 30 years diving all over the world, often into deep, pitch-dark, narrow and, yes, highly dangerous places. She has explored, filmed and photographed remote underwater regions for National Geographic, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other institutions, and she's not only an outspoken environmental advocate but also the Explorer-in-Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

So it's hardly a surprise that the journeys she describes in Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver make for exciting, edge-of-your-seat reading. Not only is Heinerth's memoir thoughtfully structured and adrenaline-filled, but it also offers a fascinating account of exactly how one becomes a renowned, record-setting adventurer.

As a girl growing up in Canada, Heinerth decided she wanted to learn to dive as soon as she saw Jacques Cousteau on TV. That's despite the fact that one of her earliest memories is of nearly drowning and that she failed her first swimming lesson—because she was, of course, so busy floating and gazing intently at the underwater world that she didn't bother to attempt any strokes. As a young woman, she sold a successful advertising business in Toronto and bought a ticket to the Cayman Islands in hopes of becoming a diver, shocking family and friends.

Her wild gamble paid off, and Heinerth has spent the rest of her life "swimming through the veins of Mother Earth," as she calls it, delighting in the wonders of ice-filled caves beneath Siberia's Ural Mountains and lava tubes inside a Spanish volcano.

Such wonders and achievements have not come without dramatic, dire sacrifices, particularly as a woman in a testosterone-heavy field. A number of close friends have perished in diving accidents; she has repeatedly helped with the heartbreaking task of body recovery. After she suffered a severe case of the bends, a doctor advised Heinerth to "never dive again," which she ignored. She narrowly escaped death several times amid the caves and crevices of an Antarctic Circle iceberg, all while suffering a leaky glove in the icy 28--degree waters, just one-tenth of a degree away from the freezing point of salt water. After her narrow escape, she commented, "The cave tried to keep us today." Hours later, as she and her team were preparing to dive yet again, they watched the iceberg completely collapse, which would have meant certain death had they been in the water.

There's never a dull moment in Into the Planet, which bursts with full-throttle exuberance for the highs, and sometimes even the lows, of being a pioneering, modern-day explorer. As Heinerth concludes, "When we transcend the fear of failure and terror of the unknown, we are all capable of great things, personally and as a society."

Kirkus Reviews

Enchanting tales of "swimming through the veins of Mother Earth." Heinerth (The Scuba Diver's Guide to Underwater Video, 2016, etc.), an award-winning Canadian filmmaker and professional cave diver, delivers an exhilarating, deeply personal memoir about her career as a woman in a male-dominated profession. In spare, crisp prose, she chronicles a "life immersed in a relationship with this element that nourishes and destroys, buoys and drowns—that has both freed me and taken the lives of my friends." She has learned to "accept and welcome fear" because, as she notes, "more people have died exploring underwater caves than climbing Mount Everest." Heinerth recounts fighting sudden, torrential underwater cave streams, developing new diving equipment, and suffering decompression illness. She began with diving lessons and got hooked. At 27, she left a lucrative job in Toronto to work at a dive resort in Grand Cayman, guiding visitors through long, sinuous tunnels. On a solo dive, she discovered her first cave, filled with ornate stalactites. The author got certified as a cavern diving expert, later making a name for herself with underwater photography and articles in diving magazines. She chronicles her adventures exploring Florida's vast network of caves and, in Mexico, a six-hour round-trip swim into the world's deepest cave. Next up, in 1995, she helped survey the world's longest underwater cave. A few years later, she was one of the divers to make the first 3-D imaging of an underwater cave. In 2001, with support from National Geographic, she embarked on one of her most incredible adventures. A massive iceberg in the Antarctic Circle had broken off the Ross Ice Shelf, and Heinerth and her crew battled 60-foot wave peaks and ice floes on a Shackleton-esque journey to explore a part of it. Deep within, they found an "ecosystem living in total isolation, an undiscovered world thriving in darkness." Told with sensitivity and joyful enthusiasm, this is an inspiring story that will appeal to many, especially adventurous young women. Copyright Kirkus 2019 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Reviews

Leading cave diver Heinerth reveals the beauties and dangers of her work (while explaining that she's helped discover new species, track climate change, and evaluate freshwater reserves). With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal Reviews

Heinerth (The Basics of Rebreather Diving) takes readers on an engrossing journey through her life as a cave diver. She began after a traumatic event in young adulthood that challenged her to manage and overcome fear, a catalyst that inspired her to pursue a career thriving in the shadow of danger. Deftly describing the thrills of exploring some of the world's deepest and longest water systems, Heinerth doesn't shy away from the concomitant perils, relating close calls with rogue currents, equipment failures, and decompression sickness, as well as numerous hazards outside the water in locations from Mexico to Antarctica. Heinerth is frank about the ambitions and stresses that led to the failure of her first marriage, as well as her continuing effort to balance the excitement of discovery with its physical tolls and the loss of colleagues. Just as harrowing as her dive experiences are the author's descriptions of misogyny, envy, and a culture of toxic competitiveness in some pockets of the diving community. VERDICT Even readers who have never ventured into the water will identify with and appreciate Heinerth's struggles to overcome fear, adversity, and societal expectations to establish a life of her own choosing.—Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Underwater explorer and documentary filmmaker Heinerth vividly depicts the extraordinary aquatic vistas she's discovered in this immersive memoir. Blending sport, science, education, and adventure, Heinerth balances technical information on the challenges of cave diving with her personal story of grit and determination. Hoping to "face challenges with fierce will and optimism," Heinerth left a high-paying job in Toronto for the Cayman Islands to work as a diving instructor. She earned her certification as a cave diver and, in 1995, joined an expedition to Huautla, Mexico, to explore one of the world's deepest caves. From there, she participated in a 1998 project in Wakulla Springs, Fla., where she was part of a team that mapped 42,000 feet of passages. As part of a National Geographic trip, she led a 2001 expedition to Antarctica, becoming a member of the first dive team to swim and film the caves of an iceberg. Throughout, Heinerth powerfully recreates the exhilaration of staking out "the longest underwater cave system in the world," in the Yucatan, and living with the fear of equipment malfunctions and the constant threat of death. Heinert's well-paced, informative memoir provides a thrill ride into unfamiliar worlds. (Aug.)