Reddit reviews Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Ken Keyes.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan.

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

Endurance by Alfred Lansing.

I have 2 non-fiction books that you might enjoy: Fatal North - Murder and Survival on the First North Pole Expedition.

The other is, IMHO, the best adventure story ever written, and it's all true. Endurance -Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.

Comments made as I read through:-

1/ Semi-colon required: "Too many bandits; too little food."

2/ Heading to the beach: I now get the impression the court astrologers were a red herring, in which case were they the best thing to have in your first sentence?

3/ So much info-dumping. And this while they meander past corpses to the beach. I would have thought there would be urgency, at least.

4/ I'm beginning to think your story should not have so much flashback. You could begin it on the beach (during the eruption) without any difficulty. Elements such as Yura's advice and death, the fall of the ash etc seem well realised, and lead up naturally to the dismal walk to the beach.

5/ The facts of Gura being a slave once and familiar with battle, should best be saved for immediately before an action sequence.

6/ I hope the boy doesn't get nixed. I'm going to do something I don't usually do and recommend a book because I have a sneaking suspicion you'll like it. It's a novel-like recounting of Shackleton's expedition to the
South Pole. Time and time again you'll be saying to yourself "how did they survive?" It all seems so implausible but was a true story. I always think about this book when I'm writing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing-ebook/dp/B00IC8VF10/ref=la_B000APENOO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487499932&sr=1-1

Summary: your writing and vision are both very good. But the story and your story-telling need to be enlivened. You could do this by starting at the eruption, involving your characters in the brief dramas you've outlined, and then, perhaps as soon as chapter 2 or 3, have them arrive at the beach.

This is a great read on the story of it. Absolutely one of the greatest survival stories I have ever read.

I can't recommend Endurance enough. It's all about Ernest Shackleton's attempt to cross Antarctica. Amazing!