I loved Eowyn Ivey's first book, "The Snow Child" and was so excited to see that she had another book coming out. I was not disappointed! Ivey's second book "To The Bright Edge of the World" was as beautiful and wondrous as her first, but overall had a completely different feeling.Instead of diving into the magical, and creating a fairy tale, Ivey balances us on a knife edge with myth, magic, and elemental beauty on one side and the threat of death on the other. We are swept along with Colonel Allen Forrester on his journey to explore the Wolverine, in awe of the tremendous, indescribable beauty of Alaska but constantly anchored by the harsh realities of that land. The amazing cold, starvation, and life-threatening natural events are balanced perfectly with their first views of glaciers and the Aurora Borealis. The desire to explore and learn is tempered by the harshness of the world - the men are often just beat down by the extremities of their journey. Ivey then adds an extra layer of fear with the unknown magical and mythical elements that the discovery party encounters with the native Indians they meet. The effect is both beautiful and profound. It raises questions of what we lose the more we discover and what we are willing to let go of when we go seeking - whether that be a path through the wilderness, gold, minerals, filling one's heart and mind with new vistas, or redemption. Some things we are more willing to shed than others, but we can never really know what that will mean for us as individuals or for society at large. In the end, we need to learn to love and live with what we have here and now.The travails of the expedition party are balanced by the story of the Colonel's wife - left behind at Vancouver Barracks to forge her own path. Her story line is unique and fascinating in it's own right and I could have read a whole book on the life of Sophie Forrester. Forging your own path is a central theme for the book. The journeys the characters take to be to able to do just that are all interesting, but in the end it just takes courage and conviction for all them - Colonel Forrester, Sophie, Lieutenant Pruitt, Nattie, Josh and Walt - to strike their own path through the wilderness, whether that be the literal wilds of Alaska, the confines of female society in 1885 for both white women and Indian women alike, the psychological damage of war, or the inertia of modern society and its expectations.I devoured this book and it filled me a desire to go out into the world and see new things and to be brave. I do not like the cold at all, but this book made me long for the cold air, wide-open space and magic of Alaska. For now though, I will be contented with the wondrous feeling one can only get from a satisfying, excellent book.