| |  | Author: Jon Krakauer
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
Category: Book
Buy Used: $7.24
New (12) Used (15) Collectible (7) from $7.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  1492 reviews
Sales Rank: 953457
Media: Hardcover
ISBN: 1402809654
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9781402809651
ASIN: 1402809654
Publication Date: May 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Clean pages. In Good dust jacket. We ship fast!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Very readable; the whole truth may never emerge, though... May 24, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read this after seeing the PBS doc Storm Over Everest and found it quite an interesting adjunct. I note that all the one-star reviews here say read Boukreev's book and see what a liar Krakauer is, but I doubt it's that cut and dried. I don't see that he's as egocentric here as many say, nor that he is as noble. He seems a little of both to me, ie a human being.
In any case, the book reads well, though it's no great piece of literature, just a solid, somewhat overlong narrative of a fascinating and tragic event.
Sandy Pittman must be thoroughly ashamed of herself if half of this is true; she tried to buy her way to the top while getting sherpas to carry her espresso machine and satellite dishes, and good people died as a result. The Taiwanese climbers seem equally egocentric and uncaring for others. Then again, the guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer may be equally to blame for encouraging people who weren't ready to make the climb, just so the guides could make more money and get more recognition.
Looks pretty much like the Mother Goddess spanked them all damn hard, and in some ways this reads like a straight-up Shakespearean tragedy, with all the hubris and drama that entails.
Worth reading.
I'm looking forward to reading Boukreev's book, but I think in the end there'll be three sides to this story...
 Killer read and a testament to the human spirit! May 18, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just read this book while on vacation in Mexico for a week. Talk about gripping! Each successive camp takes you higher and higher, as the suspense builds. You really get a feel for the determination and ultimate tragedy that drove and still drives people to climb Everest. Some people take issue with Krakauer, but you should give it a read and decide for yourself. PBS recently ran a two hour documentary on this trip that was simply breathtaking!! GREAT BOOK!
My second inside to Jon May 13, 2008
Personally, Jon Krakauer is my all time, hands down favorite author. I am an adventure junkie. This was the second book i ever picked up of his and i seriously could not put it down. I am in college, normally college students have tons of other things to do than read, but i put things off just so i could read this book. I LOVE IT! If you are an adventurist, adrenaline junkie, a climber, a camper, a hiker... read it...
challenging the impossible can lead to destiny or death May 8, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This story is a page turner which I read in a single night. It's the gripping tale, told in a powerful way of how too many climbers and competing agendas led to a major disaster on Mt. Everest. I saw the story as one of power and control run amuck leading to the loss of too many lives. Of one man who sat down to die, and of another who refused to die even when left for dead three times. The story takes many twists and turns and involves dozens of key characters, so it would be hard to read over too long a period of time since there are a lot of details to track. Never the less, it's a great adventure story that illustrates the dangers of miscommunication at the top of the world.
Good! April 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Krakauer doubtlessly is a great story-teller who can keep you engrossed in every detail he delivers at each turn of the story. My only complaint is that he sprinkles difficult vocabulary not only without any added effect, but clunkily, making certain words stand out from the rest of his prose. Take, for example, the following sentence:
"Now, four days later, Nukita warned us that a similarly PREDACIOUS swarm of print and television reporters lay in wait for us..." (280, emphasis added)
Um... why not just "predatory"? Is it just me, or is the word "predacious" as common a word as "predatory"?
Or take another sentence:
"But such moments were tempered by the long PENUMBRA cast by Everest..." (282, emphasis added)
Again, why not infinitely more understandable and easy-to-imagine "SHADOW"? Why "PENUMBRA"? Why go so poetic and abstract all of a sudden? I was literally thrown off balance when I came across the word in midsentence because it's so out of place. Besides, it hazards leaving the reader wondering what the word means rather than sympathizing with the author's plight. My complaint is based on the fairly commonsensical belief that when a word is not adding anything - whether it be impact, image, style, etc. - it should be ruthlessly cut and/or replaced with another. PENUMBRA seems to fall pat into this sort of instance. Unfortunately, I didn't keep detailed note of every instance in which the author slipped in flashy words tragically to the detriment of his own otherwise lucid prose, I can't say for certain how often he did it, but as far as i remember, there were numerous similar occasions where I thought the word he chose was definitely working against his writing.
But my quibbling ends here and I only have kudos for the book. It's an awesome adventure story about people with astounding willpower under the worst and extremest of environmental conditions imaginable. Highly recommended.
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