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stephen_arvidson's review
4.0
Posthumously transcribed from the hand-written journals of Jake Perry, mountaineer and travelogue author, who bequeathed them to author Dan Simmons in 1992—‘how do you say’…framing device?—The Abominable charts the progress of a secret attempt to summit Mount Everest in 1925 (in the disastrous wake of George Mallory’s famed 1924 expedition). After scaling the Matterhorn with two other climbers—Richard Davis Deacon (a.k.a. "the Deacon"), an emotionally damaged WWI vet with strength and endurance bordering on the superhuman, and Jean-Claude "J.C." Clairoux, a fully accredited Chamonix Guide—Perry learns that rakish Brit Lord Percival Bromley and Austrian Kurt Meyer have been lost on Everest. Perry and his climbing partners convince Bromley’s wealthy mother to fund a recovery effort. Percy’s fetching cousin, Reggie Bromley-Montfort, in charge of the purse strings, insists on accompanying the trio to the summit with her personal doctor in tow. As the journey begins from the base of Everest to the top, the 35-man expedition is met with bitter frostbite, altitude sickness, and an unexpected terror with far-reaching implications in this tense, postwar period when Europe is ostensibly headed toward another great conflict.
It would seem that a hallmark of reading a Dan Simmons novel is that reader come away with a newfound wealth of knowledge on a specific subject; in the case of The Abominable, it’s 1920s mountain climbing. Sure, the text is highly saturated with the myriad technical aspects of climbing (more on this later), but there’s a decent story to be found within this 663-pager if you’re willing to slog through the mechanical minutia. And just like with Drood and The Terror, Simmons utilizes historical events as the backdrop for his latest novel, skillfully blurring fiction with reality. Real-life people and interwar events are blended with the fictitious as this slow, plodding tale of survival played out in the world's most inhospitable environment is peppered with cameos by a potpourri of historical figures, including Winston Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, Charlie Chaplin, and the gorak-pecked corpses of George Leigh Mallory and Andrew Irvine.
Simmons’s beautiful prose and brutal imagery not only infuses the characters with dimension but also brings magnificent Everest vividly to life. Geography and weather serve as characters themselves in order to further the dramatic narrative. The dangerous magnitude and splendor of the mountain is deftly conveyed—and Simmons doesn’t spare his readers from the reality of what happens to human bodies that are torn asunder by extreme falls.
However, Simmons’s epic mountain journey isn’t without its roadblocks. This steep tome is indeed a slow build; particularly with its mammoth info-dump on mountaineering that occupies much of the novel’s first 200 pages. The, at times, exhaustive detailing of mountaineering techniques and 1920s equipment is certainly impressive and lends credibility to the story, and while the glacial pacing allows the reader to gradually attach themselves to the oft charming protagonists, this book is definitely not for the impatient or time-strapped. From crampons to jumars to Primus stoves, there’s not a piece of climbing gear that Simmons fails to skim over. If you’re apprehensive of long novels inscribed with borderline-excessive detail, then you’ll want to abort this climb.
Although personable many of the characters bridged dangerously on the stereotypical, from the eccentric Frenchman and his fatuous accent to the deutschbag of ruthless, Lugar-wielding Nazi villains (mind the Germanophobia; it’s not like you haven’t seen Raiders of the Lost Ark countless times!). On the upside, Jake Perry proved a likeable narrator; cocksure and skilled despite his youth, he refused to let cold reality stand in the way of his beliefs.
No stranger to Simmons’s elegantly terrifying works, I entered this novel expecting the author to incorporate superstitions around the mountain, perhaps employing Buddhist mysticism or Himalayan mythology as a pretext to weave some chilling, paranormal, occult, and horror elements into the narrative a la The Terror (which told the story of Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1840s voyage to the Arctic). However, Simmons avoids the fantastical and applies a wholly different approach to the Percy Bromley mystery that, arguably, turns out to be more farfetched than the highly anticipated, yet sadly absent yetis. In the end, the underlying motivations for the mission prove both a hard sell—more so than a female heroine disrobing at 28,000-feet, which struck me as a grotesque indulgence—and a tepid payoff for such a strenuous journey.
A worthwhile read for, perhaps, climbing enthusiasts or anyone who wouldn’t get bogged down by the intricacies of mountaineering, The Abominable is an overwrought, meticulous, and gripping account of one of the most terrifying feats a man can undertake.
It would seem that a hallmark of reading a Dan Simmons novel is that reader come away with a newfound wealth of knowledge on a specific subject; in the case of The Abominable, it’s 1920s mountain climbing. Sure, the text is highly saturated with the myriad technical aspects of climbing (more on this later), but there’s a decent story to be found within this 663-pager if you’re willing to slog through the mechanical minutia. And just like with Drood and The Terror, Simmons utilizes historical events as the backdrop for his latest novel, skillfully blurring fiction with reality. Real-life people and interwar events are blended with the fictitious as this slow, plodding tale of survival played out in the world's most inhospitable environment is peppered with cameos by a potpourri of historical figures, including Winston Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, Charlie Chaplin, and the gorak-pecked corpses of George Leigh Mallory and Andrew Irvine.
Simmons’s beautiful prose and brutal imagery not only infuses the characters with dimension but also brings magnificent Everest vividly to life. Geography and weather serve as characters themselves in order to further the dramatic narrative. The dangerous magnitude and splendor of the mountain is deftly conveyed—and Simmons doesn’t spare his readers from the reality of what happens to human bodies that are torn asunder by extreme falls.
However, Simmons’s epic mountain journey isn’t without its roadblocks. This steep tome is indeed a slow build; particularly with its mammoth info-dump on mountaineering that occupies much of the novel’s first 200 pages. The, at times, exhaustive detailing of mountaineering techniques and 1920s equipment is certainly impressive and lends credibility to the story, and while the glacial pacing allows the reader to gradually attach themselves to the oft charming protagonists, this book is definitely not for the impatient or time-strapped. From crampons to jumars to Primus stoves, there’s not a piece of climbing gear that Simmons fails to skim over. If you’re apprehensive of long novels inscribed with borderline-excessive detail, then you’ll want to abort this climb.
Although personable many of the characters bridged dangerously on the stereotypical, from the eccentric Frenchman and his fatuous accent to the deutschbag of ruthless, Lugar-wielding Nazi villains (mind the Germanophobia; it’s not like you haven’t seen Raiders of the Lost Ark countless times!). On the upside, Jake Perry proved a likeable narrator; cocksure and skilled despite his youth, he refused to let cold reality stand in the way of his beliefs.
No stranger to Simmons’s elegantly terrifying works, I entered this novel expecting the author to incorporate superstitions around the mountain, perhaps employing Buddhist mysticism or Himalayan mythology as a pretext to weave some chilling, paranormal, occult, and horror elements into the narrative a la The Terror (which told the story of Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1840s voyage to the Arctic). However, Simmons avoids the fantastical and applies a wholly different approach to the Percy Bromley mystery that, arguably, turns out to be more farfetched than the highly anticipated, yet sadly absent yetis. In the end, the underlying motivations for the mission prove both a hard sell—more so than a female heroine disrobing at 28,000-feet, which struck me as a grotesque indulgence—and a tepid payoff for such a strenuous journey.
A worthwhile read for, perhaps, climbing enthusiasts or anyone who wouldn’t get bogged down by the intricacies of mountaineering, The Abominable is an overwrought, meticulous, and gripping account of one of the most terrifying feats a man can undertake.
cyris_reads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
bozonbozonski's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
fish_beholder's review
Way too much writing about technical climbing. I got halfway through and there hadn't been more than a cursory mention of yetis. I realized I didn't care about a single one of the characters and let it go.
jamiezaccaria's review
3.75
Not at all the yeti horror I was expecting but it was a very fun mountain-climbing adventure. Quite bulky and could have been edited down with less research details but still a good time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Child abuse
erikbergstrom's review against another edition
3.0
The only thing Abominable about this book... is the amount of pages!!
This was my third attempt at a Dan Simmons novel. And I finished! TBH I liked where Carrion Comfort and Summer of Night were heading more, but I couldn't hack it back then. This time, like a mountaineer attempting Everest, I was determined! And I finished it before the monsoon season, even if it did take me over a month. It was ok. Simmons is a great writer, a great researcher, a great historian, and he's great at laying out mountain climbing facts and tools and techiques, but he's still not so great at spinning a yarn!
Now I can say the 2nd abominable thing about this book... is my review!
This was my third attempt at a Dan Simmons novel. And I finished! TBH I liked where Carrion Comfort and Summer of Night were heading more, but I couldn't hack it back then. This time, like a mountaineer attempting Everest, I was determined! And I finished it before the monsoon season, even if it did take me over a month. It was ok. Simmons is a great writer, a great researcher, a great historian, and he's great at laying out mountain climbing facts and tools and techiques, but he's still not so great at spinning a yarn!
Now I can say the 2nd abominable thing about this book... is my review!
sarahskorupa's review against another edition
Nothing has happened yet. They don't even get to the mountain until almost 250 pages.
liviab13's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
britbrit's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5