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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
Mixed feelings on this book as I enjoyed the subject matter but didn't care as much for the writing style (strained metaphors and the lack of rich and plentiful direct quotations from the people in the story.)
Maybe it's just my mood, but I wasn't gripped by the story or the characters. I hoped for an adventure/science book like The Wave, which was fascinating. While this book has the same idea, I didn't find it easy or exciting to read. I was delighted to learn about caving, though, and enjoyed it for the glimpse of a world about which I knew nothing.
adventurous
medium-paced
Spoilers
I usually love this kind of book, but, man... was it boring. First 2/3 are about one guy, and then he barely appears in the rest and doesn't even come close to finding the deepest cave on Earth. Why spend so much time on him? The guys that do, in the end, reach the deepest cave... have about 10 pages. Weirdly written. Not nearly as compelling as it should've been. Very disappointing.
I usually love this kind of book, but, man... was it boring. First 2/3 are about one guy, and then he barely appears in the rest and doesn't even come close to finding the deepest cave on Earth. Why spend so much time on him? The guys that do, in the end, reach the deepest cave... have about 10 pages. Weirdly written. Not nearly as compelling as it should've been. Very disappointing.
I thought this was a great, terrifying, fast and enjoyable read. The writing wasn't the best and I wouldn't necessarily want to hang out with some of the people (I'm sure they'd feel the same), but I definitely gasped a few times reading about the crazy caving endeavors.
This was such an exciting book. Tabor's descriptions were excellent: enough to make this agoraphobic, aquaphobic, claustrophobe have to stop reading and take deep breaths to stave off the panic! The strongest parts of the book were when Tabor wrote about Stone and his teams and at the end, when he used Vash's diary as references for Kasjan's explorations. I highly recommend this fantastic story about deep cave exploration-- something it seems we in the US could pay a little more attention to.
I had no idea that these kind of caves even existed, much less how dangerous it is to explore them. The book follows two different groups searching for the deepest cave on the planet, and talks about all the hardships as well as the progress that each group makes. I couldn't put this book down. The images in the middle of the book show how completely insane these people are, with the small crevices that they have to squeeze through as well as the huge rooms that they will sometimes find inside these really deep caves.