The Abominable

The Abominable A Novel

Dan Simmons2013
ALA Reading List Award for History, Short List A thrilling tale of high-altitude death and survival set on the snowy summits of Mount Everest, from the bestselling author of The Terror It's 1924 and the race to summit the world's highest mountain has been brought to a terrified pause by the shocking disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine high on the shoulder of Mt. Everest. By the following year, three climbers -- a British poet and veteran of the Great War, a young French Chamonix guide, and an idealistic young American -- find a way to take their shot at the top. They arrange funding from the grieving Lady Bromley, whose son also disappeared on Mt. Everest in 1924. Young Bromley must be dead, but his mother refuses to believe it and pays the trio to bring him home. Deep in Tibet and high on Everest, the three climbers -- joined by the missing boy's female cousin -- find themselves being pursued through the night by someone . . . or something. This nightmare becomes a matter of life and death at 28,000 feet - but what is pursuing them? And what is the truth behind the 1924 disappearances on Everest? As they fight their way to the top of the world, the friends uncover a secret far more abominable than any mythical creature could ever be. A pulse-pounding story of adventure and suspense, The Abominable is Dan Simmons at his spine-chilling best.
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Reviews

Photo of Eva Ströberg
Eva Ströberg@cphbirdlady
4 stars
Jul 19, 2024

I'm fascinated with mountain climbing and I'm fascinated with Mt. Everest and I loved the Terror from Dan Simmons so this book felt like a perfect recipe. A wonderful story through and through, though it was a bit hard to plow on with so many technical terms that was quite hard to imagine or to understand for the rest of us, the non-climbers society, but I guess it proves how much Simmons researched his materials thoroughly to make a "believable" story that wouldn't make climbers dismiss this book as pure thrash (or do they?) As it's with The Terror, it's a very long book, so prepare a long time to go through it, but you'd enjoy it. Four stars but not five, because I think 700 pages are a bit tad too much.

Photo of Ryan Mateyk
Ryan Mateyk@the_rybrary
2 stars
Jul 4, 2024

Well written, but waaaaay too long, way too boring and the twists were silly and, no offense, stupid.

Photo of Tobias V. Langhoff
Tobias V. Langhoff@tvil
3 stars
Feb 24, 2024

There's a good novel in here, but it's burdened with a stiff prose and a slow narrative focused on the minutiae of mountain climbing. It also seems to intentionally set up an expectation in the reader that this is "The Terror on Mount Everest", which it most decidedly is not, but I knew that going in. Like The Terror it's a very well researched piece of historical fiction, but it's more of a spy thriller than anything else. I liked this book a lot several times while reading it, but at other times I didn't care much for it.

Photo of Michael Springer
Michael Springer@djinn-n-juice
2 stars
May 1, 2023

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