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Epic: Stories of Survival From The World's Highest Peaks (The Adrenaline Series)
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Music Books > Audio Adrenaline > Item 4
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Epic: Stories of Survival From The World's Highest Peaks (The Adrenaline Series)
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by Jon Krakauer, Greg Child, Stephan Venables, and Art Davidson
Sales Rank: 651671
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$24.95
At Amazon
on 12-29-2007.
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Features
Audio Cassette
Publisher: Adrenaline Audiobooks; Unabridged edition September 15, 1999
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1885408331
ISBN-13: 978-1885408334
Product Dimensions:
7.1 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
Product Review
Some of the most exciting and harrowing mountaineering events ever chronicled are collected in Epic. From Jon Krakauer's solo ascent of Devil's Thumb in Alaska to John Climaco's account of being threatened by a homicidal Pakistani army officer in the Himalayas, these are stories of survival in nature's most inhospitable places.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From Library Journal
The hypnotic appeal of danger, hardship, extreme elements, and facing death are fascinating to many readers, as witnessed by the popularity of The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air. Both books related the drama surrounding nature at its most violent and dangerous. Epic is a compilation of 15 memorable expeditions to world-famous peaks. Included here are Jon Krakauer's solo ascent of Devil's Thumb in Alaska, a winter ascent of Mt. McKinley, and Alfred Lansing's narrative of the 1915 Shackleton expedition. The listener experiences cold, hunger, and fright at the hands of writers who are actual climbers. Their words are powerful because they ring with authenticity. The hardships these climbers endured go almost beyond human comprehension. In one story, a man is stricken with blood clots in his legs; his team members go through tremendous difficulties in an attempt to bring him down rather than continue their climb to the summit. Another story recounts a blinding snowstorm that keeps climbers in their tents for many days and describes the great efforts that must be made merely to melt enough water to stay alive. Rough Water is an anthology of sea stories, mixing fictional excerpts from lengthier works with accounts of factual disasters and includes a portion of Two Years Before the Mast and an episode from Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny. Among the most fascinating are Lawrence Beesley's eyewitness account of the sinking of the Titanic and a shipwreck survivor's diary of a 74-day ordeal aboard an inflatable raft. What keeps Rough Water from being as compelling as Epic is the offsetting move from true-life encounters to fictional stories and from chapters that leave you hanging, either wanting to know what happens or not caring about the outcome. Epic, on the other hand, is powerful, bringing the prospect of frostbitten flesh, chattering teeth, sudden avalanches, and treacherous ice paths into vivid clarity. The listener feels the intense discomforts and experiences the worry of the climbers but, with morbid fascination, still wants more. Both collections are read by experienced audio narrators Rick Adamson, Eric Conger, Alan Sklar, Graeme Malcolm, Simon Prebble, and the king himself, George Guidall. Each reader performs competently, adding to the suspense and momentum of each story. Parts of the "Adrenaline Series," both books are recommended for public library collections.
-Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll., Kansas City, MO
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
This book is a collection of short stories about some very very very dificult climbings in the most dangerous places(mountains) under the most terrible conditions. Among the stories are some classics like: The West Ridge-Everest(1.st ascent - Hornbein & Unsoeld); Annapurna(1.st ascent - Herzog version); k2 The Savage Mountain(The Schoening belay - by Bates and Houston); McKinley winter's ascent(by Art Davidson). The book provides a good taste of the dificulties a climber must surpass in order to succed(survive), the only downpoint is that some stories just missed a more tradicional ending, basicaly because in the end you don't know what happened to the climbers, you can only assume they survive.
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Epic: Stories of Survival From The World's Highest Peaks (The Adrenaline Series)
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