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The Sound of Gravity: A Novel
A thrilling and moving new novel from the acclaimed author of Touching the Void.
As her hand slips from his grip, Patrick's life is shattered, forever changed. The Sound of Gravity is a harrowing, dramatic and powerful tale of love, loss and redemption as that haunting split-second memory changes the course of a lifetime. Trapped high on a stormbound mountain face in the icy depths of winter, the stricken young man is forced to fight for his life. Half a lifetime later, haunted by grief and guilt, Patrick is freed from his self-imposed vigil when at last the mountain releases his heart-rending secret.
As her hand slips from his grip, Patrick's life is shattered, forever changed. The Sound of Gravity is a harrowing, dramatic and powerful tale of love, loss and redemption as that haunting split-second memory changes the course of a lifetime. Trapped high on a stormbound mountain face in the icy depths of winter, the stricken young man is forced to fight for his life. Half a lifetime later, haunted by grief and guilt, Patrick is freed from his self-imposed vigil when at last the mountain releases his heart-rending secret.
- GenresNonfictionAdventure
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 29, 2011
4 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Joe Simpson
38 books220 followers Joe Simpson is the author of the bestselling Touching the Void, as well as four subsequent non-fiction books published by The Mountaineers Books: This Game of Ghosts, Storms of Silence, Dark Shadows Falling, and The Beckoning Silence. The Beckoning Silence won the 2003 National Outdoor Book Award. The other three published by The Mountaineers Books were all shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 19, 2012
This was a difficult book for me.
I loved "Touching the Void", in part for its directness.
I didn't like "The Beckoning Silence" because it wandered and seemed self-centered.
Still, this book is a mountain novel, and I desperately wanted a good one.
I was disappointed.
It is slow, painfully at times, and over-written (three paragraphs to describe a storm, which could have been done beautifully in Simpson's language in one; five adjectives in each sentence, when coming one after the other, again and again, starts to thud, and bludgeon the reader into just reading words. So when an adjective is needed, it has no impact, as it can not stand out).
I did find it focusing on gruesome details that could have been better implied (that's the bludgeon at work again) but that is a small matter.
The second half of the book is wooden, due mainly to the dialog. It is as if Simpson wanted badly to write like Hemingway with terse formal and repetitive sentences, or imagined his setting in such a a way - crouched around a candle in life-threatening circumstances. This can work in small spurts, but over a novel that is essentially a one-room hut in a storm, it gets tiring and loses plausibility.
There is no doubt Simpson can write, and describe, and form good characters - the problem here lays in his trying to do it too finely, too deeply, too ... everything ... It felt as if he did not trust his reader, or could not bear to pare down every wonderful observance.
Read this, you may feel differently, but I feel this could have actually been a great novel - with a bold editor involved.
I loved "Touching the Void", in part for its directness.
I didn't like "The Beckoning Silence" because it wandered and seemed self-centered.
Still, this book is a mountain novel, and I desperately wanted a good one.
I was disappointed.
It is slow, painfully at times, and over-written (three paragraphs to describe a storm, which could have been done beautifully in Simpson's language in one; five adjectives in each sentence, when coming one after the other, again and again, starts to thud, and bludgeon the reader into just reading words. So when an adjective is needed, it has no impact, as it can not stand out).
I did find it focusing on gruesome details that could have been better implied (that's the bludgeon at work again) but that is a small matter.
The second half of the book is wooden, due mainly to the dialog. It is as if Simpson wanted badly to write like Hemingway with terse formal and repetitive sentences, or imagined his setting in such a a way - crouched around a candle in life-threatening circumstances. This can work in small spurts, but over a novel that is essentially a one-room hut in a storm, it gets tiring and loses plausibility.
There is no doubt Simpson can write, and describe, and form good characters - the problem here lays in his trying to do it too finely, too deeply, too ... everything ... It felt as if he did not trust his reader, or could not bear to pare down every wonderful observance.
Read this, you may feel differently, but I feel this could have actually been a great novel - with a bold editor involved.
July 11, 2025
la prima parte del libro non si salva niente, noiosa e troppo tecnica. Della seconda parte apparte alcuni capitoli carini non c'è nulla da raccontare. L'idea del finale anche romantico ma si capisce solo nelle ultime righe. Poteva anche essere racchiuso in una manciata di capitoli perché è una storia con un potenziale sprecato
August 4, 2025
simpson mi aveva incantata quando scriveva nonfiction, storie di montagna e di alpinisti dalle quali era difficile staccarsi anche per una "marina" come me. il romanzo non fa per lui, a mio parere. oltre a raccontare una storia che non offre nulla di appassionante, si lascia andare troppo al linguaggio tecnico, non maneggia disinvoltamente i flashback e direi che non è nemmeno tradotto tanto bene. peccato.
October 23, 2012
The storyline and descriptions in this are excellent. it kept me on the edge of my chair for a great part. My reading pleasure would probably have been intensified if I knew more about climbing equipment and techniques, but the author did a good jjob getting me to still see what was going on.
March 14, 2024
This should really be the perfect book for me about mountaineering and rock climbing, survival and the outdoors . Unfortunately the writing is like mental
masturbation , the author goes into a self indulgent stream of consciousness trip which means something only to him.
The main character, Patrick, allows his ego to get in the way of any emotional feelings and that was even before the accident. Theron the book becomes very dark. He becomes totally numb and unemotional with little empathy towards his visitors. Not sure if this is autobiographical but I have certainly come across climbers who are so obsessed with the safety and doing the right thing that they lose all the human emotion from adventure.
The ending improves with good observation of how someone who has lived alone with grief for 25 years can become so unfeeling. Al in all a difficult read but I’m glad I gave it another go as I did learn something from it this time round.
masturbation , the author goes into a self indulgent stream of consciousness trip which means something only to him.
The main character, Patrick, allows his ego to get in the way of any emotional feelings and that was even before the accident. Theron the book becomes very dark. He becomes totally numb and unemotional with little empathy towards his visitors. Not sure if this is autobiographical but I have certainly come across climbers who are so obsessed with the safety and doing the right thing that they lose all the human emotion from adventure.
The ending improves with good observation of how someone who has lived alone with grief for 25 years can become so unfeeling. Al in all a difficult read but I’m glad I gave it another go as I did learn something from it this time round.
June 30, 2024
I enjoyed this author’s nonfiction but this novel just didn’t interest me much. It took me a long time to finish because it was easy to put down and not pick up again. But I slogged through it and finished it. The first part of the book was slow and the writing was too florid for me. The story picked up a bit in the second part, with a few other characters coming into the mix, and some dialogue. Cassie, however, felt really undeveloped. The reader doesn’t get to know very much about her at all. She feels like a tool used by the author to add extra dimension to his protagonist.
Not a long book but it felt like it when reading it.
Not a long book but it felt like it when reading it.
November 24, 2019
It was difficult to rate this book, and tricky to review. On the one hand some moments from the story have continued to haunt me months after I read it. There are phrases that are simply exquisite. I was impressed and touched by the evocation of guilt and grief and obsession - and ice, and storms, and the sound of gravity. At times I was transported there, to the ice. But I also felt that less would have been more.
November 18, 2022
The descriptions on the side different scenes and emotions of the different characters allows you to put yourself in the certain positions and understands how they are feeling
November 15, 2014
I have really enjoyed the author's non fiction books which were funny, harrowing and gripping. I was really looking forward to his fiction about loss on the mountains but this book was a major disappointment.
I liked the idea of the story-a man stuck in the mountains during a storm, facing up to his partner's death when she falls over the ledge. I was looking forward to reading about his pain and fear, something Mr Simpson wrote so well about in his non fiction books. I liked the chapter that told of the fall from her point of view. Sadly I found the rest of the book unsatisfactory.
Firstly, it was one of the most over-descriptive book that I've ever read and for me this is not a good thing. It took fifty words to convey an idea where ten well chosen words would have been better. There were endless paragraphs of description and the same things were continually repeated. For example I don't know how many times we were told that the wind was a predator coming to get him. It just seemed to go round in circles.
The language was flowery and old fashioned, and so many words were used that it left me struggling to imagine what it was he was describing or trying to show. It got very confusing and difficult to follow and the story did not flow smoothly. When you are having to reread sections to try to understand what is being said, all it does it frustrate the reader and give them a headache. It seemed to me that the author was trying to use every word in the dictionary and ended up getting too clever when just telling the story simply would have done nicely.
When Patrick is doing things like trying to find her after the fall, the way it is described is strange. It is written in such a format and with a strange choice of words that you are left unsure what is actually happening. Was he taking parts of her away each day or just exposing them? If so what was he doing with the parts? Why is the other paragraph saying he has found her as if sleeping and the guide says we'll get her off the mountain, then the body parts seem to already be in a chest? Then it said he was coming to get her the next day but failed and was unable to get a search team. Yet he's sitting there with the body now? It's so confusing and jumbled! I found the storytelling to be weak and lacking cohesion in many places.
I struggled to follow the story and I have read a lot of climbing books but for anyone who hasn't read climbing books or climbed themselves, this book would be very hard to follow. There is no attempt to describe the climbing equipment or terminology for non climbers who might have been attracted to the idea of the story. That limits your target audience a bit. And there are only so many times that you can read the same things being endlessly described before you start to get bored. Cutting this book in half might have been a good start as it was too long and lacked enough of interest to hook the reader.
This was not well written by any stretch of the imagination and I won't be reading any more fiction by the author.
I liked the idea of the story-a man stuck in the mountains during a storm, facing up to his partner's death when she falls over the ledge. I was looking forward to reading about his pain and fear, something Mr Simpson wrote so well about in his non fiction books. I liked the chapter that told of the fall from her point of view. Sadly I found the rest of the book unsatisfactory.
Firstly, it was one of the most over-descriptive book that I've ever read and for me this is not a good thing. It took fifty words to convey an idea where ten well chosen words would have been better. There were endless paragraphs of description and the same things were continually repeated. For example I don't know how many times we were told that the wind was a predator coming to get him. It just seemed to go round in circles.
The language was flowery and old fashioned, and so many words were used that it left me struggling to imagine what it was he was describing or trying to show. It got very confusing and difficult to follow and the story did not flow smoothly. When you are having to reread sections to try to understand what is being said, all it does it frustrate the reader and give them a headache. It seemed to me that the author was trying to use every word in the dictionary and ended up getting too clever when just telling the story simply would have done nicely.
When Patrick is doing things like trying to find her after the fall, the way it is described is strange. It is written in such a format and with a strange choice of words that you are left unsure what is actually happening. Was he taking parts of her away each day or just exposing them? If so what was he doing with the parts? Why is the other paragraph saying he has found her as if sleeping and the guide says we'll get her off the mountain, then the body parts seem to already be in a chest? Then it said he was coming to get her the next day but failed and was unable to get a search team. Yet he's sitting there with the body now? It's so confusing and jumbled! I found the storytelling to be weak and lacking cohesion in many places.
I struggled to follow the story and I have read a lot of climbing books but for anyone who hasn't read climbing books or climbed themselves, this book would be very hard to follow. There is no attempt to describe the climbing equipment or terminology for non climbers who might have been attracted to the idea of the story. That limits your target audience a bit. And there are only so many times that you can read the same things being endlessly described before you start to get bored. Cutting this book in half might have been a good start as it was too long and lacked enough of interest to hook the reader.
This was not well written by any stretch of the imagination and I won't be reading any more fiction by the author.
June 2, 2013
I enjoyed this book very much indeed. I found it written in much the same style as the other three biographical books I have read of his, of which perhaps I found 'Touching the Void' the most powerful (what an extraordinary story after all!). Other reviewers hammered Part I of the book, citing as reasons for this, Simpson's repetition, over technicality, and excessive descriptiveness. Others were squeamish over his dealings with death in Part II, and a certain 'woodenness' of characterisation.
Personally I felt that where the repetitions took place it was appropriate to the high tension of the situation, looking at the day's climbing from a variety of angles, much as you would examine the different facets of a diamond! The adjectives do tumble over one another in rapid succession, but then again that is the natural consequence of balancing on the knife-edge between life & death in the mountains: a lifetime's worth of observation, perception, and feeling is jam-packed into a weekend with an awe-ful clarity, particularly when something like this goes wrong; and remember Joe Simpson has a real-time lifetime of such experiences to draw from in the mountains!
My feeling is that these 1st 70 pages (and they were only 70 after all!) admirably set the scene for one man's tragic 25-year inability to come to terms with his loss and grief, and his inability to integrate that experience into his life, before the entrance of another woman in the mountains (Cassie) heralds a glimmer of redemption.
As a pastor who has often had to initiate good 'grief work', and sometimes deal with unresolved grief in counselling, I found that the unfolding relationship between Patrick & Cassie was believable, hopeful, and ultimately redemptive as in the the last line,'holding his hand, she helped him over the boulder and led him out towards the light'!
Other options in the writing suggested themselves to me: I felt Cassie's observation to Patrick that his wife could have deliberately let go to save him (which was the truth after all)could have led to an earlier healing revelation, and personally I found the ending a bit macabre, especially as Patrick had been tracing the course of his wife's body down the glacier for 25 years! Perhaps a tamer but nevertheless moving conclusion would have been reached on the path as Cassie met Patrick on the path home to healing and new life (and I am relieved that the book was not written by someone with a more Gallic temperament as then we may well have had Cassie also slipping to her death in a glacier for another 25 years of Patrick's watchful grieving! Forgive me my levity!).
But all's well that ends well, and I felt that though a little macabre at times, Simpson's book ends up making a broad sweep in the mountains, encompassing tragedy & pathalogical grief, before ultimately leading us to redemption through the opening up of one person's pain to the healing touch of another.
Personally I felt that where the repetitions took place it was appropriate to the high tension of the situation, looking at the day's climbing from a variety of angles, much as you would examine the different facets of a diamond! The adjectives do tumble over one another in rapid succession, but then again that is the natural consequence of balancing on the knife-edge between life & death in the mountains: a lifetime's worth of observation, perception, and feeling is jam-packed into a weekend with an awe-ful clarity, particularly when something like this goes wrong; and remember Joe Simpson has a real-time lifetime of such experiences to draw from in the mountains!
My feeling is that these 1st 70 pages (and they were only 70 after all!) admirably set the scene for one man's tragic 25-year inability to come to terms with his loss and grief, and his inability to integrate that experience into his life, before the entrance of another woman in the mountains (Cassie) heralds a glimmer of redemption.
As a pastor who has often had to initiate good 'grief work', and sometimes deal with unresolved grief in counselling, I found that the unfolding relationship between Patrick & Cassie was believable, hopeful, and ultimately redemptive as in the the last line,'holding his hand, she helped him over the boulder and led him out towards the light'!
Other options in the writing suggested themselves to me: I felt Cassie's observation to Patrick that his wife could have deliberately let go to save him (which was the truth after all)could have led to an earlier healing revelation, and personally I found the ending a bit macabre, especially as Patrick had been tracing the course of his wife's body down the glacier for 25 years! Perhaps a tamer but nevertheless moving conclusion would have been reached on the path as Cassie met Patrick on the path home to healing and new life (and I am relieved that the book was not written by someone with a more Gallic temperament as then we may well have had Cassie also slipping to her death in a glacier for another 25 years of Patrick's watchful grieving! Forgive me my levity!).
But all's well that ends well, and I felt that though a little macabre at times, Simpson's book ends up making a broad sweep in the mountains, encompassing tragedy & pathalogical grief, before ultimately leading us to redemption through the opening up of one person's pain to the healing touch of another.
January 15, 2014
Beautiful story, over-written with an abundance of adjectives sadly.
The number of sentences (per page) in this book that I've had to re-read and really focus on to even begin to understand what he's trying to describe! It really made me doubt my intelligence but in reading other reviews here I learned I wasn't the only one to find it hard to read. It's a beautiful, very poetically paced language that's used, but the minute level of detail he goes into in describing actions and objects often makes it very hard to follow.
Reading a sentence sometimes becomes like trying to keep track of a stack of Russian dolls, each separated by a comma. Forget one of the dolls and all the smaller dolls inside disappears with it. It's a mental juggling act.
People much smarter than me would (and probably should?) praise Simpsons style of writing but I just get left behind sometimes...
But I persevered and read until I got what each sentence meant and was rewarded with a story that was often heartbreaking and endearing, at some points page-turningly terrifying/exciting. Because that is what Simpson did well in this book, the emotions. Understanding what the characters are feeling the way this book was written works on an instinctual level. I just get it. I can imagine their emotions and I fluently empathize as I read. One action packed section actually had my heart rate go up while reading it. That rarely happens. I'm familiar with climbing-gear and terminology so I didn't find that a hurdle in reading this, someone who isn't would probably be a little confused though. Although I think the average Joe Simpson reader's gonna be a climber and I think Simpson knows it. Still, he could have tried to be a tad more descriptive about those things for the uninitiated. Not that understanding the story hangs on you knowing exactly what a Munter Mule hitch looks like. All in all, I often found it hard to grasp at first but liked the story a lot.
I enjoyed that it could make me feel sad like I've myself just lost a loved one, or feel the joy of finding myself alive after a life threatening situation. Or cold, so very, very, cold!
The number of sentences (per page) in this book that I've had to re-read and really focus on to even begin to understand what he's trying to describe! It really made me doubt my intelligence but in reading other reviews here I learned I wasn't the only one to find it hard to read. It's a beautiful, very poetically paced language that's used, but the minute level of detail he goes into in describing actions and objects often makes it very hard to follow.
Reading a sentence sometimes becomes like trying to keep track of a stack of Russian dolls, each separated by a comma. Forget one of the dolls and all the smaller dolls inside disappears with it. It's a mental juggling act.
People much smarter than me would (and probably should?) praise Simpsons style of writing but I just get left behind sometimes...
But I persevered and read until I got what each sentence meant and was rewarded with a story that was often heartbreaking and endearing, at some points page-turningly terrifying/exciting. Because that is what Simpson did well in this book, the emotions. Understanding what the characters are feeling the way this book was written works on an instinctual level. I just get it. I can imagine their emotions and I fluently empathize as I read. One action packed section actually had my heart rate go up while reading it. That rarely happens. I'm familiar with climbing-gear and terminology so I didn't find that a hurdle in reading this, someone who isn't would probably be a little confused though. Although I think the average Joe Simpson reader's gonna be a climber and I think Simpson knows it. Still, he could have tried to be a tad more descriptive about those things for the uninitiated. Not that understanding the story hangs on you knowing exactly what a Munter Mule hitch looks like. All in all, I often found it hard to grasp at first but liked the story a lot.
I enjoyed that it could make me feel sad like I've myself just lost a loved one, or feel the joy of finding myself alive after a life threatening situation. Or cold, so very, very, cold!
December 11, 2012
I finished this book, but that's about all I can say for it. I've enjoyed reading Joe Simpson's other mountaineering books, but his foray into fiction has come with an overabundance of adjectives and a definite lack of a good editing job. Part One is hard to plough through: pages and pages of flowery descriptive sentences, with no dialogue as the plot just follows one man trying to climb his way out of a desperate situation. I skimmed quite a few sections(/pages) hoping it would improve, and I'm a climber/walker myself, so I can only imagine that this would be even more boring for folks who aren't familiar with the terminology and equipment used. I do feel like he has the remnants of a good book here: it just needs an awful lot of editing and a bit more action.
In terms of the plot, it did improve (slightly) in the second section. I found Cassie to be at least a mildly interesting character, but it was a shame that we never got to find out more about her life. I liked Patrick considerably more in the second part too, and enjoyed seeing how he'd changed,
And besides the problems of the prose, the endlessly gruesome and unnecessary descriptions of injuries and corpses, and corpses revisited several years later, have left me somewhat repulsed and creeped out. It's not often that I actually regret reading a book, but I think this might be one of those cases. I haven't had any of these complaints about Simpon's writing in his factual accounts, but he needs to learn not to overwrite before constructing another fictional narrative.
In terms of the plot, it did improve (slightly) in the second section. I found Cassie to be at least a mildly interesting character, but it was a shame that we never got to find out more about her life. I liked Patrick considerably more in the second part too, and enjoyed seeing how he'd changed,
And besides the problems of the prose, the endlessly gruesome and unnecessary descriptions of injuries and corpses, and corpses revisited several years later, have left me somewhat repulsed and creeped out. It's not often that I actually regret reading a book, but I think this might be one of those cases. I haven't had any of these complaints about Simpon's writing in his factual accounts, but he needs to learn not to overwrite before constructing another fictional narrative.
April 16, 2014
This is the first Joe Simpson book I've read, and I have to say it is an excellent piece of descriptive writing.
Right from the start, you know that one of the two climbers high up on a mountain in the Alps dies; it's even on the jacket blurb, so that's not a plot spoiler. Actually, there isn't a plot to this book, it's more a description of one man's harrowing experience on the mountains, and from that point of view it works as I could almost feel his grief and pain. The atmosphere Simpson manages to conjure up is quite breathtaking, and it's obvious he has been there, done that and is still wearing the T-shirt. It really is a cracking piece of writing, but I just found it all a bit too much....it just went on and on and on and I began to get.....dare I say it....a bit bored; I wanted Something To Happen. This isn't a long book at 233 pages, but I felt like I'd been on that mountain for weeks, and just wanted to get off the blasted thing. Now I know why I don't ever want to climb mountains!
I know it's picky but I find four stars a little high, as I didn't actually like the book, but then 3 stars is too low as it's more than OK.....so three and a half would just about be right. I probably would not read any more books by this author simply because the subject of mountaineering isn't to my taste.
Right from the start, you know that one of the two climbers high up on a mountain in the Alps dies; it's even on the jacket blurb, so that's not a plot spoiler. Actually, there isn't a plot to this book, it's more a description of one man's harrowing experience on the mountains, and from that point of view it works as I could almost feel his grief and pain. The atmosphere Simpson manages to conjure up is quite breathtaking, and it's obvious he has been there, done that and is still wearing the T-shirt. It really is a cracking piece of writing, but I just found it all a bit too much....it just went on and on and on and I began to get.....dare I say it....a bit bored; I wanted Something To Happen. This isn't a long book at 233 pages, but I felt like I'd been on that mountain for weeks, and just wanted to get off the blasted thing. Now I know why I don't ever want to climb mountains!
I know it's picky but I find four stars a little high, as I didn't actually like the book, but then 3 stars is too low as it's more than OK.....so three and a half would just about be right. I probably would not read any more books by this author simply because the subject of mountaineering isn't to my taste.
April 4, 2014
What a moving book this was. It didn't make me cry, but it tugged at my heart and was so beautifully and powerfully written that I could easily identify with the main character and see myself replicating his own actions.
The downside of the book is that it is choc a bloc with technical, mountaineering terms and descriptions which mean nothing at all to me. In the end it didn't matter that much that I didn't know what a karbiner was, or how the complex moves that one makes on a mountain are actually made. I skipped that stuff and the book still worked for me.
I recommend it to climbers and non climbers alike.
The downside of the book is that it is choc a bloc with technical, mountaineering terms and descriptions which mean nothing at all to me. In the end it didn't matter that much that I didn't know what a karbiner was, or how the complex moves that one makes on a mountain are actually made. I skipped that stuff and the book still worked for me.
I recommend it to climbers and non climbers alike.
February 26, 2013
So disappointing. I have read all of Simpsons other books and I love them. But this one just went on and on and on describing the same thing. I honestly thought that i kept rereading the same section but it was just that so much of the book was the same! He writes well about the mountain conditions but this book really needed some more human interactions and content as they is only so many times people want to read about what the clouds look like.
May 8, 2013
This book is worth persevering with. Having read previous reviews I can agree with the, at times, clunky dialogue. However, as the book progresses Simpson's characterisation and exploration of tone is excellent. The most interesting thing I found was the dichotomy between Simpsons own personal catharsis and that of the central character; just how much of his previous experiences he was adding to the narrative.
September 7, 2015
Pazzesco come questo libro mi abbia veramente toccato le corde più profonde...Iniziato e finito in poco più di 48 ore nei viaggi verso e da i Pirenei (agosto-settembre 2014). La capacità dell'autore di rendere vive situazioni, persone e emozioni grazie a descrizioni impareggiabili è davvero notevole. La copertina presenta molte unghiate...ero un tantino nervosa durante la lettura!!! Diciamo che non è tra le storie più leggere da scegliere per dilettarsi a passare il tempo.
November 11, 2012
The start was exceptional and had me hooked. The whole storm scene rang with authenticity.
Like many I enjoyed Touching the Void, so this looked to be a bolted on winner.
Perhaps my stamina is failing me, but each extended description of brittle ice, curling rope and clipping on drained my will to continue reading.
Eventually I simply ceased to read further.
Like many I enjoyed Touching the Void, so this looked to be a bolted on winner.
Perhaps my stamina is failing me, but each extended description of brittle ice, curling rope and clipping on drained my will to continue reading.
Eventually I simply ceased to read further.
October 26, 2016
I loved Touching the Void, and have read and enjoyed other books on climbing that he has written. This is the first pure novel of his I've read, and while I enjoyed the climbing scenes and action, I find his writing overblown and florid - and the main character is all a bit much. Quite enjoyable if you are a climbing nut - not too much for the casual reader.
September 23, 2014
I've loved all of his autobiographical works but this just didn't do it for me. I felt oddly detached from the characters and only finished the book because I kept thinking Joe Simpson must have written another great book. But no, it was mediocre
March 7, 2015
It took me a while to read, a lot of description rather than action. Which isn't necessarily bad but was hard to stomach despite how small the book was. Still, I enjoyed the different style of writing and though the story could've used more attention I rather enjoyed it too.
August 3, 2021
Shocking, touching, sometimes brutally graphic. A book to experience rather than enjoy, and rich pickings for anyone (like me) who loves the ice & snow mountains. Suggest could be read as a fictional companion to Mountains of the Mind by Robert McFarlane.
May 12, 2012
The first chapter blew me away! Super intense. The books loses some steam but ultimately pulls through in the end. Hard to say if non-climbers will enjoy it.
May 4, 2012
I loved 'Touching the Void' but I couldn't get into this. Just too much climbing-speak for me. My OH loved it!
January 7, 2018
Dead wife fuels husband’s overly described stoicism. Left me cold.
See my other ten word book reviews at my blog: https://tenwordbookreviews.wordpress....
See my other ten word book reviews at my blog: https://tenwordbookreviews.wordpress....
May 29, 2012
I loved all of Joe Simpson's climbing books...but I couldn't finish this one. Sorry.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews