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Angels of Light
When the mountain climbers of Yosemite Valley discover two tons of drugs and a corpse in a frozen High Sierran lake, their world of carefree squalor and devotion to climbing is destroyed by greed
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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118 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Long
22 books404 followersLong is a veteran climber and traveler in the Himalayas rock climbing often manifests in his writing. He has also worked as a stonemason, journalist, historian, screenwriter, and elections supervisor for Bosnia's first democratic election.
Many of his stories include plot elements that rely heavily on religious history or popular perceptions of religious events.
Many of his stories include plot elements that rely heavily on religious history or popular perceptions of religious events.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 10, 2015
A novice effort by one of the best adventure/thriller writers around. Edited to add: This wasnt an easy book to find, but having run out of Jeff Long fiction, it was worth the effort. What a storyteller. When will there be more?
January 28, 2018
It might sound silly, but I was torn about how to rate this book.
On the one hand, the author has bursts of prose so fantastic that it's like seeing the aurora borealis. And his understanding of the climbing world is either from personal experience or the most devilishly fastidious research.
The flip side is that every now and then, there is this 70s style machismo underneath the surface of the writing that I caught in snatches, like whispers almost, that seems a little outdated. It's like spying on an earlier, celebrated style of writing and writer that has evolved and gotten better, and it's still good, but it was the precursor to what was later greatness.
The masculinity of the writing, and also some moments of brutal honesty, reminded me of Hemingway or Barthelme or Bukowski. Don't get me wrong, because I love a lot of their work, but sometimes ... I don't know, I guess at times it isn't fully appealing.
The odd thing about this novel, however, is that it seemed to me that the writer was on the precipice between that more old-fashioned style of prose and something more brilliant. It was like Long was bridging a divide, and you were able to witness it.
For any type of climber, this book will no doubt yield a bunch of head-nods and "been there, done that" type of moments.
I really enjoyed it. Maybe my rambling makes sense, and you'll have a good idea whether you can enjoy it, too.
I'll end with a favorite passage:
"They had seen tiny spiders clambering across snow on twenty-six-thousand-foot mountains and solitary blue flowers in the Antarctic. They had seen that where life was possible, it persisted. Especially on the brink. In their vertical wilderness, that was the measure. It was more honest than right or wrong, sin or justice. Survival itself was right and just. The fact that each of them was still on his feet with air in his lungs on a day like today made it so."
On the one hand, the author has bursts of prose so fantastic that it's like seeing the aurora borealis. And his understanding of the climbing world is either from personal experience or the most devilishly fastidious research.
The flip side is that every now and then, there is this 70s style machismo underneath the surface of the writing that I caught in snatches, like whispers almost, that seems a little outdated. It's like spying on an earlier, celebrated style of writing and writer that has evolved and gotten better, and it's still good, but it was the precursor to what was later greatness.
The masculinity of the writing, and also some moments of brutal honesty, reminded me of Hemingway or Barthelme or Bukowski. Don't get me wrong, because I love a lot of their work, but sometimes ... I don't know, I guess at times it isn't fully appealing.
The odd thing about this novel, however, is that it seemed to me that the writer was on the precipice between that more old-fashioned style of prose and something more brilliant. It was like Long was bridging a divide, and you were able to witness it.
For any type of climber, this book will no doubt yield a bunch of head-nods and "been there, done that" type of moments.
I really enjoyed it. Maybe my rambling makes sense, and you'll have a good idea whether you can enjoy it, too.
I'll end with a favorite passage:
"They had seen tiny spiders clambering across snow on twenty-six-thousand-foot mountains and solitary blue flowers in the Antarctic. They had seen that where life was possible, it persisted. Especially on the brink. In their vertical wilderness, that was the measure. It was more honest than right or wrong, sin or justice. Survival itself was right and just. The fact that each of them was still on his feet with air in his lungs on a day like today made it so."
February 28, 2014
Disclosure: Jeff is a close friend of mine. However I fell in love with this book before that was the case. The writing is extremely powerful--I read this book 25 years ago and still remember certain breath-taking phrases.You don't have to know anything about climbing to appreciate the story. I couldn't take my eyes off the characters or escape a deep sense of anxiety about the dangers that followed them to the very end.
June 22, 2008
Jeff Long's first fiction work. The story was ripped off for the movie Cliffhanger.
January 6, 2020
Un libro che non mi ha preso per niente. Alle volte capita. I libri sono come le persone, lo dico sempre: “Angeli di luce” ed io proprio non ce l’abbiamo fatta, fin dalle prime pagine.
Un giallo (confuso e inconcludente, dove persino l’assassino resta senza nome e non fa parte dei personaggi presentati dall’autore – che allora, voglio dire: siamo capaci tutti...) e che sfrutta un fatto realmente accaduto: nel 1977 un aereo dei narcos, zeppo di marijuana si schianta nel bel mezzo di Yosemite. Tanti climbers vedono un’opportunità per fare soldi facilmente e si lanciano, in gara coi rangers, ad arrampicarsi velocemente sulle pareti per arrivare per primi al malloppo. Questo è lo sfondo per un duello tra John (che, a guardare dalle foto di Jeff Long, sembra il suo alter ego), un climber che (a soli trent’anni) si sente già pronto per il pensionamento perché non si sente più in forma come i giovinetti e che ha un passato famigliare difficile (che – ovviamente – lo rende incapace di amare, anche se lui, ah! Vorrebbe così tanto...) e la morte di un compagno in cordata che non smette di perseguitarlo e Matt Kresinski, il climber spaccone ed autoritario dagli occhi di ghiaccio (che ricorda un bel po’ Royal Robbins). I personaggi (inclusi gli altri tre di maggior spicco nella trama) sono appena accennati, impedendo così al lettore di appassionarsi a loro e di vivere le loro emozioni. Oltre a ciò, l’autore confonde uno stato “confusionario” dei suoi personaggi (sicuramente simile a quello dei climbers ribelli degli anni Settanta a Yosemite) con una grande profondità interiore – o forse non è stato capace di elaborare questo loro stato d’animo, rendendo così i personaggi ancora più vacui e sconclusionati che galoppano una trama altrettanto confusa, emanata da loro stessi.
Oltre a ciò, appassionarsi a personaggi fittizi del mondo dell’arrampicata (o dell’alpinismo) è oggi (credo) ancora più difficile, considerata la buona (anche se risicata) letteratura contemporanea a disposizione che racconta storie vere e molto umane di sofferenza e superamento di essa (anche tramite l’arrampicata) che avvicinano moltissimo il lettore ai (veri) protagonisti a tal punto dal rendere quasi poco interessante l’appassionarsi a personaggi fittizi.
L’idea quindi di farne un giallo non era affatto male: purtroppo però gli elementi dati al lettore e la loro risoluzione restano difficili da seguire perché molto dispersivi e poco avvincenti.
Un giallo (confuso e inconcludente, dove persino l’assassino resta senza nome e non fa parte dei personaggi presentati dall’autore – che allora, voglio dire: siamo capaci tutti...) e che sfrutta un fatto realmente accaduto: nel 1977 un aereo dei narcos, zeppo di marijuana si schianta nel bel mezzo di Yosemite. Tanti climbers vedono un’opportunità per fare soldi facilmente e si lanciano, in gara coi rangers, ad arrampicarsi velocemente sulle pareti per arrivare per primi al malloppo. Questo è lo sfondo per un duello tra John (che, a guardare dalle foto di Jeff Long, sembra il suo alter ego), un climber che (a soli trent’anni) si sente già pronto per il pensionamento perché non si sente più in forma come i giovinetti e che ha un passato famigliare difficile (che – ovviamente – lo rende incapace di amare, anche se lui, ah! Vorrebbe così tanto...) e la morte di un compagno in cordata che non smette di perseguitarlo e Matt Kresinski, il climber spaccone ed autoritario dagli occhi di ghiaccio (che ricorda un bel po’ Royal Robbins). I personaggi (inclusi gli altri tre di maggior spicco nella trama) sono appena accennati, impedendo così al lettore di appassionarsi a loro e di vivere le loro emozioni. Oltre a ciò, l’autore confonde uno stato “confusionario” dei suoi personaggi (sicuramente simile a quello dei climbers ribelli degli anni Settanta a Yosemite) con una grande profondità interiore – o forse non è stato capace di elaborare questo loro stato d’animo, rendendo così i personaggi ancora più vacui e sconclusionati che galoppano una trama altrettanto confusa, emanata da loro stessi.
Oltre a ciò, appassionarsi a personaggi fittizi del mondo dell’arrampicata (o dell’alpinismo) è oggi (credo) ancora più difficile, considerata la buona (anche se risicata) letteratura contemporanea a disposizione che racconta storie vere e molto umane di sofferenza e superamento di essa (anche tramite l’arrampicata) che avvicinano moltissimo il lettore ai (veri) protagonisti a tal punto dal rendere quasi poco interessante l’appassionarsi a personaggi fittizi.
L’idea quindi di farne un giallo non era affatto male: purtroppo però gli elementi dati al lettore e la loro risoluzione restano difficili da seguire perché molto dispersivi e poco avvincenti.
December 30, 2022
Was not prepared for how gripping this story was. Honestly went in thinking it was a factual account, so was thrown for a loop when things escalated in intensity!
Who doesn't love a story about vagabonds trying to find their fortune?
Also the description of the experience of climbing intense routes is very well done. Gave it to a climbing buddy and they said it was some of the best written capture of the climbing experience they had seen.
Who doesn't love a story about vagabonds trying to find their fortune?
Also the description of the experience of climbing intense routes is very well done. Gave it to a climbing buddy and they said it was some of the best written capture of the climbing experience they had seen.
August 1, 2018
One of the best works of climbing fiction ever written. Not great literature but the climbing scenes are so realistic they will make your palms sweat.
September 25, 2024
Jeff Long is the greatest autho ever to have been given to humanity - a gift given to us by God. Dom xxx
June 4, 2025
There's some luminous writing about climbing in this book based on a true story. There's also some flat-out bloviation and a fair amount of sexism.
September 25, 2009
Not all that well written, but a terrific story -- based on a true Yosemite event -- that Long turned into a short story that appeared in the mountaineering annual ASCENT. It was a good lean story, but Long expanded it into a novel that gradually mutated into Stalone's movie Cliffhanger, and was then satirized by Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura Pet Detective.
July 27, 2016
A GREAT book on climbing and that whole scene around the planeload of weed that crashed in Lake Merced. Long is a excellent writer. I have read many more of his books since.
Nobody knows about this book and it's so good!
Nobody knows about this book and it's so good!
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May 2, 2010A good book, even though it took me too long.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews