Thin Air

First Paver! First audiobook! I didn't think that audiobooks would be a good choice for me, as I tend to be easily distracted. But this story and narrator had all of my attention from start to finish! Thin Air is creepy and thoughtful. An exploration of the human mind in a dangerous and hostile environment, where every mistake could cost you your life. Summary: Kangchenjunga is a dangerous and unpredictable mountain in the Himalayas. The deadliest of them all. Many expeditions and individuals have attempted to reach its peak, but none succeeded. Many turned back, a lot have lost their lives. The newest expedition, a british group of old school friends, plus one's brother, set out to reach the mountain's peak. They follow the very path of the last expedition, several decades before them, which had ended disastrously. This story is about the admiration for your childhood heroes, living in the shadow of one's forebears, brotherly envy, paranoia, and the furious force of nature. Paver didn't shy away to explore the worldview and prejudice of british men traveling the Himalayas in the 1930s. Both the main character and his team express their disdain and feelings of superiority towards the sherpas who carry their equipment. I enjoyed to observe how ignorant the main character started, and how subtle cracks started to form in his view about the world and himself. There's nothing quite like an arrogant group of white men disregarding the urgent warnings of the local people. The foreshadowing and execution was great, and I found myself tense with anticipation more than once. The narrator perfectly conveyed the fear and terror of the main character. How suddenly a scene went from ordinary to terrifying. And most of all, I loved the perfect blend of a paranoid mind in high altitude, and the atmosphere of something supernatural lurking in the dark. I'm afraid this audiobook may have spoiled me for every other audiobooks out there. 😂

"That was when I realized, we all knew. Perhaps we felt that it was easier to keep quiet, to let nature take its course" Dr.Pearce, a eager and a little naive men, joins a crew of mountaineers in the 1930s to conquer Kangchenjunga - the mountain in the Himalaya that took many lives but can also make heroes out of men -. Soon Dr.Pearce and his crew must learn that exhaustion, loss of breath and pain isnt the only danger that lingers in the snowy dark. I already read Michelle Pavers other novel "Dark Matter" and I must say, I found this one very similar. The concept is quite the same and the roles of the people within the crew very also very similar to the people in her other book. However, I enjoyed this one more. Whilst I didnt find the "ghost" part of the book very frightening, I loved the psychological aspects of men on a mountain having to challenge their own ego and being in a situation that brings out the worst out of people. Also, I liked the glimpse into the english mens mind while being confronted with a whole different culture at that time. The Sherpa are introduced as people living around the Himalaya, they have their own culture and worship their gods very differently. They are also extremely fearful when it comes to demons. The english men were all very racist. Even our main character Dr.Pearce (Stephen) was describing them oftentimes as ugly. It was also very interesting how the crew only needed them as servents but didnt really use their expertise on the mountain. To the englishmen, they were inferior. Next I enjoyed to read about the complicated relationship between Stephen and his brother Kitts. While Kitts seems like an asshole very quickly, I believe that Stephen is an unreliable source. He sees his brother in a very negative light but at the end when Kitts looses his life we learn that Kitts actually always protected Stephen. What I saw coming from the beginning was that the Story of the two mountaineers that were the only survivers when climbing Kangchenjunga, was a lie and that we should not trust Lyell. Tennant seemd to be the person that is more trustful from the start since he wasnt monetizing the catastrophy that took place on their trip as much as Lyell did. Discovering Tennants trauma at the beginning of the book when Stephen had the chance to talk to him was one of my favorite moments because it made the reader more aware of a big secret that Tennant wasnt able to talk about. When the secret was revealed it was actually more dark than i thought. Hearing that Tennant as well as the rest of the crew were aware that their partner that fell down the mountain was still alive but didnt do anything left me shook. Tennant blames Lyell for it, however he is guilty as well. Maybe this is how he can work through his guilt better. I found it exremely creepy and disturbing to think about how Ward was seeing his crew members, trying to wave at them and then somewhen must have realized that they aware of him being alive but left him there to die. "None of this, of course, alters the truth. Ward has been alive up there during the blizzard. He had been alive. We had seen him waving his arms and dapping his frozen fists. Then at some stage, perhaps as long as three days and three nights later, he had died, alone and in sight of his comrades. And we had not lifted a finger to help." The reason why I only gave 3 stars: Michelle Paver creates an excellent vivid picture of where the reader is with the crew, how the area looks like and how everyone feels. However, Im not the biggest fan of all of the details she gives. Im not necessarily interested in hiking and she describes a lot around that that isnt interesting to me. Instead of focusing on the hike, the gear and the path they were walking over and over again, I sometimes whished for something else. What I really liked, however, was that again she incorperated a gay character (or at least Stephen thinks hes gay). In general I really appreciate how the main character Stephen handels that. Instead of being difficult about it he was just worried that the guy might be hurt by his brother in the end.