Book Review: The Abominable by Dan Simmons

The Abominable by Dan Simmons

Genre: Historical Fiction Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Date of Publication: October 22, 2013

Author Information: Website

Mogsy's Rating: 3 of 5 stars - "A decent book that is not without its high points; story is paced slowly and weighed down with a lot of technical detail"

Dan Simmons has always been hit or miss for me, but I have to say his historical-horror novel The Terror about Franklin's lost expedition to the arctic remains one of my all time favorite books ever. While his newest novel The Abominable may not be a follow up, it certainly can be considered a companion piece; the fact that both books seem to share the same vein made me hopeful that Simmons will blow me away again. 

Unfortunately, that just didn't happen. Still, the book started promisingly enough, with an introduction from the author that really isn't an introduction at all. Instead, it's an interesting little meta-story about how Dan Simmons came upon a manuscript of this book, starting with a visit more than ten years ago to a former mountaineer named Jake Perry in a Colorado nursing home. The Abominable is essentially Jake's account of his 1926 expedition to Mount Everest, which Simmons receives in the form of a whole stack of notebooks hand-written by the old man.

Thus it was not so surprising that most of this book read like a memoir. What did surprise me, however, was how little action there was in a book supposedly touted as a "thrilling tale of supernatural adventure". A good chunk of it felt more like a guide to mountain climbing, complete with descriptions of climbing techniques and equipment which Simmons goes into with exhaustive detail. 

Okay, I'll give that it's interesting and all, but where's the relevance? I was more than a quarter of the way through this book (and that's about 150 pages in this monster of a novel) and they still weren't even in the Himalayas yet. At a certain point, I just desperately wanted the story to get moving, and the last thing I needed was yet another dozen or so pages on ice axes and 12-point crampons. At the end of this book, I felt like knew the ins-and-outs of how a Primus stove works more intimately than some of the main characters. This really bothered me, especially since I've never known Simmons to be the kind of author to flaunt his knowledge or research prowess by overwhelming the reader with unnecessary info dumps.

When he does get around to the action though, it can be very suspenseful. If I'd ever entertained thoughts of becoming a mountain climber, this book pretty much killed them dead. Mountain climbers are insane; I'll settle for living their adventures vicariously though books like this one, thanks. That being said, readers with a fear of heights might have a rough time with this, and of course Simmons is also the master of pushing his characters to extremes by placing them in these horrible, godforsaken situations. And it doesn't get any scarier and more extreme than on Mount Everest. 

To date, more than a thousand people have reached Everest's summit including a thirteen-year-old, but it's still one of the most treacherous mountains in the world, killing climbers every year. Can you imagine what a nightmare it must have been like in the 1920s? Climbers back then didn't have our current tech, didn't have the kind of safety gear and improved equipment we have today. It was less than a hundred years ago, and conquering Everest was still just a dream. Or more like, a hopeless challenge. When you read The Abominable and take in the struggles of Jake Perry and his companions, Simmons doesn't let you forget that for a second. 

Nevertheless, this book fell short of my expectations. Its dragging pace played into this, certainly. By the time things really started to heat up it was already three-quarters of the way through the book and a little too late. Still, it was the climax and big reveal that disappointed me the most. Without going into spoilers, let's just say that one of the reasons I loved The Terror so much was its touch of the supernatural. From its description, The Abominable looks like it teases the same, but things didn't actually turn out that way. The big twist was ultimately a let down, and I'll just leave it at that.

Bottom line, this book was not as good as I thought it would be, though it is not without its high points. History buffs with an interest in Everest and mountaineering will find the some of the details here fascinating (the doomed 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition and the deaths of renowned climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine served indirectly as a background for this novel) and a few sections of the plot are genuinely terrifying. Still, it is very little payoff for the amount of effort. The Abominable was a decent book, but I just wished it had been more the "bone-chilling, pulse-pounding story of supernatural suspense" its description vaunted.

 3 of 5 stars