"Mountain of Madness 2.0!" - ASCENSION by Nicholas Binge
Remember that Simpson's Episode "King of the Hill" where Homer has to climb the "Murderhorne" a mountain higher than Everest that just appears in Springfield? It's like that, but dead serious.
ASCENSION by Nicholas Binge | 344 pp. | Riverhead Books — Listened to as an audiobook
I liked this book. I don’t read a lot of thrillers or mysteries but I do read a lot of sci-fi so occasionally I will get sucked into a genre cross like this when there is overlap. Since I don’t like *stars* as a wey to review I have attached the little form I use in my notebook when I make notes on books I read which I am going to be using in this space as my review format here. Let me know what you think and if there is anything else about a book you would want to know before you decide to pick it up.
Overall, would I recommend this book: yes.
A mysterious mountain taller than Everest appears in the ocean. A team of smarts are assembled to look into it only we don’t know who assembled them and we don’t know how the mountain got there. The first people who encounter is come back with their brains on the fritz, and all we have is a series of old letters found in the briefcase of an old man in a mental hospital to tell us the story.
General Vibes:
A creepy book within a book made up of letters written a clandestine expedition. So vibe summary: Suspensful literary turducken.
Major Themes/It’s More Or Less About:
Hard sci-fi physics meets mountaineering expedition meets unexplained natural phenomenon
Relationships:
Everyone is straight, though middle aged and divorced. Relationships are only significant in how they are related to flashbacks and how they provide insight in the present.
If This Book Wasn’t A Book It Would Be:
A graduate student who corners you at a party to talk about their physics thesis, or, something someone’s uncle embarrassingly thinks is something “the elites” don’t want you to know in a long winded facebook re-post with no primary sources.
Who Would I Recommend This To:
People who liked Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.
Would I Read It Again:
Once was enough for me I think, because with a thriller it’s hard to go back and be re-thrilled once you know how it ends.
If I Was Going To Cast This Books Characters In A Movie/TV Adaptation:
Harold Tunmore: Bill Nighy
Dr. Naoko Tanaka: Atsuko Asano
Did I Cry:
No. An effort was made, and I am the easiest cry in the world, but no.
Did I Groan:
Yes. Fucking men. Fucking Aussies.1
Women In This Book:
They seemed really cool, I wish we had actually got to read about them at any point. I would love for men writing books to take specific note that it isn’t the same thing to make your male characters worship and admire the women characters as it is to make them into whole complex and developed people. It’s not enough to make one of your men “starstruck” by a woman on the team and then never show her doing anything cool/smart/interesting. Like a “take my word for it, she’s awesome, but I want to keep the word count down and, we need more space for the guys to do heroics and stuff.” Or to say “she was the most brilliant field medic in the world” and then she does like 2 minor medic things requiring no complexity nor expertise. And then we have soldier woman who is just kind of mean and gruff and seems like a spoil-sport who is extra-hardline for the bosses, and we don’t like her by-the-books attitude, which is irritating since she is the only woman whose competency we are shows clearly and explicitly. The other women are just writing devices, the subject letters are written to in absentia, or sisters and wives spoken of as coming later or being consulted.
Ages Represented:
Middle-Age to elderly for the most part. Some children in flashbacks, but they are minor characters.
How Did I Get It:
Library.
Would I Buy It/Do I Regret Buying It:
Didn’t buy it. Likely wouldn’t. It was good but not so good that I would want to have it to lend out which is really the only reason to by a thriller in my opinion.
Parts I liked:
Dimensions. Time dilation. The ending in the letters.
Best Line:
There was a proverb that one of the characters tells the other where they say
two young fish were swimming past an old fish going tthe other direction and the older fish says ‘morning boys, how’s the water’ and the young fish turns to the other and says ‘what the hell is water’?
and that was my favourite line.
Content Warnings:
Death. Psycosis. Suicide. Mental Hospital. Involuntary Admittance to Hospital. Medical Trauma. Refugees. Drowning. Not trusting own mind. Violence. Hallucinations. Blood. Trauma. Loss. Grief. Divorce.
I should point out here I was married to an aussie man, so I feel like I get to say this. I also feel like it goes without saying that I am also being glib.