Review: Thin Air
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4 stars. Holy moly - Michelle Paver really sneaks up on you! This book was downright heart pounding - even before things ramped up I was jumping at noises and spooked by shadows. Highly recommend for fans of arctic horror, historical horror, or ghost stories. It packs a punch.
Through the eyes of the group doctor, Stephen, this book chronicles an expedition taken by five Englishman in 1935 to climb and summit Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world. Following almost literally in the footsteps of the mountaineers who attempted before them, the group faces extreme weather, altitude sickness, and avalanche risk to reach their goal. And there's something else, something that feels very off, and very sinister... something that is stalking Stephen to the point of madness.
Paver effectively explores one of my favorite themes in Dark Matter, and she returns to it here: man's determination to conquer the wild. The pursuit of honor and glory - to be "first" - to achieve greatness - to be recognized in the history books. I enjoyed the way Stephen reckoned with this: in the face of threats both natural and supernatural, even at his most terrified, or most exhilarated.
"Perhaps that’s what we find frightening. Being on a mountain forces us to confront the vast, unsentient reality that’s always present behind our own busy little human world, which we tuck arounon:d ourselves like a counterpane, to keep out the cold. No wonder that when we trespass into the mountains, we create phantoms. They’re easier to bear than all this lifelessness."
And it was smart to weave in a competitive brotherly relationship. Much more interesting and compelling than say, sexual tension. I also loved Paver's British colloquialisms, which only added to the story and even the horror at times. I didn't appreciate Cedric - a blatant trick that she's used in books before! - but was able to determine his arc early so I didn't have to be absolutely petrified for him the whole time.
I have to applaud Paver, as well, for making something like a backpack so profoundly diabolical. And, as always, for embracing a story about ghostly darkness dancing with something even darker: the selfishness of human ego. I have a feeling this one will stick with me.
"...that lump of rock and ice will be there when the human race has broken and receded like a wave. It will never know what dreams and fears it has inspired, or what fierce desire. It will never know what haunts it."