Kolymsky Heights

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Davidson’s prose is very readable (the many typos notwithstanding!), although maybe a little over-involved with some of the many technicalities involved in the caper. This was Lionel Davidson's last book (he died in 2009). His son has recorded elsewhere the problems of its creation - it was rewritten three times.

Kolymsky Heights, Lionel Davidson | AustCrimeFiction Kolymsky Heights, Lionel Davidson | AustCrimeFiction

I was given a pile of books by my boyfriend's mother to read and this was one of them. I thought I better give one a go before I see her and she asks if I've read any. This one sounded pretty interesting with the promise of spies and secret Russian science.. plus Philip Pullman says it is one of the best books he has ever read, and I love Philip Pullman's books. Turns out Philip and I have VERY different taste in books.. I got over half way through this then had to give up. Life is too short for boring books. The detailed picture of life in the Kolyma region and of the native peoples of the Russian Far East (such as the Evenks) and British Columbia (such as the Tsimshian) is impressive. This is a 2015 re-publication of a solid thriller from the immediate post-Cold War period with a slightly breathless introduction by the children's fantasy writer Philip Pullman. Well, I saw 'Kolymsky Heights' on a list of the best 25 thrillers of the past few years, read a couple blurbs by other authors about it (Charles Cumming, what have you done???) and thought I'd be in for a superior reading experience. Not! Note to self: don't rely on author's blurbs about other authors! This has been the biggest literary disappointment I’ve had in a while, because I was genuinely expecting to like this. This is my first book by Davidson; I always try to give an author a second chance if I don’t enjoy a book of theirs, and since I already (perhaps stupidly) grabbed Rose of Tibet when I bought this, I will be reading that at some point to see if Davidson can somewhat redeem himself for me. Not that he would care, and if you enjoyed this book, neither should you.Lionel Davidson FRSL (31 March 1922–21 October 2009) was an English novelist who wrote spy thrillers. Publishers Weekly described it as "shameless, wonderful, riveting entertainment". [1] The New York Times described it as "an icy marvel of invention". [2] A review in The Guardian described it as "a masterpiece of suspense". [3] So if this book had been "oh I'm kinda sci-fi-y" from the start, then I'd have been a bit more accepting of the talking apes. But when they arrived, my reading brain just threw all its toys out of the pram, went and had a bit of a break, and left whatever remained to finish the book. It's a fine book. I just wasn't happy to suspend my disbelief as far as was required. I can believe a guy builds a car by himself in a freezing cave. I can believe everyone falls madly in love with him for no discernably good reason. Those are all acceptable things within the spy-story framework. Talking chimpanzees are not.

Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson | Goodreads

The other important character of the story is not a human, it’s the deep frozen lightless Siberian winter. Kolymsky Heights is one of the best novels I’ve ever read in terms of capturing and using the sense of place to the advantage of the story. Finally, I should also mention the pacing of Kolymsky Heights. It is almost a master class in building and releasing tension, each time building the tension slightly higher until the last part of the novel when all that built up tension unleashes itself in a frenetic chase across Siberia. This was Davidson’s final novel, and he tells the tale of a Russian research laboratory in the vast wastes of Siberia. Scientists at Tcherny Vodi have discovered something both terrible, and amazing. A message is secretly sent to the West, and the intelligence services send a Native Canadian – the talented Johnny Porter – to retrieve the secret. Porter is Special Forces trained and multilingual. His ethnicity enables him to pass off as almost anyone other than a white European, and the first part of his odyssey has him posing as a Korean sailor aboard a tramp ship scuttling between God-forsaken ports north of Siberia. He infects himself with a Yellow Fever-like virus on purpose, knowing that he will have to be medically evacuated from the ship to the nearest hospital with isolation facilities.Philip Pullman has said of the novel: "The best thriller I've ever read, and I've read plenty. A solidly researched and bone-chilling adventure in a savage setting, with a superb hero." [4] Sensationally good. Cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed. One of the great thrillers of the last century.' Charles Cumming Finally at long last a thriller which reflects the presumably rather mundane life of secret agents as they travel to all manner of far away locations with a meticulous logging of all the steps this takes. This does make the book rather plodding in parts but it's a mesmerizing plod, a plod which one rather enjoys and it unfolds with stately grace seldom encountered in a thriller.

Kolymsky Heights | Faber Kolymsky Heights | Faber

Pullman rightly points out that Davidson manages the trope of mechanical detail brilliantly by embedding these moments deep into the plot rather than pausing the action to give us the excruciatingly dull particulars of some bit of military hardware. Hugely thrilling, brilliantly written, perfect … I didn’t want this book to end.’ (Anthony Horowitz) Els americans (on anglesos; occidentals, vaja) volen enviar-hi un espia perquè hi ha un comunicat d'algú de dins de la base que demana ajuda (o filtra informació, tampoc no ho recordo).That stopped being verbatim at some point, there. I by-and-large (although privitely) disagreed with her on this, and some of my very favourite books ignore this rule. BUT I think the reason I didn't like Kolymsky Heights boils down to that one author's maybe quite contentious top tip. I've hidden this because of spoilers so I'm quite happy to spoiler away: There's this secret, right? In this really secret artic base, yeh? And the main crux of the book is following this implausibly adept guy get in to find out what it is. (I have no beef with Porter, the implausibly adept guy. He's fine. If he were plausibly inept, then what'd be the point of the story?)