audiobooks

This is a great book about 4 climbers kidnapped in a foreign country by Afgani rebels. While in the middle of a climb, the climbers are forced down at gunshot. They live the next 10 days in a series of firefights with death all around them. To make their struggle even tougher, there is little food and the climbers are forced to bed down during hours of light in very cramped quarters. The climbers are aware they are in desparate straits as the kidnappers execute a soldier while in the middle of a gun fight. Eventually the climbers escape but that's only half the story.

Their story is so unbelievable and information is so unreliable that their credibility is severely questioned. This book goes into detail about this controversy and I think does an excellent job of showing how it developed. ...

Based on the controversy you're either going to believe the story or not. To me, it's very believable. The climber characters are classic young Americans and the author does a great job portraying their close relationships and this eventually cracks. I stongly recommend this book if you like climbing or stories of adventure.

"Over The Edge" is the story of a kidnapping of four American rock climbers in August 2000, in a remote valley of Kyrgyzstan. The terrified young climbers were held hostage for six days by Islamic militants of the Islamic Movement Uzbekistan (IMU).

Greg Childs is one of mountaineering literature's best authors. But he is neither an expert on terrorism or georegional politics of Central Asia. In "Over The Edge", his first attempt outside the realm of pure mountaineering literature, Childs falls flat.

The book fails when Childs tries too hard to defend himself and his version (according to the climbers) of the adventure story. Throughout the book, he subsequently bashes any inquiry or criticism about the controversial 'truth' of the kidnapping.

Childs actually had exclusive access to all the climbers, guaranteed by a healthy monetary advance. He could have used this unique privilege to evolve and focus on the harrowing adventure the climbers endured.

Instead, he often choses to focus on himself and his relationship to the story. Childs seems to beg the reader not to ask questions, shut up, and accept his version of the tale as the finite truth. For a good writer, this is an elementary mistake.

"Over the Edge" certainly is an 'over the edge' tale of the ego-centric "Ugly-American" at his/her finest. But it is certainly not the next "Into Thin Air".

The story of the climbers' kidnapping and escape is exciting as it comes, but I find most of the value in the book in Greg's in-depth explanations of the terrorists and their background, the politics surrounding the rescue and the heroism of the soldiers who, by pursuing the terrorists, gave the climbers the opportunity to escape. Furthermore, his analysis of the press after the story broke reveals the downside of being caught in the public eye.

If you are looking just for a thrilling story, the book may be dry, but if you want to learn about third world politics and gain a bit of insight to the terrorists and the climbers' experiences after rescue, this is a great book to read.