Kolymsky Heights

Product Information

Lionel Davidson died on 21 October 2009 in north London after a long illness. Davidson's first wife, the former Fay Jacobs, died in 1988.

Lionel Davidson - Wikipedia Lionel Davidson - Wikipedia

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?)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. In his piece, Pullman likens Kolymsky Heights to the classic quest novel, in that it follows the three basic ingredients found in such stories as Treasure Island, Jason and the Argonauts, King Solomon’s Mines, and Lord of the Rings. A hero travels to a far-off place in difficult circumstances; he must retrieve something valuable and there will be serious consequences if he doesn’t; finally, he must return even though he may be a poorer but a wiser man after the trials of his journey. Pullman also declares it the bet thriller he’s ever read, so we set out to see if he’s right.

Kolymsky Heights - Five Books Expert Reviews Kolymsky Heights - Five Books Expert Reviews

The love interest (Russian Medical Officer Komarova) is a bit yawn and contrived. Character-wise, a 15 year-old called Ludmilla provides, for me, the most poignant moment in the tale. I’ve never come across a character quite like her in anything else I’ve ever read. Recluten un paio que viu a les muntanyes i que en sap un niu d'imitar idiomes i dialectes i l'envien a la conxinxina a espiar la base russa.Davidson wrote a number of children's novels under the pseudonym David Line. Run For Your Life is an example. 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! 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. Per alguna raó que desconec, aquesta novel·la no em permetia abandonar-la, però m'anava desesperant a poc a poc. 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.