Kolymsky Heights

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But the essence of the book is its relentless energy, finally tuned so that it all hangs together as a set of necessary perilous quest journeys (much as Pullman notes). Porter’s exit from Siberia makes his arduous and elaborate entrance seem like a day trip to the seaside. The novel begins with a Prologue which appears to be a letter written by an unnamed Russian scientist to an old acquaintance. I have never reached the last page of a book, then started reading it again from page one without missing a beat. I was mildly entertained at the best of times, and frustratingly confused and eventually bored at the worst of times.

Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson | Waterstones

Written in 1994, it was re-released last year, and having heard about it from a normally reliable friend, I bought it then, but took a while to get to it, then took an even longer while to finish it. How he is able to gain entry to Siberia how he survives and completes his mission is pure adventure while his potential escape is the thriller how he has to keep in front of the Russian Security Service. Eventually, we do get to find out (along with our protagonist) what he is risking death and willing to kill for in a bizarre spurt of exposition (and incongruous speculative fiction.With the help of a surprising ally, whose identity is best withheld here, and a group of indigenous Evenk herdsmen, Porter gains access to the forbidden unit at Tcherny Vodi. And, third, Porter, like the Rogue Male, is a whiz at seizing opportunities and capitalizing on any materials he can scrape up. The sheer depth of technical detail included in the story is challenging at times, but Porter’s meticulous preparation for his mission and the extent of his subterfuge are very reminiscent of those employed by that other great fictional deceiver, Frederick Forsyth’s Jackal. To become a subscriber to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly Magazine, please visit our subscriptions page.

Kolymsky Heights | Anne Boston | Slightly Foxed literary review Kolymsky Heights | Anne Boston | Slightly Foxed literary review

I struggled to find his personality and he seemed a bit too good at everything, nothing was ever difficult.It was an immediate success and set a benchmark for his particular forte of fast-moving adventure stories set in exotic places. 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? Meanwhile, a general in the Russian intelligence service is zeroing in on the fugitive’s location, and the narrative shifts masterfully between the hunter at his headquarters and his prey on the ice. The first section deals with finding the only man who can tackle the job and persuading him to do it.

Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson | Goodreads

Però encara hi ha més: després d'aquesta revelació encara ens queden una dues-centes pàgines de fugida que, personalment, he anat llegint en diagonal. I thought this book would be about a top-secret Russian laboratory deep in Siberia, and it turned out to be mostly about the perilous adventure to get in and out of the place. Comença com un thriller d'espionatge amb tocs de ciència-ficció: des d'un satèl·lit americà (o anglès, ja no ho recordo; deixem-ho en occidental) s'observa que hi ha una base científica russa a prop del pol nord, en una regió apartadíssima i desolada, on s'hi poden veure. The note is addressed to Johnny Porter, a Canadian Indian of the Gitxsan tribe with a genius for languages.I’d been meaning to reread KH ever since - and although I admit that I no longer have that same stamina of youth (and although the central scientific puzzle out of Tcherny Vodi holds up less well after 25 years) it is the magnificence of the plot on either side of the secret station that still makes this book such a pleasure.