Kolymsky Heights

Product Information

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 from the late Lionel Davidson has just been re-released by Faber & Faber with an introduction from Philip Pullman with the testimonial that it was “The best thriller I’ve ever read.” I thought that this was a very big statement and would I be let down by the boast, and to be honest I think he undersold it! As someone who has enjoyed reading classic adventure thrillers from the inter war period of the 20s and 30s it reminded me very much of that excellent but long forgotten genre. Kolymsky Heights is an adventure, with spy –espionage wrapped up in a thriller out in the frozen tundra of Siberia. Hugely thrilling, brilliantly written, perfect … I didn’t want this book to end.’ (Anthony Horowitz) 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! Welcome to the second in my series of favourite books which I’ll be reviewing over the summer. Lionel Davidson’s Kolymsky Heightsis one those books which I, although I hestitate to say it, would put in the ‘best you’ve never heard of’ category. I know that’s a cliché but it’s how it was described to me when I was first given it to read in 2008, the person who gave it me probably had the same conversation with the person who gave it to them and so forth. After reading Kolymsky Heights the first time I didn’t disagree

Lionel Davidson - Wikipedia Lionel Davidson - Wikipedia

Kolymsky Heights is a 1994 thriller novel by Lionel Davidson. It was his first thriller novel in 16 years, following The Chelsea Murders. [1] Plot summary [ edit ] But get all that nonsense out of the way and you have a very much above average effort. Davidson could actually write. The obligatory formulaic aspects of the genre are transformed into more plausibility than you usually get within these masculine fantasies. MY beef instead is with the nature of the secret. And frankly, it could have been ANYTHING. pretty much anything. The secret is entirely, as far as I can see, irrelevant to the story. But it still is part of the story, and it's this: that they've bred talking chimpanzees. Ya wot, mate. Characters - none of them really believable. Or even likeable, I felt. They mostly play third or fourth fiddle to Johnny P in any case. But they are not poorly-drawn enough, and he is not unlikeable enough, to crash the novel. It’s not really that he’s unlikeable exactly; it’s more that I felt I never knew him. He was too busy being other diverse characters for the reader to get to know the real him.Moonage Pictures, the UK production company set up by a handful of Peaky Blinders execs, is adapting Lionel Davidson’s Russian spy thriller Kolymsky Heights. Porter, however, is descended from Canadian Inuits, who remain – physically, ethnically and culturally – virtually identical to their Siberian counterparts, despite the decades-long political rift between the two. That, alongside his linguistic skills – he also has to pass himself off as a Korean at one point – makes him the only spy able to get anywhere near the base without arousing suspicion. The characterisation is also generally good within the conventions of the thriller with the exception of the hero who seems to be a sort of cut-out sentimental sociopath of enormous animal cunning but without much of an interior life as far as we are concerned. Davidson then went into an extended hiatus after the publication of The Chelsea Murders. He was not to write another thriller for the next sixteen years. Kolymsky Heights appeared in 1994 to international acclaim. [4]

Kolymsky Heights - AbeBooks Kolymsky Heights - AbeBooks

The novel describes an improbable romp through north-east Siberia, by way of rarefied Oxford University, remote British Columbia, and Tokyo. Our hero is super-linguist and multiculturalist Johnny Porter (aka Raven aka Jean-Baptiste Porteur), a native of the Canadian Gitxsan tribe. He is also a dab hand at impersonations and can fabricate a jeep (fabulously called a Bobik - I SO want one!) out of spare parts in a freezing Siberian ice cave. On his own in three days.I've never read a thriller that so successfully transported me to a hitherto unimagined place. After a few racy globe-trotting chapters in which Porter is painstakingly inserted into his undercover role, we enter the dark, icy world of the Siberian winter. And it never gives up its grip until the end. 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.

Kolymsky Heights | Faber Kolymsky Heights | Faber

An icy marvel of invention ... It is written with the panache of a master and with the wide-eyed exhilaration of an adventurer in the grip of discovery. Mr. Davidson has not only rescued one of the most familiar narrative forms of the era, the spy thriller; he has also renewed it. (James Carroll The New York Times Book Review) Walker, Maxton (3 August 2014). "A book for the beach: Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson". The Guardian . Retrieved 23 September 2021. Daisy Ridley To Star In Survival Thriller From Zak Hilditch, The Penguin Empire and Campfire Studios; Neon & UTA To Shop At AFM Lionel Davidson FRSL (31 March 1922–21 October 2009) was an English novelist who wrote spy thrillers. This is the story of a super-intelligent polyglot who gets summoned to Siberia for not-very-clear reasons. Davidson goes into painstaking detail with the travel arrangements and administrative aspects, at the expense of anything interesting happening.There is also a quasi-science fantasy element that won't fool anyone with any understanding of modern science, even those inclined to think that the Russians always have something up their sleeves. Basically, I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, other than to say that the last quarter is very, very tense and highly successful. Ok, hold up-it really does pain me to write this review. I don’t like to trash any author on GR or anywhere else. I am not a writer myself; I have tried and spinning a good yarn is no easy task. Like I said, I was excited for this book, and after the prologue, I was even more excited. So what happened? Carroll, James (26 February 1995). "The Spy in the Cold". The New York Times . Retrieved 23 September 2021. Having been an admirer of this author since the days of The Night of Wenceslas and Smith's Gazelle and others, it was a great joy to discover one last volume that had eluded my notice. I was not disappointed. At the centre of the adventure is a premise which takes some swallowing - though total disbelief was suspended while reading. But essentially this is a brilliantly plotted story of two desperately hazardous journeys, into and out of Siberia. The characters are far from being stereotypes but remain identifiable.