Asian Trips - Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia
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List Price: $24.95
www.asiantrips.info Price: $2.98
Your Save: $ 21.97 ( 88% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Villard
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.430820922
EAN: 9780375506093
ISBN: 0375506098
Label: Villard
Manufacturer: Villard
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2002-04-02
Publisher: Villard
Release Date: 2002-04-02
Studio: Villard
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Editorial Reviews:
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“The climbers swept up in the events of August 2000 are people little different from the rest of us. Though their climbing skills taught them a thing or two about survival, it was their individual characters and their compassion for one another that kept them alive. Like anyone who has witnessed warfare and death, they feel pain over the memories that they recount in this story. It is their hope that others may learn from their experience.” —from the Introduction
Before dawn on August 12, 2000, four of America’s best young rock climbers, the oldest of them only twenty-five, were sleeping in their portaledges high on the Yellow Wall, in the Pamir-Alai mountain range of Kyrgyzstan, in central Asia. By daybreak, they would be taken at gunpoint by fanatical militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which operates out of secret bases in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and which is linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. The desperadoes—themselves barely out of their teens—intended to use their hostages as human shields and for ransom as they moved across Kyrgyzstan. They hid the climbers by day and marched them by night through freezing, treacherous mountains, with little food, no clean water, and the constant threat of execution. The four would see a fellow hostage, a Kyrgyz soldier, executed before their eyes. And in a remarkable life-and-death crucible over six terrifying days, they would be forced to choose between saving their own lives and committing an act none of them thought they ever could.
In Over the Edge, the four climbers—Jason “Singer” Smith, John Dickey, Tommy Caldwell, and Beth Rodden—finally tell the complete story of their nightmarish ordeal. In riveting detail, author Greg Child re-creates the entire hour-by-hour drama, from the first ricocheting bullets to the climactic and agonizing decision the climbers had to make in order to gain their freedom and survival. Set in a powder-keg region of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, this is a deeply compelling book about loyalty and the unshakeable human will to survive.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: MORE IS SOMETIMES LESS...
Comment: This is the true story of four young Americans, three men and one woman, who in August of 2000 ventured into Kyrgyzstan in order to rock climb in the Pamir-Alai mountain range. On August 11, 2000, while climbing, they would suddenly find themselves the target of sniper fire. After their descent, they would find themselves taken at gunpoint and held hostage by young Islamic fundamentalists of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They would join a Kyrgyz soldier whom the militants had already taken prisoner.
The next six days would prove to be harrowing ones for these climbers, who would be marched thrugh the rugged terrain of the mountains with little food and water and constant threat of execution at the hands of their heavily armed captors. They would eventually see the their fellow captive, the Kyrgyz soldier with whom they had bonded, executed. With nothing to lose, they would be forced to make a life or death decision that was to cause them much angst but would allow for an escape.
This audio book is well narrated by Armand Schultz who does an excellent job of infusing with atmosphere the author's somewhat dry chronicle of these startling pre-9/11 events that, looking back in hindsight, now seem to have a much more evil and sinister portent. The story is multifaceted in that it grounds what happened to these climbers in a global context, giving the historical backdrop and political dynamics of the area.
The author fully lays out the media circus that enveloped the climbers upon their return to the United States. He also found himself becoming part of the story, as exclusivity and certain monetary arrangements he had made with the climbers threatened to dominate the story and cast a pall over the veracity of all. The author also lays out the secret pact that the climbers had made over the agonizing decision one of them had reached in order to effect their escape. It was a decision that they believed had led to the death of the captor who had been entrusted with keeping them captive.
The media circus around what had happened to them turned decidedly ugly when it was discovered that this captor was still alive and under arrest. What he had to say would then throw the media into a further tailspin. Thanks to the power of television, however, a Dateline NBC interview with the captor at the heart of the storm of the controversy would finally put to rest some of the unsavory portions of this true life adventure.
What really stands out is the naivete and ignorance of the climbers about the part of the world in which they were traveling. Notwithstanding the fact that none of them seemed to be particularly bright, they had done very little in terms of research into the area before traveling there nor had they heeded State Department advisories about the area. The climbers, in large part, remain somewhat of an enigma and, as such, the reader finds oneself caring very little about them.
This news saga originally appeared as a gripping article in "Outside" magazine. I had the good fortune to have read it and was transfixed by what had happened. I do not recall who wrote the article, though it was most likely Greg Child. In writing this book, however, he seems to have sucked the life out of the story. While still worth reading, it is an adventure story uitterly devoid of passion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great book
Comment: I really liked this book. It was an interesting account of the climbers experiences. I only gave it 4 stars because I thought it was overly dramatized at times. Overall, a worthwhile read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bad Writing Style
Comment: I really wanted to read this book because I am interested in the story. But Child's use of the present tense (inconsistently, at that), finally was so irritating that I stopped reading midway through the book. Child is definitely off my author list.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the Few
Comment: This is one of the Few or maybe Two true storys i have really gotten into.
This and Lost In A Mountain In Maine .
This book was obviously well written with 4 different points of veiw because there were four climbers. The story's quite amazing and it was soo suspensful i could hardly blink.
One minute they aren't being feed and they are stuck in this weird cave trying to get away , the next they are climbing a steep and most dangerous cliff , the next they are recaptured and put back into the clutches of the enemies , then the NEXT they are throwing the enemies off a cliff. Who could predict what happens?
It's not one of those books that you already can tell what happens or you alreday know everything's going to turn out Happily Ever After.
Along with the details and Maps givin in the story you really understand where they are and how hard it was for them.
Worth reading! i recommend it to ages 13- and up up up (although i was probably 11 when i read it. Surprisingly i've always been in a high reading level.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not all that "True" a Story
Comment: As a development worker who lived and worked in Kyrgyzstan during the kidnapping, I can tell you that many parts of this so-called "True Story" are very questionable. One part is true: Four ill-prepared and reckless climbers got kidnapped. The rest of the story is based on their version. Another version puts it this way: They got kidnapped, the kidnappers were not prepared to babysit four climbers and did not have enough food or water for everyone. They got no support from local villagers so they let the climbers go. End of Story.
The climbers say they pushed a kidnapper to his death and then ran the equivalent of a marathon across mountainous terrain with no food or water, after having had no food or water for days.... not likely. In Kyrgyztsan at the time, most ex-pats had the same opinion of these four: "Stupid rich kids in over their heads who greatly exaggerated their story." That's it. Not all that special really.
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