Pre Pub Book Buzz: Thin Air by Michelle Paver

Happy Saturday, all. I know it's almost over but better late than never, right?

I have a very odd fascination with mountaineering expeditions. Expeditions in general, but mountaineering in particular. Probably because it's something I have no interest in ever taking part in anything along those lines in reality (heights, cold, general outdoor activity...). Worse yet, the fact that there are bodies littered all over Everest is something that saddens me and freaks me out but still seems to me like such an obvious plot piece for some kind of fabulous horror novel that needs to be written!

And so when I stumbled upon Thin Air by Michelle Paver it immediately got added to my wish list. I should note that sadly it is a UK release only at this stage so while I will be keeping an eye out for any possible US release date I will be planning to have to order it overseas.

Here's a bit about the book from Goodreads:

In 1935, young medic Stephen Pearce travels to India to join an expedition with his brother, Kits. The elite team of five will climb Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain and one of mountaineering's biggest killers. No one has scaled it before, and they are, quite literally, following in the footsteps of one of the most famous mountain disasters of all time - the 1907 Lyell Expedition.

Five men lost their lives back then, overcome by the atrocious weather, misfortune and 'mountain sickness' at such high altitudes. Lyell became a classic British hero when he published his memoir, Bloody, But Unbowed, which regaled his heroism in the face of extreme odds. It is this book that will guide this new group to get to the very top.

As the team prepare for the epic climb, Pearce's unease about the expedition deepens. The only other survivor of the 1907 expedition, Charles Tennant, warns him off. He hints of dark things ahead and tells Pearce that, while five men lost their lives on the mountain, only four were laid to rest.

But Pearce is determined to go ahead and complete something that he has dreamed of his entire life. As they get higher and higher, and the oxygen levels drop, he starts to see dark things out of the corners of his eyes. As macabre mementoes of the earlier climbers turn up on the trail, Stephen starts to suspect that Charles Lyell's account of the tragedy was perhaps not the full story...

Thin Air is due out in October from Orion.