One Step in the Clouds

A great doorstop of a book - an omnibus of fiction writing about mountaineering. Various authors, some well know, others unknown. I will only be adding brief notes to each short story and a rating. In many cases the locations are not identified, but I have added generally to the shelves where the locations are know.

The longer novels do have independent listings, so I will review them there and provide a link below.

I expect I will only read a few short stories at a time before getting back to other books, so this ongoing review will likely have been produced over a long period.

In summary I have to say I found mountaineering fiction as a genre to be lacking. It didn't really compared to mountaineering non-fiction for thrills and excitement, commitment and too often, loss.

By calculation, the short stories came out at an average of just under 3 stars from 5. The novella & novel stories came out at an average of 3 stars from 5. So that really means a middling 3 stars out of five overall.

Read from 17/8/24 to 22/2/25

Short Stories

MELTWATER Joe Simpson - A death in the mountains, told from two points of view. 3.5/5

B TOWER WEST WALL Peter Lars Sandberg - Urban climbing, murder and crime syndicates in Boston. Fast action, but tenuous to call this mountaineering. 4/5

LA FOURCHE Anne Sauvy - A deal with the devil to become a more successful climber - what could go wrong? 4/5

A STORM FROM THE EAST David Roberts - A story of relationships and climbing, and lightening! 3/5

MIDGES G. J. F. Dutton - The midges in question hinder climbing. 2/5

OCTOBER DAY Ken Crocket - A starting climb for a boy. 2/5

ULRICH THE GUIDE Guy de Maupassant - The tale of two guides who look after a remote lodge in the Swiss mountains over winter. Supernatural story. 3/5

VIRGINS OF MIST Jeff Long - A supposedly unclimbable rock face with a cave is eventually climbed and the naked body of a women is glimpsed - she becomes recognised as a saint - associated with Mary Magdalene. A secondary story, which to me really confused the story for me, as the narrator has followed a similar pattern, albeit 10 years after, in this village as a Yugoslavian man who hooks up with a local girl. There is a twist at the end when the cave is again accessed. Confusing story. 2/5

THE WHITE GRAPH Dermot Somers - A rock climbing story, with ego and mind games as a man and his climbing partner scale a rock face. 2/5

TIME REVERSAL Anne Sauvy - a story on a strange timeline. 3/5

IN THE CREVASSE Ben Santer - the format didn't work for me, dialogue then inner dialogue. 2/5

SUMMERTIME Al Alvarez - A couple of pages on a mountaineering accident. 3/5

IN HANGING GARDEN GULLY C. E. Montague - Too philosophical for me. 1/5

THE ESCAPIST David Craig - Themed around climbing as an escape from a relationship on the rocks. 3/5

GAZ AND SANKEY M. John Harrison - Unclear where this one was going. 2/5

THE CASE OF THE GREAT GREY MAN Robin Campbell - A Sherlock Holmes / Dr Watson story, with only a vague mention of mountaineering, which in spite of being a strange selection here, was an ok short story. Reasonably authentic to ACD's style. 4/5

CHILDREN LIKE CLIMBERS OFTEN FALL Gordon Thomson - Two men take a friend with a brain injury, who is at risk of being institutionalized, up an unclimbed face. The two men have differing views of how their friend can cope. 3/5

SCENERY FOR A MURDER John Menlove Edwards - I didn't get anything from this one. Somewhat experimental in format maybe. 1/5

CANNIBALS Jeff Long - a strange format, about men trapped after a series of avalanches, the sole survivor accused of cannibalism. 3/5

NO GENTLEMAN IN THE HIMALAYAS Greg Child - all a bit silly really, nothing that held my interest in this one. 1/5

IN ANOTHER TONGUE Greg Child - interesting interpretation of how sherpa see westerners. 4/5

RITES OF PASSAGE Elaine Brook - Tibetans fleeing Tibet for Nepal, and become mountaineering guides. 4/5

THE WAY OF THE WHITE SERPENT John Daniel - an attempt as some sort of mythical history that didn't work for me 1/5

2084 Anne Sauvy - Sci-fi story looking at the 'history' of climbing (looking back from 2084). 3/5

BRIGHT FIRE, BRIGHT ICE Charles Hood - Sci-fi - a wealthy man has achieved all he can in adventure sports, and struggles with what to do next - until he discovers he can charter a flight to Jupiter's moon and carry out a bit of climbing there... 4/5

NIGHT OUT Al Alvarez - a younger climber, and older climber, together are trapped out of the face for the night. 3/5

THE OLD MAN'S PIDGEON LOFT Dave Gregory - a man who befriends climbers to make use of their professions to aid in the renovation of his pigeon loft. 2/5

FOR EVERYTHING ITS SEASON John Long - Steve, whose brother was killed climbing tells the story in a bar, of when he teamed up with his brothers old climbing partner to tackle a difficult face - but primarily because he wanted the truth about his brothers death. The story told has a twist. 3/5

LEVIATHAN Geof Childs - a climb in Nepal, organised by a mysterious man called the Major brings an American, a Scotsman and a Yougoslav together to tackle a face they call the Leviathan. How many make it back? 4/5

THE BRONX PLUMBER Guy Waterman - A story of an unlikely man (the Bronx Plumber) who is subject to the transmigration of souls, as the Hindu call it. Called to fix a backed up toilet he apparently channels Mallory on Everest! 4/5 Quite amusing.

IN GENTLE COMBAT WITH THE COLD WIND Jeff Long - a climber picks up a strange hitchhiker, weak ending. 2/5

Novellas, Novels and a Play

MOTHER GODDESS OF THE WORLD a novella by Kim Stanley Robinson

- Not listed separately, and barely a novella. Set in Nepal, a trekking guide bumps into a fellow guide and old friend on the mountains, and gets dragged into an adventure with Tibetan Monk, and American video director, and George Mallory! Silly fun. 3/5

THE ICE CHIMNEY a play for one actor by Barry Collins

- Also not list separately on GR. A script for a single character, trapped in an ice chimney. Probably much better performed than read. Didn't work for me. 2/5

ONE GREEN BOTTLE a novel by Elizabeth Coxhead

- The first novel in the book. See my review: https://hardcover.app/books/one-green-bottle/reviews/@Daren 3/5

NORTH WALL a novel by Roger Hubank - a technical story about two French climbers in the Swiss Alps. See my review: https://hardcover.app/books/north-wall/reviews/@Daren3/5

LKE WATER AND LIKE WIND a novella by David Roberts - Not separately listed on GR. A tidy novella written around climber Victor Koch and his climbing partner Ed Briles. The story starts with them in Alaska, perched up a mountain face, in a storm and snow drift not far from the top. They make the tough decision to pack up and retreat down the mountain, yet the peak is within striking distance... On the downward climb, there is an accident, and Victor's story rolls out from there. Enjoyable read. 4/5

SOLO FACES a novel by James Salter - separate review https://hardcover.app/books/solo-faces/reviews/@Daren 3/5

VORTEX a novel by David Harris - separate review https://hardcover.app/books/vortex-a-novel/reviews/@Daren 3/5