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 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! Lionel Davidson FRSL (31 March 1922–21 October 2009) was an English novelist who wrote spy thrillers.

Kolymsky Heights - Lionel Davidson - Google Books

Recluten un paio que viu a les muntanyes i que en sap un niu d'imitar idiomes i dialectes i l'envien a la conxinxina a espiar la base russa. Plot - ridiculous, but there is a dread and a horror alluded to early on which I was disappointed was not pursued as a significant plot reveal through the middle part of the book. However, the final phase of the book - Porter’s escape (successful or unsuccessful, I’m not saying) - is some of the most thrilling action I’ve read in a long time! I was given a pile of books by my boyfriend's mother to read and this was one of them. I thought I better give one a go before I see her and she asks if I've read any. This one sounded pretty interesting with the promise of spies and secret Russian science.. plus Philip Pullman says it is one of the best books he has ever read, and I love Philip Pullman's books. Turns out Philip and I have VERY different taste in books.. I got over half way through this then had to give up. Life is too short for boring books.I've read a couple of other thrillers by Lionel Davidson and found them entertaining. I honestly gave Kolymsky Heights a good try, even got over half way through it. But I just could not finish it. That does not happen very often, I will tell you. This was Davidson’s final novel, and he tells the tale of a Russian research laboratory in the vast wastes of Siberia. Scientists at Tcherny Vodi have discovered something both terrible, and amazing. A message is secretly sent to the West, and the intelligence services send a Native Canadian – the talented Johnny Porter – to retrieve the secret. Porter is Special Forces trained and multilingual. His ethnicity enables him to pass off as almost anyone other than a white European, and the first part of his odyssey has him posing as a Korean sailor aboard a tramp ship scuttling between God-forsaken ports north of Siberia. He infects himself with a Yellow Fever-like virus on purpose, knowing that he will have to be medically evacuated from the ship to the nearest hospital with isolation facilities. Lionel Davidson was born in 1922 in Hull in Yorkshire, one of nine children of an immigrant Jewish tailor. [1] He left school early and worked in the London offices of The Spectator magazine as an office boy. Later, he joined the Keystone Press Agency. During the Second World War, he served with the Submarine Service of the Royal Navy. [2] 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 ]

Kolymsky Moonage Pictures To Adapt Russian Spy Thriller ‘Kolymsky

Written by Lionel Davidson — Lionel Davidson and his thrillers have been unjustly neglected in recent years. He blazed a trail with articulate and complex international spy stories just before John Le Carre and Len Deighton achieved celebrity status. However, a few years ago Philip Pullman selected Davidson’s 1994 novel Kolymsky Heights for his Waterstone’s author table. This recommendation brought many new readers to the book, so much so that Faber and Faber decided to print a fresh edition with an introduction by Pullman himself. That stopped being verbatim at some point, there. I by-and-large (although privitely) disagreed with her on this, and some of my very favourite books ignore this rule. BUT I think the reason I didn't like Kolymsky Heights boils down to that one author's maybe quite contentious top tip. I've hidden this because of spoilers so I'm quite happy to spoiler away: There's this secret, right? In this really secret artic base, yeh? And the main crux of the book is following this implausibly adept guy get in to find out what it is. (I have no beef with Porter, the implausibly adept guy. He's fine. If he were plausibly inept, then what'd be the point of the story?) 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? Exceptional offbeat minimalist thriller, with an unlikely hero -- a "Native Canadian" linguistic anthropologist! (Actually, I think the proper term is "First Nations".)

Plot: What's the story about?

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. I've never read a thriller that so successfully transported me to a hitherto unimagined place. (Maxton Walker Guardian) The love interest (Russian Medical Officer Komarova) is a bit yawn and contrived. Character-wise, a 15 year-old called Ludmilla provides, for me, the most poignant moment in the tale. I’ve never come across a character quite like her in anything else I’ve ever read.