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Into Thin Air  By  cover art

Into Thin Air

By: Jon Krakauer
Narrated by: Philip Franklin
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Publisher's summary

One of the inspirations for the major motion picture Everest, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Keira Knightley.

This is the true story of a 24-hour period on Everest when members of three separate expeditions were caught in a storm and faced a battle against hurricane-force winds, exposure, and the effects of altitude, which ended the worst single-season death toll in the peak's history.

In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead.

Krakauer's audiobook is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads his listeners to ponder timeless questions.

©2011 Jon Krakauer (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about Into Thin Air

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Balanced

As an avid amateur mountaineer and writer, this book spoke to me on many levels. Perhaps it seems more intellectual to criticize, but I will avoid this pretentious practice.

Krakauer's account is rendered with a balance of awe, realism, adventure, reverence and sadness. While not as experienced as John myself, the technical and physical aspects of climbing were completely relatable to me as an amateur. The surrealism of losing a teammate on the mountain is so relatable that I was reduced to tears I was unable to shed previously.

Thank you for this John, and may you find the peace you seek.

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Great story. But that kiwi accent!

I thoroughly enjoyed Krakauer's account of the disaster.

The narrator was great until the kiwi/South African accent came out. I found it quite funny at first but by the end, it was rather grating. Maybe I’m too tough a critic being a kiwi myself 😂

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Thrilling, interesting, and we’ll written.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it directly after Ed Viesturs, no shortcuts to the top, which gave incredible perspective about the incredible risks the 96 expedition took. It also gives an understanding of how amazing inhuman Ed is. Both books should be read together in my opinion and they provide a great perspective on high altitude mountaineering, 1 amateur and 1 expert.

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Riveting

Jon Krakauer puts you right in the middle of this unbelievable trip up Everest. It’s graphic and gritty and he’s not shy to be self critical. I rate him as a properly talented writer. The story has left me wanting to look for images online and find the movie.

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Does not get more real

Grim at places but beautiful.
This real life story takes you as close to reality as possible.

The author speaks truly from deep inside.

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Sobering!

For those that are dreamers: May the truth guide you and poison you not to the perils that befell those that came before you, for through the desire to achieve you will invite your own perils and whether by force or through providence you either will or you won't end up where you intended. Whatever the outcome, so it should be for therein lies your lesson or your salvation. Interpret both with grace.

A sad story, expertly told.

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Into Thin Air

The subject matter of the book is riviting, and Jon Krakauer uses his excellent journalistic skills to draw the reader into the events. You will not only feel as if you were there to experience it, you will also be confronted by some of the very difficult moral choices people had to make.

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Great book...

Loved it! i'm not a mountaineer but enjoyed the epic story! Great, Gripping, and life lessons to be learned.

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Great

It feels like as true an accounting of a tragedy, that anyone can give, having being in the middel and/or apart of it.

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Compelling and cautionary

Tragic story compellingly told. Use of accents by narrator was not great though, as someone very familiar with South African and New Zealand accents, it made for some awkward moments. Otherwise, a very good listen.

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  • Steve S
  • 11-08-16

Exceeded expectations

Purchased this on a whim as it was in the sale. Wasn't expecting much, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and didn't want it to end. It's been a long time since I have said that about an audiobook!
The book is written in such a way that you almost feel like you are there with the climbers. You get drawn in to the unfolding disaster, as though you were part of it.
Note that it is not necessary to have any interest in climbing to enjoy this book. I certainly haven't, but I did! Enjoy

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25 people found this helpful

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  • Michael
  • 04-22-16

Brilliant

Any additional comments?

I'm relatively new to audio books but this is definitely the best so far. Starts of with historical information about the mountain and the stories of other people that have been up to the top of Everest or attempted it, which is a nice build up to the events which happened in 1996.

Nearly listened to the whole thing in one sitting but got through it on the second attempt.

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  • John McCluskey
  • 06-09-16

Epic Tale

Would you try another book written by Jon Krakauer or narrated by Philip Franklin?

Would definitely try another book by Jon, Into the wild was excellent as well. The narration I found pretty excruciating.

What did you like best about this story?

Close quarters account of what happened on that fateful summit attempt in 1996 from Jon's perspective. Its an opinion, and there are others but a piece of the jigsaw all the same. It was well written and we got a sense of being on the mountain, so well done. Climbers as a breed didn't come off very well as there seemed a lot of ego jostling, but I guess you need to be like that to climb the worlds highest mountain.

How could the performance have been better?

OMG, those cheesy accents, they were all over the place. I found the narration poor and it could have been edited better as there were a few double lines read. I hang in till the end though as the story was compelling.

Was Into Thin Air worth the listening time?

Absolutely. Wasn't too heavy and I was well informed.

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  • Steph in Nottingham
  • 10-27-16

Needs editing

Really heartbreaking story. Well read but some lines are read twice, I wonder if this was originally cds converted to digital download. If so it needs the extra lines editing out. Overall I enjoyed it and I will probably listen to it again in a few years.

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  • Mr. Dj Jenkins
  • 06-28-16

So gripping, so intense!

haunting, chilling, and utterly enthralling! could not stop listening, to hear the story through johns eyes was such an experience 10/10

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  • Jack
  • 10-09-18

Good story, annoying narrator

While the book was interesting, the narrator did very bad accents for Brits, South Africans and New Zealanders which was quite grating.

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  • Robert
  • 10-14-16

Real life adventure

Very interesting thought provoking a true story of goals and glory ,
Apart from a couple of editing errors ( you can't miss them , you can't miss them ) that's a clue, a sad but unavoidable story of the power of nature

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  • jonàgilbertson
  • 03-06-19

Audio glitches abound

Great book with a decent performance, however, there are atleast 10 occasions throughout the book where the audio loops. This isn't a deal braker by any means but it does snap you out of the great sense of immersion that J . K creates throughout.

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  • Mrs D
  • 05-16-16

couldn't stop listening

this is a well read interesting account of the events that took place on Everest. thoroughly enjoyed it

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  • colin
  • 11-24-16

Powerful

An Intensely powerful and thought provoking recount of an incredible event. I Couldn't stop listening. Accents a little dodgy!!

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  • Vanessa N.
  • 11-08-20

ENOUGH with the haphazard switch into terrible accent

This is the first time I’ve experienced this with an audible and I don’t know who’s idea it was to have the narrator break into accents for every single character. I thought this was a reading not a voice reenactment! I’m wondering why the narrator didn’t effeminate his voice when reading a female characters speech or that of a child? Seems so random and inconsistent.

The real problem is that the accents are terrible! As an Australian person, to hear him butcher the Australian and Kiwi accents (especially of Hall) is painful to sit through. Also it is inconsistent (starts with accent, doesn’t finish the second sentence in the same quote with that accent even though it one speech by the same character), which is soo distracting.

I have to stop the audible to write this review as it is so distracting every time it comes on which is every few minutes.

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  • Ryan
  • 12-03-18

Awesome book, very harrowing story - could improve

Only complaint was the accents were terrible, mainly the South African and New Zealand accents which sounded more like a botched Aussie accent than anything. Would have preferred no accents at all as it does distract from the story . Overall read very well and highly recommend this book !

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  • Harry
  • 04-12-18

Accents

The narrator should not try to replicate the accents of the characters. They were amateur and detracted from the impact.

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  • Tonya
  • 11-21-16

I feel like I have just climbed Everest!

I enjoyed the narration and historical detail. also loved the retrospective analysis of events. a great read!

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  • Helen
  • 03-23-23

Fantastic book, terrible accents by the narrator

This was a fantastic book, and certainly deserves the accolade it has received. I had put it reading it for a little while, as it’s easy to read large excerpts or access most of the information on the 96 disaster
online now. It was still absolutely a fantastic “read,” and I binge listened to it every free moment I had.

As an audiobook, those accents were simply horrendous and actually made it hard to focus at times (during some very somber moments in the book). If only he never bothered with the accents, the narration would have been fine. They were so noticeably bad, that I paused listening to see if other reviewers had also found them terrible- and they had. I do think it is relevant to mention the narration in a review, as this format is an audiobook, not a hard copy of the novel.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 04-08-19

Riveting!

A hugely absorbing book! really enjoyed it. Terrible kiwi accent was funny but otherwise a great book

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  • Anonymon
  • 09-19-23

A moving account

What a very moving account of the climb (s).
I have never understood the desire to beat a mountain, and feel sympathy for the ‘orphan’s view’, but it seems other’s do indeed feel the pull.

I don’t understand the grumbling about Phillip’s narration. It was fine.

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  • Katie Parrott
  • 07-18-23

An emotional and engaging listen

A well written and paced book, deeply moving and sad (as expected) with a decent level of analysis of the whys and wherefores. Be warned, the narrator does accents and it’s not good.

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  • Paul Emery
  • 06-26-23

Great Listen

This book is a very harrowing story and true to how the author remembers his account. When you listen to other books about the same tragedy you obviously hear different versions so it’s hard to know what’s actually fact and what is not. All in all a fascinating listen and one which I would highly recommend.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 05-27-23

Interesting story

Very interesting story but the narration was slow and monotonous, needed to be read on 1.5x

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