Killing Dragons

The Conquest of the Alps

By: Fergus Fleming

Narrated by: Richard Halverson

Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

In a riveting narrative of daredevils and eccentrics, Fergus Fleming gives us the breathtaking story of some of history's greatest explorers as they conquer the soaring peaks of the Alps. Fleming recounts the incredible exploits of the men whose centuries-old fear of the mountain range turned quickly to curiosity, then to obsession, as they explored Europe's frozen wilderness.

In the late 18th century, French and Swiss scientists became interested in the Alps as a research destination, but in the 1850s the focus changed: The icy mountains now offered an all-out competition for British climbers who wanted to conquer ever higher and more impossible heights, and explorers fought each other on the peaks and in the press, entertaining a vast public smitten with their bravery, delighted by their personal animosities, and horrified by the disasters that befell them.

©2000 Fergus Fleming. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"...excellent popular history, with its proper share of mad dogs and Englishmen.... Fleming's rendition is dramatic and masterful." (Anthony Brandt, National Geographic Adventure)

Great Story, Terrible Narration

I was really looking forward to listening to this book. I read it about 20 years ago and decided I'd like to "read" it again. For anyone interested in the history of climbing in the Alps, this is one of the better books. Fergus Fleming is a great chronicler of adventure history and I've enjoyed his other books on Arctic exploration. However, the experience of listening to this book was completely ruined by the narrator. He has a nasally voice that is better suited to the protagonist of a Dickens novel. The worst thing, however, are his innumerable mispronunciations--taking into account differences between the Queen's English and American English--making it clear he has no knowledge of the subject, either as a climber or of the place names of the region. For example, piton is pronounced as pie-taan instead of the correct pee-taan. Even worse is the fact that he swings back and forth between multiple pronunciations of the same word. The worst example of this is his mispronunciations of Chamonix, famous to anyone who knows the least little bit about climbing history. For the dozens and dozens of times it's read, the narrator cycles between sham-a-niece, sham-a-nix, and sham-a-neeks before finally settling on the latter more than halfway through the book. Chamonix is in fact pronounced sham-a-knee, whether in French or English. It's all very irritating and greatly distracts from the enjoyment of what is a great book in its print version.