Kiss or Kill

By: Mark Twight

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

Sit back and join the ride with this collection of edge-of-your-seat climbing stories by Mark Twight, aka Dr. Doom. "Somewhere out there somebody understands these words and knows they matter. They were written in blood, learned by heart." (Mark Twight)

Mark Twight is a BANFF award-winner, an extreme climber, an extreme writer, and an extreme personality. No matter what he's doing, Mark Twight takes a definite, and often controversial , stand. Anyone who knows climbing knows Twight's name, and anyone who knows Twight's name will want to listen to this audiobook. Each story is told in Twight's taut, in-your-face style. Brand-new epilogues bring each piece full circle, providing updated information and fresh, hindsight perspectives.

©2001 Mark Twight (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

An exciting, fresh, and viciously enjoyable book

I thought I was going to get a super-technical and edgy climbing book, and was a bit skeptical when I began listening.

After a listening to a few chapters, this quickly became one of my all-time favorite mountaineering books. Mark has a way of explaining his thoughts and actions that really connects with the audience, which is rare for this genre.

I particularly loved how uncompromising this book is in its focus. The chapters are each the unfiltered author's version of articles, so they can be read in any order. They're ordered chronologically, and are also accompanied with additional author's notes. These notes act as a retrospective, and offer some new explanations and insights.

The sense of danger reminded me a bit of the passages from Savage Arena by Joe Tasker, but far more sustained. This guy has put himself in some unbelievably dangerous situations. It's rare we get to hear much from someone like this - so many of them went home to the Alps, Himalaya, or Karakoram before they were done.

The narrator has some mispronunciations with YDS grades ("5 point one one b") and place names (Nanga Parbat is one of the hardest place names for me to say, to be fair), which can be a turn off at times. He otherwise does a great job, and I really recommend this book. Lots of fun, lots of adrenaline, and an incredible amount of content packed into this book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Provocative

I read Extreme Alpinism (also by Twight) nearly every day for a year when it first came out. It really impacted my world view.
For whatever reason, it took me 15 years to get around to reading Kiss or Kill.
The writing is inspiring, abrasive, funny and sad. If you are in a place in life where you are trying to expand personal boundaries or limitations, this is a good read.
The narrator does a good job of catching the cadence and attitude of the writing, but struggles with pronunciation on climbing terms and gear names.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

hell yeah<br />

intense. engrossing. hard to stop listening from start to finish. mark doesn't care if you enjoy it or not, which makes it that much more enjoyable. I read extreme alpinism before this book and had a few doubts, but they were quickly put to rest. as a climber myself, this book is totally relate able and contains quote-able quotes with every sentence. good insight into his persona and internalizations

Good story - climbing background helps

Great story, but you need to be an outdoor climber to understand the jargon. The narrator pronounces some terms wrong - 5.11 as "five point one one" instead of "five eleven".

a must read for the modern adventurer

the content itself is mind numbing, and the narrator really captures the authors attitude very well.

Worst narration could not be found

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator is simply a hack. During the entire book he mispronounces words, peoples names, and fancies himself quite good at speaking French, but obviously does not speak the language.One hour of research by the narrator could have solved this issue before it arouse during the reading. The simple fact is, the narrator is a nuisance. A great book otherwise.

0 of 2 people found this review helpful