Rating: 
Summary: The horror, the horror
Review: Peter Hillary is the William S Burroughs of adventuring. The drug that killed so many of his friends continues to sustain him, yet eats him up inside too. The book itself is in the spirit of Conrad's Heart of Darkness: a man telling of a vision-filled journey with many side-trips into the shadows. I found it fascinating and more than occasionaly very heavy.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughts of a man being eaten alive
Review: Stuffing himself with 7000 calories of butter every day, and still he literally starving the death. Squashed up between his mates at night yet they're a million miles away. Haunted by so much death, and obviously intensely frightened of it, but he keeps slow killing himself by going to these terrible places. Alice in Wonderland wasn't as crazy as the trip this guy is on.
Rating: 
Summary: Suggest boycott of this book!
Review: The author's friend has ticked off a lot of people on Amazon.
I suggest a boycott of this book because of all the spam promoting it. I suggest you write Amazon and have them pull this book.
Reviews are not bloggs to self promote a book.
Honest reviewers and shoppers get ticked off at this. I only came here because of all the SPAM on the bestseller lists.
A repeat 'copied' post of a commenter who I agree with follows:
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This book sucked, which unfortunately Ms. Love has most likely never read. Reviewer: Colin Love, (see more about him) from Muncie, Indiana wrote 6 reviews in a row on the book; 'The Fabric of the Cosmos.' Go to 'Fabric and see the 5 March reviews! All promoting Hillary's boring book; "For the sake of all those disappointed souls, may I suggest a book that far exceeds expectations. It's called IN THE GHOST COUNTRY by Peter Hillary -- it's an adventure story, a ghost story, a psychological thriller and a shock-filled memoir by a famous person, all in one. It absolutely knocked my socks off. I don't know anyone who hasn't enjoyed it or admired it. AND IT'S A TRUE STORY!!!" Unfortunately, the book was poorly written by another self promoter - Hillary. People like Colin Polyp Love Me Not are ruining the honest reviews with their pop up posting over and over of their friends books, or the only book they've read in years, and want to convince you if you only ever read one book, it's the same drivel they read! I highly recommend 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' and NOT anything by the failed 'motivational speaker' Peter Hillary. Check his reviews if you don't believe me. 55 reviews, over and over the same exact wording to promote his friend's book! I like adventure books, popular fiction, and political and history. I read on average 2 to 3 books a week. Following is the review history of Love by the number of repetitive reviews he's shamelessly written at the expense of honest writers. I've actually read most and have rated them (*****). Bleachers by John Grisham = 3. (****)
Holy Blood, Holy Grail - Michael Baigent = 5 & 4 more (*****)
The Fabric of the Cosmos : by Brian Greene = 6. (****)
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown = 5 & 4. (*****)
The Eight by Katherine Neville = 8.
3rd Degree by James Patterson = 4. (****)
Digital Fortress : A Thriller by Dan Brown = 5. (****)
Deception Point by Dan Brown = 4. (*****)
Life of Pi by Yann Martel = 5.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd = 6.
Don't get sucked in by these false, biased, self promoting reviews. The book really does suck.
Rating: 
Summary: About average
Review: The book was okay, but just about average. Liked some of it, didn't like other parts. But is't definately not a four or five star book.
Rating:
Summary: Read an excerpt -- make up your own mind
Review: The buzz in Britain is that this book has broken new ground in writing about the emotional life of a man, in this case an adventuring man, and that it is superbly written. I found the use of two voices worked brilliantly to create clever shifts in pace and to heighten the feeling that Hillary is whispering ion your ear. My husband is a sports addict, and he didn't really get into it. I found it very exciting, and I expect this is one of those books that will sharply divide readers and critics. Anyone worried about wasting their money, can read an excerpt on the Barnes & Noble site. You'll either be intrigued or not.
Rating:
Summary: Why is this book such a secret?
Review: The most honest and the most entertaining study of a man imploding I have ever read. The searing psychological insights into grief, survival and restoration are the most convincing I have ever read, because they work on an emotional level. Wow.
Rating: 
Summary: A difficult book to read
Review: The story told in the book by Hillary is a compelling one. It attempts to document his efforts to travel over ice to the South Pole with two other (badly chosen) partners. Interwoven into the tale are stories of Hillary's previous expeditions, successful and ill-fated, to the Himalayas. It should have been a very interesting read coming from a noted mountaineer cursed with having a famous father. However... The style chosen by the authors and publisher for moving between the present tale and past adventures grew to be very tiresome. The use of bolded text and indented paragraphs placed into the narrative seemingly at random was very confusing for me. With each paragraph, I couldn't tell whether they had returned to the main thread or we starting a new thread. It finally became so annoying to me, I quit reading about 3/4s of the way through. I really think there is a good story in there but the effort to find my way through the formatting was too frustrating. I just can't recommend this book for that reason alone.
Rating:
Summary: An adventure book with smarts
Review: There was another book around for a very short while about this same expedition: it was basically a personal attack on Peter Hillary that took swipes at the famous explorer on just about every page. The attacks continued in the British and Australian press for two years. To his credit, Hillary (with co-author Elder) have not gone the same nasty route. Rather, by cleverly comparing the insanity that infected his own expedition with previous polar trips -- both contemporary and legendary ones --the reader is treated to a whole new range of insights of what happens to a human being when travelling through a blank landscape and subzero temperatures. For Hillary, it was a case of the environment sucking a lifetime of both tragic and extraordinary memories from his head and playing them in front of him like a movie. The cold almost schoolboyish behaviour of his team mates is described and reflected on but not wielded like a club. Apparently, the other two were invited to take part in the book, in an attempt to make peace and so each of them might have found a greater understanding of what happened down in Antarctica. They refused, which is a shame. Hillary is to be applauded for his generosity of spirit -- and doubly applauded for a fine page-turner that tells us a great deal about the exploring world, and about the workings of the human mind when the weight of bitter experience is laid bare by brutal social and environmental pressures. An interesting by-product of this book: it raises the quyestion, did Scott of the Antarctic go insane on the ice? That's what his critics have suggested for years. Hillary's experience gives strong evidence that the tragic legend did go loopy -- along with many others who have dared to venture south. Much good food for many thoughts.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves the praise, not the slander
Review: This is a daring and ground-breaking exploration of the human heart and mind, and a riveting page-turning read. Please note: the one-star reader from Boston posted the same review word for word a few weeks ago, but on that occasion gave the book two stars and said he was from texas. Someone's running a bizarre agenda against this book, and I suspect the clue might be in the book itself,
Rating:
Summary: A Blistering Yarn
Review: This is a great book, an almost old-school, eye-on-the-heroic epic. It has the confessional intimacy of two men hunched together close over whisky while they dissect a life. One is the narrator, the other the translator. The writing is splendid. Elder piles word upon word in an unrelenting literary trek that parallels Hillary's own Herculean efforts. The tension builds until he lobs another firecracker of foolhardiness in your direction.
The unrelenting white of Antarctica sucks the life story out of Peter Hillary's lonely skull. Ultimately, it shows a man who wasn't trying to climb out of the shadow of a famous father, but answering the Siren-song that hummed through his own veins. I read it in one sitting - excellent!
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