Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT, ENGROSSING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING
Review: Jon Krakauer's narrative of the 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest is excellently written and extremely engrossing. Although the events are true, the book reads like a first-class action/adventure thriller, keeping you turning pages until the very end. This is definitely as first-person account and Krakauer makes sure the attention is forever focused on him as he alternately extolls his virtues and reveals his faults. But we must not forget that Into Thin Air is true. This is the recounting of a tragedy, not a work of fiction. As such, we must take an extremely close look at the people involved. I felt enormously saddened when reading this book. A life can never be replaced, and in 1996, lives were lost, both callously and needlessly, on Everest. I think we need to look closely at how and why this tragedy happened. I don't think there can be much doubt that greed played an enormous factor in this series of events. While no one deserved to die on Everest, I cannot help but fault, in part, the two guides, Hall and Fischer. Both were experienced climbers and both had previously been on Everest. As guides, these men were running a business-for-profit. A good businessman garners satisfied customers, hence Hall and Fischer's desire to take their clients to the summit. But these two men had also accepted the responsibility of caring for their clients' safety, as well as for the safety of those in expeditions not their own. The desire to reach the summit won out as both guides ignored self-imposed "turn-around" deadlines and knowingly endangered the safety of all involved. In the end, Hall and Fischer both paid for their recklessness with their lives. But are they, then, to blame? Only in part. Ultimately, each person must take responsibility for his or her own actions. Technically, Everest is an easy climb, but the physical demands are enormous. The bulk of the climbers were untrained and unfamiliar with the equipment and simply not in the top physical condition needed to withstand the rigors of high-altitude climbing--a fact of which they must certainly have been aware. Many, Krakauer notes with horror, were wearing new hiking boots and Yasuko Namba didn't even know how to use her crampons. What was it that made these people believe they could tackle the strenuous demands of any mountain, let alone Everest? And if they weren't aware of their shortcomings, then surely Hall and Fischer were. Were they shirking their responsibilities to safety, hoping to make the summit only because their clients had each paid $65,000 for the thrill of standing on top of the world? Is that what a life is worth? Once the storm hit, Krakauer gives us fine examples of heroism, but he also shows us more examples of man's inhumanity to man. Yes, we must all take responsibility for our own lives, but we are all also our brother's keeper. The fact that the expeditions (and especially the Japanese) turned their backs on both Beck Weathers and Yasuko Namba is an act for which all involved will ultimately be held accountable, if not in this life, then in the one to follow. Into Thin Air is a fascinating tale, but at its heart it poses many thought-provoking questions each man and woman must answer, not only on Everest, but in the course of his or her day-to-day life.
Rating:
Summary: Super
Review: You will not put it down until the end. Amazing. Simply the BES
Rating:
Summary: The most absorbing book I've ever read.
Review: I've heard too much criticism on this book. Four stars isn't enough. This book is so full of human emotion, I read the last 200 pages without putting it down. It would be an amazing story even if it was fiction. It left me so speechless, all I can think to say is Buy It And Read It.
Rating:
Summary: A sad, but compellling, account
Review: It is a testament to the author's compelling writing style that I consider this one of the best books I've ever read, as I have never mountaineered nor given the sport more than a passing thought--let alone the Mount Everest disaster of 1996. From the history of Everest expeditions to the final summit push in May of '96 that led to the deaths of several climbers, I found myself enthralled and wanting to take a sick day from work just so I could continue reading. For anyone who has heard great things about the book but who would otherwise have never considered reading it, I urge you to pick up a copy right away. Like me, you'll be wanting to read more about this exciting but life-threatening obsession.
Rating:
Summary: Into Thin Air Question
Review: This was one of the most powerful books I have had the oppurtunity to read. The shear tragedy of this story is numbing. The one fact left out of the book was, were the bodies of Scott Fischer and Rob Hall and the other members removed from Everest? . If I missed this information, please let me know. Thank you.
Rating: 
Summary: Riveting account of an amazing event
Review: I never understood why anyone would want to put themselves in so much danger for what seemed like a crazy and impossible goal. This book tells of people obsessed with attaining what seems like the unattainable. The author does an excellent job of explaining mountain climbing to those of us who would never try it ourselves. Once the climbers started to the peak, I couldn't put it down. I recommend this book to adventurers and would-be adventurers because it's an excellent story of man's struggle to conquer his environment and how his environment ultimately conquers him.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkably real.
Review: Into Thin Air is a remarkable story about the dangers and the reality of high-altitude climbing. Jon Krakauer did an excellent job of portraying the tragedy and building up to the climax. This book really opened my eyes about climbing while at a high altitude. I couldn't put it down!
Rating:
Summary: Well written yet unsympathetic
Review: Most reviews of "Into Thin Air" appear to have both a literary and a moral component. I rate this book very highly for the literary component. Krakauer's account of the 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest is superbly written. His prose is lucid and conversational while his research is very thorough. Krakauer is smart enough to share the minute details of the expedition with us. When he talks about training, food, oxygen, supplies, logistics, hygiene, and so forth, he indoctrinates us into the mountaineering world. As a result, when he brings us up the mountain--and then into disaster--we are thoroughly familiar with the territory.Of course the book has its flaws. Although this is more of a journalistic account than anything else, Krakauer's narrative involves at least one character development: his own. Krakauer portrays himself in a slightly contradictory manner. On the one hand, he's Jon Krakauer, the experienced mountaineer who is a damn site better than most of the amateurs in the climbing party. On the other hand, he's humble Jon, whose really just glad to be along and whose embarrassingly out of shape and gosh, he's just so lucky to be alive at the end. Of course its possible that, like most people, Krakauer is at times egotistical and at times humble. But here it he appears to have appropriated those portions of his personality to the most compatible sections of his narrative. For example, Krakauer delights in telling us how easy it is for him to outpace all of the amateur climbers on the expedition. On the other hand, he freely admits his errors and possible culpability in the death of at least one fellow climber. If I had to judge this book on ethical terms, I would give it one star. Although Krakauer writes of tragic events, I find his prose to be unjustifiably self-pitying at times. Mountaineering is a dangerous sport in general and climbing Everest is extremely high risk. When you add commercial incentives to such an enterprise then of course people are going to get killed. I also find the conduct of some of the climbers to be abominable. I simply don't understand why the morning rescue party left Beck Whethers and Yasuko Namba to die. Even if there was no hope for them, would it not have been more comforting to die in a warm tent surrounded by other people than to be abandoned in the frozen outdoors? And would they necessarily have died? After all, Beck Whethers survived. What's more appalling is the conduct of two Japanese climbers who passed dying members of the Sino-Tibetan expedition en route to the summit. The Japanese climbers ignored them and continued to the top. Then during the decent, they continued to ignore them and left them to die. This must be the mountain climbing version of the Great East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. Friends of mine who have gone trekking in Nepal reported that the mountaineers they encountered there were some of the most self-absorbed, ego maniacs they ever encountered. It seems pitiable that people would go to enormous, nearly impossible extents to reach the top of a mountain but would not less strenuous effort to save lives. Imagine the two conversations in the climbers minds: 1. "Yeah, I'm gonna make it to the top baby. I own this summit! Me! Me! Me! Me!" 2. "Aw, they'll never survive. I'll just leave them to die in the ice." What's wrong with this picture? But moral issues aside, Krakauer's account is superbly written and will probably be read for generations to come. It is certainly a superior work compared to The Boukreev/DeWalt version, "Climb". The latter work also contains moral ambiguity, but unlike Krakauer's, it is horribly written.
Rating:
Summary: Well done
Review: Krakauer does a great job describing the tragic events that happen during the 1996 climb. Great book, and 5 stars really isn't enough to rate it judiciously.
Rating:
Summary: A painfully honest accuont of a horrible tragedy
Review: Unlike most people, I read "The Climb," by Boukreev/DeWalt, before I read "Into Thin Air," by Kraukauer. In "The Climb", DeWalt (who ghost-wrote the book for Boukreev, and lives in my area), spends a lot of space claiming that Kraukauer went out of his way to slander Boukreev. DeWalt is no great shakes as a writer, but he did succeed in convincing me that Kraukauer had been grossly unfair to Boukreev in "Into Thin Air." So then I went and actually read "Into Thin Air," and I couldn't understand what DeWalt was talking about. Kraukauer certainly did criticize Boukreev, at times rather strongly, but his criticisms seem entirely justified and they are balanced by equally strong praise for Boukreev's courage. And Kraukauer directed the strongest criticism at himself. After reading both books, I am in full agreement with the reviewers who think that DeWalt deliberately portrayed "Into Thin Air" to be something it's not in order to create controversy to draw media attention to "The Climb." If you have read "The Climb," you owe it to yourself to read this 1999 edition of "Into Thin Air," which has a detailed new postscript that sheds much light on the Boukreev-Kraukauer controversy. If you are fascinated by the '96 Everest tragedy, both books are worth reading, but after reading Kraukauer's postscript my mind has been completely changed. I used to think "The Climb" was the more accurate book. Now I believe DeWalt took great liberties with the facts in order to make Boukreev look infallible, and to make Kraukauer look bad. Both books portray Boukreev as a hero, but I am convinced that "Into Thin Air" is a much more accurate, much more truthful, much more carefully researched book. Its honesty comes across on every page. "Into Thin Air" is literature of the highest order.
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