Rating: 
Summary: Trying to make the story do too many things.,
Review: .
I personally thought this book was really depressing and simply written. For the sake of all those disappointed souls who will actually buy this book, I just have to say that Amazon has at least 1000 books in this genre that are much, much better.I suggest that this book does not reach expectations of the publisher's comments. I just didn't get into this so called adventure story - ghost story - psychological thriller; perhaps that's the author's problem. Trying to make it too many things at once and only slightly succeeding. I cannot recommend it with so many other greater choices available. I'm always suspect when I see only maximum star ratings in a row?
Rating: 
Summary: the bold, the beautiful, the sad and cold
Review: Combining my father John Elder's crafty writing and Peter Hillary's tragic stories, this book is above satisfaction, and it is hard to explain the beautiful emotions and feelings of this masterpiece. Love you dad!!!
Rating:
Summary: I will never complain about being cold again!
Review: For those of you who gave it one star, all I can say is: your little minds just didn't get it, or you really didn't read the entire book.
This is a powerful, heart-and-gut wrenching account of one of the most harrowing experiences of a man's life in the most hostile of all environments. Imagining the body and mind destruction as they trekked along the frigid, almost unnavigable routes in Antartica is unimaginable!
If you want to read a book that reads more like fiction because you can't believe anyone in their right mind would endure this Antarctica madness, then this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: What a rush -- a tough tale, very sad, but inspiring too
Review: Hillary has certainly blown the heroic mystique of the mountain-climber fraternity. Who says tough guys don't cry? This is a very sad book that also makes you laugh a lot of the time. I got the same complex emotional buzz from In The Ghost Country as I got from The Lovely Bones, Angela's Ashes, the end chapters of Into Thin Air, and the fairy tales and myths that I read and loved as a child. Not for the flint-hearted.
Rating:
Summary: ho-hum....................
Review: Hokum, blarney, overdone, nothing original, the myth is probably a lot better than the truth. Who wrote all the over inflated reviews? I like real life adventure, but was pretty dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: "A difficult book to read" - Yes it is!
Review: I hate writing reviews, I hate spending money on a book with so much hype and so little bang. I agree with everything the reviewer said on April 25, 2004, when he said it was "a difficult read." Also, seems to me that all the five star reviews are written by the same person. What gives? I will never buy another book by this author.
{"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."} Again I agree with the reviewer I quoted. Nuff said.
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Summary: Tribute from the fat man
Review: I have become a bit obsessed with this book, I'll admit. As a recovering lard mountain, I found in Hillary's cruel and haunted pilgrimage much to inspire me. For a start, he eats 7000 calories of butter soaked noodles and salami a day -- MY DREAM!!! -- and yet he's starving to death. Well, there's a message there for any food-a-holic. Hillary's drug is extreme adventure and the emotions that go with it -- it's like the only time he can feel anything is when he's out on the edge. But on his walk to the South Pole a ton of tragedy from his life come down on his head -- and yet, in his loneliness and torment, he's finds a way to keep it together through making a life with his ghosts. This is a visionary and heart-breaking book that will speak of the big issues with all who have struggled with who they are and what they have loss -- and is a great metaphor for anyone carrying a curse. (Like an extra 300 pounds at one stage for me, now down to 80).
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Summary: WOW!!! Very interesting
Review: I liked how the story had all the surprises and strange turnings of wandering through a troubled but curious mind. The writing about Antarctica and Peter Hillary's memories made nice pictures and the stories were very interesting. I never knew that Neil Armstrong went to the North Pole and that Sir Edmund and Peter Hillary went with him. I've never met Peter Hillary, butI know people from houston who heard him talk about his adventures last year. They asked him if he could come to dinner but he had to fly to Florida or somewhere. They said he was a nice guy.
Rating: 
Summary: Trying to make the story do too many things.
Review: I personally thought this book was really depressing and simply written. For the sake of all those disappointed souls who will actually buy this book, I just have to say that Amazon has at least 1000 books in this genre that are much, much better. I suggest that this book does not reach expectations of the publisher's comments. I just didn't get into this so called adventure story - ghost story - psychological thriller; perhaps that's the author's problem. Trying to make it too many things at once and only slightly succeeding. I cannot recommend it with so many other greater choices available. I'm always suspect when I see only maximum star ratings in a row?
Rating:
Summary: Smells like spleen spirit
Review: I saw a documentary about these guys when I was traveling to Middle Earth (New Zealand). They did look like prisoners of war like it says in the book. I thought Hillary in particular looked like a chained-up beaten dog when he stared into the camera. Now, having read the book, I know why. Big egos, little tent, brutal patch of the planet, and for Hillary a whole world of tragedy to reconcile with. Didn't get the straight-out thrills I expected, although there are a few genuine shocks, but this more than made up for by the quality of the story telling and in the end you get a deeper and more meditative effect.
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