Thin Air
The most chilling and compelling ghost story of the year
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Thin Air
Narrated by:
Daniel Weyman
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Daniel Weyman
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By:
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Michelle Paver
About this listen
The Himalayas, 1935.
Kangchenjunga. Third-highest peak on earth. Greatest killer of them all.
Five Englishmen set off from Darjeeling, determined to conquer the sacred summit. But courage can only take them so far - and the mountain is not their only foe.
As the wind dies, the dread grows. Mountain sickness. The horrors of extreme altitude. A past that will not stay buried.
And sometimes, the truth does not set you free.©2016 Michelle Paver
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Critic reviews
A wonderfully atmospheric and hugely enjoyable ghost story (Anthony Horowitz)
Looking for a proper ghost story? Thin Air is a creepy, compelling tale of a Himalayan climbing expedition, where strange events on the mountain stir dread and panic.
This vivid ghost story reads like a classic
There are no obvious shocks here but instead a sustained creeping dread as the likelihood increases that it's not all in Pearce's mind and that they are heading for tragedy just like Lyell and company. Subtitled 'A Ghost Story', this is very much the classic approach, concentrating on mood and subtllety to create chills in the reader. (James Evans)
Spellbindingly creepy (Eithne Farry)
Michelle Paver's descriptions of Himalayan mountain-climbing are terrifyingly lifelike - the lashing winds, glittering ice: you can see it all...Paver's style is lively and clear; and the tale just rips along...Just fantastic (Wendy Holden)
Chilling in every sense (Violet Hudson)
This haunting new novel and long-awaited sequel to the chilling Dark Matter certainly doesn't disappoint. The plot of Thin Air is undeniably gripping and a genuine page-turner. After finding herself mesmerised by the history, vastness and the terrifying solitude of the Himalayas, Paver used it as the setting for this undeniably gripping account of a 1935 expedition up Kangchenjunga. (Kate Whiting)
Paver's descriptions of the isolated and intimidating landscape create an eerie, unsettling atmosphere that gets under your skin
A ghost story to chill and thrill...Like Touching the Void rewritten by Jack London, Thin Air is a heart-freezing masterpiece. (Amanda Craig)
There's just something about the bleakness, the sheer depth of the isolation and the unfamiliarity of this terrain to me that I love in this book. Put that alongside the fact that it's a mix of psychological thriller and ghost story , and you've got a winner.
The scariest part of the story for me was the bit with the rucksack. I think the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Very macabre and creepy
A hauntingly, spine chilling epic of a book!
I was surprised and delighted to find this an utterly absorbing tale that I think I would have read in one sitting regardless as once I began I didn't want to put it down
Thin Air is a wonderfully evocative and creepy story but it's more than that - it's a capturing of the awe of nature, the exhilaration of climbing and of a time during British colonialism which combined some noble endeavours but also an awful lot of ignoble behaviour. Of course, of course, of course, I recommend Thin Air to you.
I loved her previous ghost/terror novel, Dark Matter. This is similar, the tension tightens slowly, with the turn of every page, until you cannot put the book down.
Where does Thin Air rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
9/10What other book might you compare Thin Air to, and why?
Dark Matter by the same author. I don't mind when a subject I enjoy is revisited by someone who knows how to write it well. It shares many of the same flavours of Dark Matter, including being British to a fault, and I loved every word of it.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes, definitely.Any additional comments?
Subtle, chilling horror written by an author who has a brilliant voice for it. I recommend this and Dark Matter, by the same author, for those who love a good British ghost story.Subtle and chilling
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Unsettling and very enjoyable
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Some reviewers have complained that Thin Air is too similar to Dark Matter. I can see what they mean, but I don't consider it a problem. In fact, I'd be very happy if Paver did a third one. It could be her vaguely M.R. Jamesian remote locales trilogy. I don't usually re-listen to audiobooks, but this one is on my to listen again pile, and I'm debating whether to re-read Dark Matter (I have the first edition hardback) or get it on audio.
I've been generous with the stars because this is one of those fairly rare occasions when the prose and the narration really mesh. Sure, you get good readers reading good stories, but sometimes they go beyond this; there is a synergy in which the narrator isn't just reading the words, he's telling his story. There is no Michelle Paver and there is no Daniel Weyman, there is just Stephen Pearce talking directly to the listener.
(I got a similar effect when I listened to Michael Maloney's reading of Christopher Priest's The Affirmation.)
The other mountain of madness
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Some reviewers have remarked on the similarity between Thin Air and Dark Matter - there are certainly similarities between the two books but that didn't matter to me - this is a genre work and if the main elements are not broken, why fix them! If you liked Dark Matter, you should love Thin Air.
There's a good narrative strand of sibling rivalry between the narrator, the mountain expedition's doctor, and his elder brother, who is the expedition's leader. But it is the slow build-up of tension from the supernatural elements that makes this book so good. The climax is gripping and horrifying without being gory and then there is a very moving aftermath.
I won't claim that this actually scared me, however, after I'd finished the audiobook, I happened to have been woken-up by the wind and rain in the middle of the night and I was transported to the Himalayas and the climax and ending of the novel.
I highly recommend this book.
Excellent ghost story
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What does Daniel Weyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
Daniel Weyman was absolutely superb; at times morose, thoughtful, surprised, exhausted, annoyed, paranoid, terrified, wildly terrified, conflicted and accepting. I feel this narrator must have gone through the whole gamut of human emotion reading this book. He brought Stephen and the other characters to life. Loved this narration.Any additional comments?
Another fantastic book from Michelle Paver; this icy tale of an ill-fated expedition paces consistently to it's climax through the increasingly paranoid first person narrative of the expedition's doctor, Stephen. Although very similar in premise and situation to Paver's other book, Dark Matter, which involves an ill-fated exploration of perilous icy terrains and an increasingly nervous and at times, unreliable, central character, Thin Air still has a lot to distinguish it from the former. The description of the mountain, the experiences of climbing and the creeping realisation that the higher up one goes, the greater the isolation and the greater the danger were extremely realistic. The author's research and own previous personal experience lends an unnerving reality to the story in spite of its supernatural elements. In addition to the dangers of mountaineering etc, this story also touches on other highly emotive topics including in-group/outgroup biases, class/caste systems and the complex nature of sibling relationships. Can you both wholly love and hate someone at the same time? Would this impact on your ability to help them in a life or death situation? The characters are so well drawn you really feel that they have been changed irrevocably forever by their experiences albeit to different extents and in different ways. All in all, this was a fantastic listen. I am sorry it ended and greatly look forward to future work from this author.Fantastic claustraphobic, disturbing, emotional
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