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Kolymsky Heights

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Kolymsky Heights

By: Lionel Davidson
Narrated by: Peter Noble
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Summary

Kolymsky Heights: a frozen Siberian hell lost in endless night and the perfect location for an underground Russian research station. It's a place so secret, it doesn't officially exist….

Once there, the scientists are forbidden to leave. But one scientist is desperate to get a message to the outside world. So desperate he sends a plea across the wilderness to the west in order to summon the one man alive who can achieve the impossible....

©1994 Lionel Davidson (P)2016 W F Howes Ltd Action & Adventure Espionage Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Emotionally Gripping Exciting Scary Fiction Russia
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Critic reviews

"Sensationally good. Cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed. One of the great thrillers of the last century." (Charles Cumming)
"I've never read a thriller that so successfully transported me to a hitherto unimagined place." ( Guardian)
All stars
Most relevant
my first spy thriller and I loved it! despite a myriad of accents the narrator was amazing and authentic and I marvel at his skill.

All encompassing!

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The story is laid out as a flat descriptive and over long incident report. "He then went to answer a call of nature. Then he had a drink of vodka. Then he walked to the car where he put the key in the ignition and started the car. He then drove the car down the street..." (paraphrased - not actual quote)

There is no point in the narrative that is more exciting than an unexpected 1 euro coin in your back pocket.

The introduction is therefore wildly misleading.

The narrator does an ok job. Rather flat - but that is mainly due to a flat storyline.

Dry incident report

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I loved this book, there were some very complicated parts to the story but it was so well written and so well narrated that I found I could keep up with with the plot
even when it included some difficult scientific explanations.
As a thriller it has you on the edge of your seat.
It is beautifully written, so descriptive. This book makes you feel so much... you are frozen with fear at times.
it is easy to picture places and people and buildings and vehicles, the likes of which you have never known or will ever know.
This book needs to be made into a film starring Keanu Reeves.

This thriller transports you.

Keanu needs to star in this amazing thriller!

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would, but more to my male friends than female friends. This is a man's book. The story keeps you wanting to know what is going to happen next. The scene sometimes changes and tells of related things happening in another place, thus it is never a boring linear narrative. The final third of the book is told in lock-step, shifting from one place and then back to the other. It is a genuine thriller.

What other book might you compare Kolymsky Heights to, and why?

I suppose the book is a little like a John Le Carre novel but much more expansive. Or maybe Eric Ambler is a better comparison. I have read one other book by Lionel Davidson, The Rose of Tibet, and he is clearly fascinated by exotic places. I can imagine him poring over an Atlas, both when he was a child and when he was writing his novels. In fact the setting is a large part of this novel's appeal.

Which character – as performed by Peter Noble – was your favourite?

The male narrator had a pleasant voice and I thought he had a pretty convincing Russian accent. You always knew which character was speaking from his tone of voice and even the women's characters were well done. It's quite easy for male narrators to do annoying women's voices but Mr. Noble was at no point annoying. He also did the intensity thing well. Some narrators overdo it and you are exhausted by the constant intensity. Others don't sound intense enough. I thought Mr. Noble got it about right. I neither fell asleep nor felt frazzled.

My least favourite character as performed by Peter Noble was Johnny Porter, the protagonist. I now wish I had read the book before listening so that I could had formed my own idea of what Porter might sound like. As it is I now have the permanently sullen, dour sounding voice of Porter stuck in my head. This may indeed have been what the author intended. I just wasn't attracted to Porter at all and felt that a man with such a dead-pan voice was incapable of love, even sounded a bit dumb. Still, when I think about it I'm not sure that a smarter-sounding, more emotional Porter would have been true to character. That's the only misgiving I have about the narration.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Kolymsky Heights: the spy who went into the cold.

Great story, well read

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This has to be one of the very best audiobooks of the many hundreds I have listened to over the last 10-12 years. Wonderful! Please do listen but please also do yourself a huge favour and follow these two steps. (1) Do not listen to the Introduction by Phillip Pullman - it is worth coming back to afterwards but unless you want to know what is going to happen in the story give it a miss and start at the 8:00 minute mark with the Prologue. (2) Do not be put-off by the Narrator when you first hear him read the Prologue - he deliberately mimics an old man's croaky ramblings and I thought "God, if the whole book goes on like this I'm going to be binning it!" It didn't. Peter Noble was absolutely fantastic and his range of voices (male, female, Russian, Japanese, Inuit, Asian, American, pukka-Brit, etc., etc.) was what gives audiobooks that special appeal over the printed word. And what a story. It could have been read by whoever does station announcements to let you know that the 12:23 from Preston will be coming in to Platform 5 and it would still have been an absolute ripper but thank God it wasn't. (Insert further praise for Peter Noble here). I loved the detail. I loved the fact that myriad 'little things' upon which great things rest were given an importance in their own right. I loved the fact that the writer was not in so much of a hurry to get it to the publisher so he could start his next one that stuff was glossed over and the reader/listener treated like an idiot in the process. This is not one of those 'With one bound he was free' stories that leaves anyone with an IQ above room temperature wondering 'How did they do that?' The reader/listener is treated like a cherished and intelligent observer throughout. Like the analogy of the hyphen (or 'dash') between two dates on a gravestone, it was the hyphen that mattered. There was a beginning and (sadly) an end but it was that wonderful dash that made for a truly great listen. And one final note: Audible, there are other Lionel Davidson books out there - please, please release them.

Absolutely brilliant but...

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