Dark Summit
Nick Heil
Henry Holt
ISBN:  9780805083101
Nonfiction, Adventure
Reviewed by John R. Clark

Nick Heil has a winner in Dark Summit. He has combined a wealth of details; the history of climbing attempts on Everest, the personalities involved in the events of 2006 and a detailed narrative of the 2006 climbing season itself. The result is a book that is very enlightening and nearly impossible to put down.

I'm primarily a visual reader, one who sees the narrative as a movie in my head. This was as good an example of a nonfiction work achieving a mental movie as I have encountered in a long time. I also appreciated the depth of detail on each of the important players so I could easily understand what made them act as they did. The result was a very even-handed account, one that will both captivate and educate readers.

The book will be very popular at the Hartland Public library as it will in most others; appealing to adventure readers, those who like a good story told well and anyone who ever imagined climbing Mount Everest.