Rating: 
Summary: The BEST book about THE 14 EIGTH THOUSANDERS
Review: This is one the best books about mountaineering that I have and I do have a lot of them. It just has it all, about all the 14 eigth-thousanders and Messner's climbs on these mountains.Lots and lots of excelent easy reading information about the eight-thousanders(historical highlights, geographical informations, technical informations, drawings of the most famous routes, etc); interviews(stories) with some other excelent climbers (Doug Scott, Chris Bonington, Hans Kammerlander, Kurt Diemberg, etc. ); filled with quotations; superb pictures of all the 14 eight-thousanders(really really great pictures - high quality paperprint). Aside all that you also have some good "short" narrations (stories) about Messner's climbs on all the eight thousanders, some comments about mountaineering, about the critics made toward him, and others aspects of his career. For instance he talks about the death of his brother in Nanga Parbat, about traditional alpine style, about his partners, about solo climbings, about the use of oxygen and about much others subjects(traverses, new routes, human limits, etc). But don't expect to find a detailed, extensive narration about the climbings and I think that is because you would have at least 14 books inside a single book, it would be just to big for printing. You won't find any other book with the climb stories of the first person(Messner) to climb all 14 and also with great pictures and information about the 14. This is a must have in any moutaineering collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Monumental... but lacking
Review: This should have been a landmark mountaineering work. Messner, first to scale all 14 eight thousanders (including multiple ascents), had the opportunity to create a defining work. This work has spark in places, but also hints at the dry, self-absorbed style of writing that is found in more abundance in other Messner works describing specific climbs/expeditions. There is little in Messner's writing that inspire the reader. At the same time, one gets a hint of the world-weariness that must have dogged Messner as he "knocked off" the final few peaks in this quest to be the first to climb all 14 peaks. It was almost as though he was going through the motions at the end. Still, there is enough factual information here that warrants a place on any mountaineering enthusiast's bookshelf. This volume serves as no less than a summary highlight of Messner's Himalayan/Karakoram climbing career - the successes, the failures, the deaths of fellow climbers. For that purpose alone it is an important historical record of high altitude climbing spanning the 1970's through to the mid-1980's.
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