Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia

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Summary: Adventure, and Context
Review: A thoughtful,gripping adventure story, that resonates in this new age of terrorism. More than just a saga, it's an informative story of how the "media" addressed the experience underwent by the four youngsters, and a lucid picture of the complex political environment into which they innocently (and naively)put themselves.

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Summary: Hour By Hour Drama
Review: Fanatical rebels of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) of Central Asia snatch four young American wall climbers for a six-day ordeal through the wilds of remote Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2000. The area, formerly part of the USSR, is bordered by Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and Iran.

There are only a few areas of the world that meet the geologic criteria of having Great Walls and Kyrgyzstan is one of them, along with the U.S.'s Yosemite National Park. These kids were great climbers, but their awareness of world affairs was zero to none. True, State Department advisories were vague, and the fact they were not warned or stopped by either their on-site travel agency or the military is unbelievable.

The quartet, three boys and one girl, had a terrifying experience being under fire, under constant threat of execution, seeing a soldier executed before their eyes, and had almost no food or water during the nightmare ordeal. They finally escaped by one of them shoving their guard over a cliff, presumably to his death.

I was struck again and again by the almost total helplessness of these young people, particularly Beth Rodden. She is a very nice, well brought up young lady, but seemed to revert to a sobbing childlike state of overwhelming terror. The boys were very protective, but unable to plan coherently and missed many opportunities to escape. Two of the boys were full of braggadocio and talk, but ultimately were incapable of action. The other was almost catatonic, but at least had a very real awareness of the danger and when it counted, acted. The terrorists did not physically harm them. They were ready to execute the hostages at any moment, but never assaulted or beat them.

Greg Child is uniquely qualified to tell this white-knuckle tale. He is an experienced mountaineer, familiar with Kyrgyzstan having climbed there in '95, and is the author of some well-received mountaineering books. I have read two of his books and enjoyed his easy going style, his expertise, and his factual integrity.

Their return prompted a media frenzy that quickly turned into a firestorm. First because Mr. Child obtained exclusive rights to the hostage's story causing much hostility from other members of the press and secondly, the guard who the hostages pushed off the cliff turned up very much alive and not much worse for wear. The guard's accounts of the escape sometimes did and sometimes did not agree with the hostages' account. There were cries of "hoax!" and bitterness over the large monetary advance Mr. Child and the hostages received. I believe the story and am not much troubled by the fact the hostages' assumption they had killed the guard. It was dark, they saw him cartwheel in space, and thought he had fallen a great distance. (He did not.) I once saw a convertible on a switchback mountain road sail over a guardrail and tumble into space. I was positive and would have sworn that all the occupants had to be dead from the fall. It turned out the worst injury was a broken arm and the other two only had scratches and bruises. And this was in broad daylight!

I agree with other reviewers that noted all the controversy about the kidnapping did not belong in the book proper. He badly needed endnotes and should have uses appendices to set forth conflicting views. Nevertheless, it is a riveting story and a great read. The best way to judge the veracity is to read the book and form your own opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Very good, incredibly well researched book
Review: I have no doubt the story is precisely true as related.

The one thing I found myself frustrated with in this book was how these kids just didn't "get it" about the situation they were in. As someone who has spent a lot of time in Russia, I found their and the author's blithe acceptance of the murder of the Russian soldier and these muscley kids refusal to lift a goddam finger to help him after he had told them clearly their captors were about to kill him, well, rather repulsive. Their stated denial in the book that he would be fine was so offensive to me. What planet do these kids inhabit?

I have traveled extensively in places where I had 24 hour security, including recently into the region on the border with Chechnya, which is massively beautiful country. God help me, but if I were taken captive with such a crew of "Valley Guy/Valley Girl" morons, I swear I would have told them if they didn't fight I'd kill them myself for being such a bunch of twits. I could see in my mind's eye them jumping on me if I tried to attack one of the captors, all with the best of intentions, and my killing them or being killed. Gad. Is this what America is raising?

But, hey. I guess that's what they were. The book could be titled: "Clueless left coast twits with big muscles and no sense, on a mission to turn the world into their personal Disneyland, find out reality bites".

Kind of looks like that's what these kids still are. And it is rather clear that the rest of the "developed world" is pretty much the same. Maybe there isn't any other way for them to go. One could title this coming decade perhaps, the "Wakeup Call Decade" in which the developed world finds out a great deal.

But, great book, incredibly honest and very well written.

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Summary: Pre 9/11 insights
Review: I'm on a "True Escape Stories" kick right now. In my opinion, the more realistic and the least fantastic the stories are, the better. And that's precisely what you get with "Over the Edge". It's a story about how four American climbers escaped from their Muslim terrorist kidnappers. The fact that this all happened prior to 9/11 gave this reader an entirely different insight into what's going on in Iraq today.

One strange thing about the book is that the author often refers to himself throughout the book. This made absolutely no sense to me until the later chapters where he actually became an active character in the story. At first I thought he was on some kind of ego trip, but I later realized that the last part of the book would have made no sense at all without his personal information.

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Summary: A gripping, truthful tale (and a definitive rebuttal)
Review: The reader from Ohio recycles the same tired slander that has dogged this book since its beginning as an article in Outside magazine. It is not true that the four climbers spoke only to Greg Child. Two of the climbers held a press conference upon their return to the U.S., and all of the climbers gave interviews to many publications, including Climbing. It is true, however, that the climbers gave complete access and the full story of their ordeal only to Child. As for the persistent and malicious rumors that the climbers changed their story or somehow lied about what happened, Child's book definitively establishes that poorly translated articles in the foreign press, in conjunction with a campaign of gossip and innuendo on the part of several American outdoor journalists, have kept alive the notion that something was not right with the story Greg Child and the climbers have been telling. However, a recent Dateline NBC broadcast (iwith lengthy interviews with all four climbers, including Jason Smith) confirmed that Child has been right all along -- and it featured a crucial interview with the kidnapper who was pushed off a cliff during their escape, and who confirmed that the climbers had been truthful all along. This is an excellent book about the ethics and costs of adventure.

Rating:
Summary: a 360 degree of the event, not just the rescue
Review: The story of the climbers' kidnapping and escape is exciting as it comes, but I find most of the value in the book in Greg's in-depth explanations of the terrorists and their background, the politics surrounding the rescue and the heroism of the soldiers who, by pursuing the terrorists, gave the climbers the opportunity to escape. Furthermore, his analysis of the press after the story broke reveals the downside of being caught in the public eye.

If you are looking just for a thrilling story, the book may be dry, but if you want to learn about third world politics and gain a bit of insight to the terrorists and the climbers' experiences after rescue, this is a great book to read.

Rating:
Summary: gripping
Review: The tale of four young rock climbers escaping from shadowy rebel captors burst into national consciousness in August of 2000, I remember thinking "Why is this the first time we've heard anything about this?". Greg Child has crafted a hard to put down answer to that as well as the heartpounding tale of the four climbers...Jason Smith, John Dickey, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden, and their almost unbelievable tale of survival. Traveling to a remote area of Kyrgyzstan to tackle a challenging climb, the four were not aware they were entering a zone rife with political turmoil. The remote area was favored as a training ground for various factions of militant..including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Taken captive, along with others, by the rebel group the four begin a desperate journey across the inhospitable terrain, at gunpoint. They saw a fellow hostage executed before their eyes,and began to realize the grim fate that was theirs. In furtive conversation, driven by fear, hunger and an will to survive the four begin to realize that their survival will depend solely on them and they formulate a desperate escape plan. But if they do manage to escape they are faced with a treck through difficult territory, not just inhospitable form the elements and terrain, but from the unknown warring factions who may inhabit it. Even more unbelievable are the naysayers who downplay the four's peril and even try to refute the whole tale once they have reached freedom. In a theme that has become famlair in other mountain climbing books, there seems to be as much drama in the few within the mountian climbing community's attempts to tear down the climbers, once their physical ordeal is over. This is a gripping tale of survival and the ability to overcome.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping Tale of Unexpected Adventure
Review: This is a great book about 4 climbers kidnapped in a foreign country by Afgani rebels. While in the middle of a climb, the climbers are forced down at gunshot. They live the next 10 days in a series of firefights with death all around them. To make their struggle even tougher, there is little food and the climbers are forced to bed down during hours of light in very cramped quarters. The climbers are aware they are in desparate straits as the kidnappers execute a soldier while in the middle of a gun fight. Eventually the climbers escape but that's only half the story.

Their story is so unbelievable and information is so unreliable that their credibility is severely questioned. This book goes into detail about this controversy and I think does an excellent job of showing how it developed. ...

Based on the controversy you're either going to believe the story or not. To me, it's very believable. The climber characters are classic young Americans and the author does a great job portraying their close relationships and this eventually cracks. I stongly recommend this book if you like climbing or stories of adventure.

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Summary: MORE IS SOMETIMES LESS...
Review: This is the true story of four young Americans, three men and one woman, who in August of 2000 ventured into Kyrgyzstan in order to rock climb in the Pamir-Alai mountain range. On August 11, 2000, while climbing, they would suddenly find themselves the target of sniper fire. After their descent, they would find themselves taken at gunpoint and held hostage by young Islamic fundamentalists of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They would join a Kyrgyz soldier whom the militants had already taken prisoner.

The next six days would prove to be harrowing ones for these climbers, who would be marched thrugh the rugged terrain of the mountains with little food and water and constant threat of execution at the hands of their heavily armed captors. They would eventually see the their fellow captive, the Kyrgyz soldier with whom they had bonded, executed. With nothing to lose, they would be forced to make a life or death decision that was to cause them much angst but would allow for an escape.

This audio book is well narrated by Armand Schultz who does an excellent job of infusing with atmosphere the author's somewhat dry chronicle of these startling pre-9/11 events that, looking back in hindsight, now seem to have a much more evil and sinister portent. The story is multifaceted in that it grounds what happened to these climbers in a global context, giving the historical backdrop and political dynamics of the area.

The author fully lays out the media circus that enveloped the climbers upon their return to the United States. He also found himself becoming part of the story, as exclusivity and certain monetary arrangements he had made with the climbers threatened to dominate the story and cast a pall over the veracity of all. The author also lays out the secret pact that the climbers had made over the agonizing decision one of them had reached in order to effect their escape. It was a decision that they believed had led to the death of the captor who had been entrusted with keeping them captive.

The media circus around what had happened to them turned decidedly ugly when it was discovered that this captor was still alive and under arrest. What he had to say would then throw the media into a further tailspin. Thanks to the power of television, however, a Dateline NBC interview with the captor at the heart of the storm of the controversy would finally put to rest some of the unsavory portions of this true life adventure.

What really stands out is the naivete and ignorance of the climbers about the part of the world in which they were traveling. Notwithstanding the fact that none of them seemed to be particularly bright, they had done very little in terms of research into the area before traveling there nor had they heeded State Department advisories about the area. The climbers, in large part, remain somewhat of an enigma and, as such, the reader finds oneself caring very little about them.

This news saga originally appeared as a gripping article in "Outside" magazine. I had the good fortune to have read it and was transfixed by what had happened. I do not recall who wrote the article, though it was most likely Greg Child. In writing this book, however, he seems to have sucked the life out of the story. While still worth reading, it is an adventure story uitterly devoid of passion.

Rating:
Summary: a 360 degree of the event, not just the rescue
Review: Very satisfying and intense read.