Rating: 
Summary: Harrowing is right
Review: This book made me claustrophobic just reading the back cover-surviving falling into a crevasse-are you kidding me? Aack! This was a great book. It keeps you gripped throughout. I have to say though, I got a little irritated with the constant reference to "the voice" towards the end of the book. Also I felt a little cheated with how the book ended. I wanted to know more about the physical and mental recovery of both men-but the book ends rather abruptly with little details of what happened after they left the mountain.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible
Review: Ive done some climbing, traveled and climbed in the Andes and read many climbing books and this book is outrageous. I guess there are not many tales being told from that close to the edge (the authors tend not to survive). Stay alive Simpson and give us more of your writing. You are absolutely no bs. (congratulations on a spectacular first ascent)
Rating:
Summary: A gripping, adrenaline pumping fantastic book
Review: This is one of the most fantastic books I have ever read. It gives you hope and makes you realize how inconsequential any accidents you've suffered in the mountains are. It makes you want to push on and fills you with determination.
Rating:
Summary: There are not enough words to descride Simpsons ability.
Review: Exellent, gripping and perfect for both the mountain actavist or general reader.
Rating:
Summary: "Breath catching reading like running a sprint"
Review: The book screams of fighting for your goal until there is absolutely no more fight left. I liked the feeling of physical suffering and determination that took me over as I felt I was one step behind Joe. It was engaging to so clearly relate to the crystaline clarification of emotions such as agony, distress, determination, and physical pain. The book left me with a scale with which I can weigh the risks and consequences of climbing. I have read it twice...so far!
Rating:
Summary: Incredible story of perseverence
Review: After reading about the author's determination in the face of such extreme conditions and obstacles, you have to wonder if you have what it takes to have done the same.
Rating:
Summary: Feel the pain!
Review: Someone recommended this book to me several years ago, as a great story, but more particularly that Simpson was a writer about to really emerge on the scene. How true he was on both counts. I have since become a great admirer of Simpson's work, particularly the care he takes with the human and ethical dimensions of climbing. However, Touching the Void is one of the out-and-out classics of climbing literature. I could not put the book down once I started it, and felt as if I could visualize and feel every scene as Simpson artfully (without over elaboration) told one of the most incredible tales of survival in the literature. You must read this book!
Rating:
Summary: This book is fantastic, breathtaking
Review: I am married to a climber and have read many books . Read this one just after reading The Last Blue Mountain and the reversal of fortunes is unbelievable. Joe Simpson survived when nature states that it is not possible. Where the others died when nature says they could survive. These books have to be read together to get the true meaning of both. Joe Simpson is a remarkable man whos will to survive is as unimaginable as his story. Here is a book that makes you take stock of your like and thank god for small mercys. This is a must for anyone who has even looked at a mountain with ore. I felt the cold and the pain but most of all I felt the joy.......thank you Joe for sharing this story with the world. And to Simon, you had no choice. What you did was very brave
Rating:
Summary: Truth *is* stranger than fiction.
Review: Wow. I gave up climbing when I was Joe Simpson's age because my fear heavily outweighed any satisfaction I might get from the climb. Is this the nightmare I tried to avoid? No, it's worse than my worst nightmare. Only knowing in advance that Simpson survived the ordeal was I able to set aside my fears and pick up the book in the first place; once I started readingI couldn't put it down. If you're a climber, you'll love it. If you relish incredible tales of human survival, you'll love it. If you want to feel lucky you're alive, you'll love it. I did.
Rating:
Summary: This is a griping story of survival and human endurance.
Review: How far can the human body be pushed before total collapse? What can the mind endure before succumbing to what seems like inevitable termination? Joe Simpson's tale of survival after what should have been a fatal mountaineering event begins to explore the limits of human capability. Readers in our book group felt the prose was not first rate but written well enough that few wanted to put the book down. This book is good enough to become canon in mountaineering literature. For those with no mountaineering experience, some of the climbing aspects and descriptions may be difficult to envision. Nonetheless it is an amazing story. Our group read this in conjunction with Caroline Alexander's book "The Endurance", another incredible story of survival against unbelievable odds. While Simpson's ordeal occurs over the span of a few days, the story of Shakleton's group living on the ice for nearly two years explores the other spectrum of what it takes to survive - the two stories seem to compliment each other in the scope of human endurance.
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