The Descent

I like to ask people what they're reading because you never know what that will turn up. I'm especially interested in exploring popular fiction this way -- as opposed to literary fiction, where I spend almost all my fiction time next to the frooty academics and other dread East Coast Elites.

So this year I read my first Lee Childs novel (Jack Readcher #22, The Midnight Line) and I just finished my first Le Carre novel (A Legacy of Spies) -- both readable. Also started an exploration of Scottish crime novels with some Val McDermid and Ian Rankin books -- more on that sub-adventure later. And I definitely have this weird love affair with Richard K Morgan that's in this thriller killer zone as well, albeit closer to my beloved SciFi.

The Descent was mentioned to me by my awesome neighbor Matty who runs an outdoors store down in Lynnwood Center, BIO+D. Over the holiday break I was in the mood for something lighter so I gave it a shot.

In my short two-star review on Goodreads I give credit for a ballsy science-fictiony horror premise and a decent 30 page start to the novel -- where it felt like the author as a real-life mountaineer clearly had mastery of the location and wrestled with getting a realistic group dynamic.

Sadly he lost me early on with a full retreat into central casting for characters and plot elements and whatever was laying around on the craft services tables. And yes, somewhere a couple hundred pages into this muddled expedition I stumbled into the "leggy" tripwire. Bazoing!

So not sure this one will make it to the shelves, but the pop fiction adventure continues with another data point achieved.