Killing Dragons
The Conquest of the Alps
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Narrated by:
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Richard Halverson
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By:
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Fergus Fleming
About this listen
In a riveting narrative of daredevils and eccentrics, Fergus Fleming gives us the breathtaking story of some of history's greatest explorers as they conquer the soaring peaks of the Alps. Fleming recounts the incredible exploits of the men whose centuries-old fear of the mountain range turned quickly to curiosity, then to obsession, as they explored Europe's frozen wilderness.
In the late 18th century, French and Swiss scientists became interested in the Alps as a research destination, but in the 1850s the focus changed: The icy mountains now offered an all-out competition for British climbers who wanted to conquer ever higher and more impossible heights, and explorers fought each other on the peaks and in the press, entertaining a vast public smitten with their bravery, delighted by their personal animosities, and horrified by the disasters that befell them.
©2000 Fergus Fleming. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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A sixteenth-century cryptogram spurs modern geologist Otto Liedenbrock to embark on the most remarkable human quest ever taken. With his nephew and guide, he leads the descent from a dormant Icelandic volcano into the unexplored realm beneath their feet. There, a vast subterranean ocean, prehistoric creatures, and natural phenomena are but a few of the wonders hidden from all but the boldest eyes.
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A Vernian Jouney
- By Andreea Marin on 11-29-17
By: Jules Verne, and others
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Kiss or Kill
- Confessions of a Serial Climber
- By: Mark Twight
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Mark Twight is a BANFF award-winner, an extreme climber, an extreme writer, and an extreme personality. No matter what he's doing, Mark Twight takes a definite, and often controversial , stand. Anyone who knows climbing knows Twight's name, and anyone who knows Twight's name will want to listen to this audiobook. Each story is told in Twight's taut, in-your-face style. Brand-new epilogues bring each piece full circle, providing updated information and fresh, hindsight perspectives.
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An exciting, fresh, and viciously enjoyable book
- By The Lonely Reader on 09-02-16
By: Mark Twight
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Alive
- The Story of the Andes Survivors
- By: Piers Paul Read
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the 45 original passengers and crew, only 16 made it off the mountain alive. For 10 excruciating weeks, they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, these men and women not only had to keep their faith; they had to make an impossible decision: Should they eat the flesh of their dead friends?
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Overall Great Read
- By Eric Ames on 06-02-21
By: Piers Paul Read
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River of the Gods
- Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe—and extend their colonial empires.
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Good book by Millard, narrator ruined it
- By Tally D Lykins on 05-25-22
By: Candice Millard
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To the Edges of the Earth
- 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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As 1909 dawned, the greatest jewels of exploration - set at the world's frozen extremes - lay unclaimed: the North and South Poles and the so-called "Third Pole", the pole of altitude, located in unexplored heights of the Himalaya. Before the calendar turned, three expeditions had faced death, mutiny, and the harshest conditions on the planet to plant flags at the furthest edges of the Earth.
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brutally honest accounts unbelievable stories
- By Troy Hamilton on 07-17-18
By: Edward J. Larson
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The King's Shadow
- Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for the Lost City of Alexandria
- By: Edmund Richardson
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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For centuries, the city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833, it was discovered in Afghanistan by the unlikeliest person imaginable: Charles Masson, deserter, pilgrim, doctor, archaeologist, spy, one of the most respected scholars in Asia, and the greatest of nineteenth-century travelers.
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Exquisite! A Transporting Tale
- By Meg on 05-02-22
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In the Kingdom of Ice
- The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship.
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Superb tale that unravels at an iceburg's pace
- By Mel on 03-19-15
By: Hampton Sides
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The Innocents Abroad
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 18 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In June 1867, Mark Twain set sail for Europe and the Holy Land. Twain recorded this adventurous trip and later turned it into The Innocents Abroad. This book became so popular overseas that it would propel him into an international star. The Innocents Abroad is Twain’s account of his thoughts of the Old World, including Paris, Venice, Pompeii, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem, as well as many other noteworthy cities. His disbelief and wonder are told with humor that endeared Twain to American audiences.
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Big Mistake
- By Megg on 12-18-18
By: Mark Twain
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Roughing It
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1861, young Mark Twain found himself adrift as a tenderfoot in the Wild West. Roughing It is a hilarious record of his travels over a six-year period that comes to life with his inimitable mixture of reporting, social satire, and rollicking tall tales. Twain reflects on his scuffling years mining silver in Nevada, working at a Virginia City newspaper, being downandout in San Francisco, reporting for a newspaper from Hawaii, and more.
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The wild humorist of the West
- By Tad Davis on 01-02-12
By: Mark Twain
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Desperate Passage
- The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West
- By: Ethan Rarick
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival.
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I REALLY enjoyed this book
- By Roger on 02-09-10
By: Ethan Rarick
What listeners say about Killing Dragons
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- William S. C.
- 09-07-20
Great Story, Terrible Narration
I was really looking forward to listening to this book. I read it about 20 years ago and decided I'd like to "read" it again. For anyone interested in the history of climbing in the Alps, this is one of the better books. Fergus Fleming is a great chronicler of adventure history and I've enjoyed his other books on Arctic exploration. However, the experience of listening to this book was completely ruined by the narrator. He has a nasally voice that is better suited to the protagonist of a Dickens novel. The worst thing, however, are his innumerable mispronunciations--taking into account differences between the Queen's English and American English--making it clear he has no knowledge of the subject, either as a climber or of the place names of the region. For example, piton is pronounced as pie-taan instead of the correct pee-taan. Even worse is the fact that he swings back and forth between multiple pronunciations of the same word. The worst example of this is his mispronunciations of Chamonix, famous to anyone who knows the least little bit about climbing history. For the dozens and dozens of times it's read, the narrator cycles between sham-a-niece, sham-a-nix, and sham-a-neeks before finally settling on the latter more than halfway through the book. Chamonix is in fact pronounced sham-a-knee, whether in French or English. It's all very irritating and greatly distracts from the enjoyment of what is a great book in its print version.
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3 people found this helpful