A speculative thriller, partly written in the form of letters. I found it slow and could not engage with the narrative or characters.

Thin Air meets Event Horizon is my quick pitch for Nicholas Binge’s second novel, a mind-bending, reality-splitting adventure in which a reluctant scientist joins a crew climbing an impossible mountain. I was surprised by how different this is from the author’s debut, the excellent Professor Everywhere; it’s significantly more high-octane and much more ambitious in scope, with forays into horror territory that lean towards the bloody.

Physicist Harold Tunmore is missing for almost 30 years before his brother discovers him living, anonymously, in a psychiatric hospital. His story is told via a cache of letters written by Harold to his niece. These chart a mission he claims to have been a part of: in 1991, he was (so he says) one of a group put together to scale and research an immense mountain that materialised out of nowhere in the middle of the ocean. It’s a place where people are not themselves and time appears altered – and the further the team go, the weirder things get. Ascension is packed with dramatic scenes and eerie dialogue that give it a particularly cinematic feel. I especially loved how Binge developed the character of Jet (who gets all the best lines). Yet it also has room for contemplative, even philosophical moments and a solid backstory for Harold. A wonderfully wild ride that’s a cut above your average sci-fi blockbuster.

A man goes missing and is eventually declared dead by his brother and niece. After many years, they discover what became of him; along with a case full of letters he had written to his niece (but never sent) during the time following his initial disappearance. The contents of the letters is astounding and they decide to publish the letters - this forms the basis for the book.

The main character, Harold, is an accomplished man, a former doctor, a scientist and something of an adventurer. He is recruited by a mysterious organisation, along with experts from other fields, to investigate an enormous mountain that has suddenly appeared in the middle of the ocean. But all is not as it seems, time runs strangely, there are ghostly apparitions, and former expedition members can seemingly tell the future.

What follows is a tense, gripping story; part psychological thriller, part speculative science fiction.
The letters reveal Harold's state of mind, the paranoia of all of the party, and the many secrets and mysteries surrounding the mountain. The style of the story means that some of the characters aren't hugely developed but, that also adds to the sense of isolation and suspicion felt by Harold.

As with all mysteries, the reveal is an important factor in overall reading satisfaction. I thought the final twists and turns were interesting but maybe not as much as the rest of the book - I felt like it either needed to be more vague or explored in more depth.

Overall, I think this is a book where the journey was more important than the destination and I enjoyed the gripping journey up this mysterious, mind-bending mountain.

Thank you to Harper Voyager for providing a netgalley review copy

Ascension By Nicholas Binge

A book with so much promise but ultimately gets bogged down by telling too many stories of the past.

I found the book to be too slow and boring. I wasn't a fan of the story being told in the form of letters and had no interest in the story when we kept leaving the mountain to thrash out the lead character's motivation from his past.

The mystery that surrounds the mountain and the lead character's disappearance is what kept me turning the page, but all too often the author tears us away from this to explore past events of Harold's life before this exploration, which are boring and dull.

Not for me.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishing house for the arc.

A great, thrilling read the examines time, mysteries and curiosity. Perfect for fans of Andy Weir and Blake Crouch. Easy to read, I couldn't put it down - the form of letters and the structure of the book meant it kept pulling you through, and the ending was very satisfying.

"Fiction is where the soul lives."

Ascension is ridiculously, ridiculously good. I think this one is going to stay with me a while.

Genre defying and fast paced but with the most exquisitely drawn characters.

"I wish there was a word for things that you do not because you want to do them but because you want to be the sort of person that wants to do them."

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the eArc.

What a fantastic read!

I usually find this form of story telling difficult to read and engage with, but this was magnificent. It offered a unique way of experiencing Harold's thoughts and feelings, and occasionally left you feeling helpless - you were watching Harold's story and the discoveries being made from afar, yet also so tantalizingly close that you felt you were taking every step with him and the others. I can see this being a barrier for some, but would advise trying to push through.

I wasn't entirely certain what to expect based on the description, but Ascension felt part horror, part mystery, part sci-fi, and part "descent (and ascent!) of man". The characters were well developed and the premise is fascinating. I was captivated from the very beginning. There is definitely a lot going on throughout, with sometimes an overwhelming amount of concepts being thrown your way - but the way this is wrapped up at the end felt... ah, just incredible. As an aside, I don't know if I missed anything that explicitly wrote H as neuro-divergent (I read this so quickly, I was so hooked!), but as someone who is neuro-divergent myself, it felt really obvious - and this added a layer of depth that's unusual to find (or at least that I haven't seen very often!).

Pacing was perfect and at no point did I ever feel that anything I was reading was irrelevant to the plot - however, I can imagine that some of writing (within the first half for sure) could seem slow. especially if you're trying to read through quickly and find out what happens. I definitely had to actively slow myself down and take note of what I was reading, which made me appreciate the pacing a lot more.

I'd definitely recommend this, and am so grateful that I had the opportunity to read the ARC. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy!

Ascension is one of those science fiction books that has you whispering what the fuck in progressively more freaked out tones as the book goes on. It’s a mindfuck of the best sort.

Presented as a book of letters from a physicist named Harold Tunmore, the story follows a group of researchers investigating a mysterious mountain that has risen up in the centre of the Pacific Ocean. They aren’t the first expedition to do so, though, and their apparently military handlers are close-lipped about what they know so far.

The framing of the story as a series of letters, the timings of which are ambiguous, let’s say, works very well here, I think. You get into Tunmore’s head without it feeling too introspective at the cost of things happening. It’s also a good vehicle for all of the flashbacks, which are slowly uncovered as the plot thickens, with a narrator who is aware of the things he doesn’t want to talk about (while still, for narrative purposes, hinting at them).

As well as this, it’s also very well written and absorbing. Once I’d started it, it had me sucked in and I didn’t want to put it down. In fact, I read the bulk of it in a single sitting because of it. One caveat is probably that I didn’t care much about the characters, only where they were headed in terms of plot. This is not that much of an issue — it’s not to say I didn’t like them, but I never cared about them for the sake of anything but where they’d go next. Plus, they never really felt that fleshed out, even Naoko who you might expect to be — this could be a result of the letter writing format, though. So, it’s a good thing the plot was as compelling as it was.

I was also a little on the fence about the reveal at the end. It made for an interesting discussion I think, one that was probably telegraphed throughout the book, but it felt a little out of the left field. I suppose if it had clicked, what with all the discussions between Jet and Thomas and Harry, then I wouldn’t have felt that way. But it does bring me to another point, which is that I appreciated that there were themes to this book, that it had been thought through with depth. There was a lot to get your teeth into and mull over.

So, if this isn’t on your TBR yet, then you need to rectify that immediately. Trust me on this one.

This was so much fun. I love a good sci-fi thriller, and this just has everything I'm looking for in a book.

The setting was amazing, it added a lot to the mystery and the suspense and the sci-fi aspects were super interesting. The concept was pretty unique, or at least not like anything I've read before, and the format of letters also added something really special to the story. The writing was also great, it was really atmospheric and really captured the mystery and suspense of the remote setting.

I was really into this from the start but the pacing was great all the way through, it was never boring and there were some really graphic and gory scenes which I especially loved. I wish there had been a tiny bit more at the end, it was over so quickly and then I wasn't 100% satisfied with how it wrapped up but that didn't take away my enjoyment from the rest of the story. I would definitely pick up more books by this author in the future.

The synopsis of this book is really intriguing - I love isolated settings, a sense of dread and paranoia and a small group of people. I was really enjoying the first half of the book and like that the story is told through various letters but the second half was a lot more sci-if than I had maybe anticipated. If you are a regular sci-fi/speculative reader then I think you will love this book, it was just a little too over my head.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ascension is true sci-fi epic!

I could easily compare it to books like the Martian (Andy Weir), The story of Your Life (Ted Chiang), The Ruin's (Scott Smith) and to movies like Alive, Arrival and Interstellar. It has elements of all of these but also much more.

'Nobody spoke. Words felt insufficient, out of place. In the face of its magnitude, simile and metaphor felt ridiculous. This mountain - it rejects language. It renders it impotent. All that exists in its place is utter disbelief, and almost religious awe.'

The book follows Harold, who as part of an exploratory team is investigating the mysterious appearance of a gigantic mountain in the middle of the ocean. The story is told in the form of letters, in which Harold has described his experiences, thoughts and the slow agonizing unravelling of the human mind.

This novel had me hooked from very early on. It's so well paced and beautifully written, that it didn't relinquish its grip on me until the very end.
The story had it all. From moments of true horror and violence to moments of immense beauty and cosmic mystery and has elements of so many different genres within.

'"To see a world in a grain of sand", 'Jet said, his eyes wild. '"And heaven in a wild flower. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour."'

Nicholas Binge is one to watch!

Starts off promising - with the establishing of the mystery, the commitment to the bit of ‘this is an in-universe book you are currently reading,’ and the various wibbly wobbly time things - but quickly devolves into a bit of a mess. I enjoyed the sections on the mountain and accompanying descriptions of cold, as well as the flashback sequences fleshing out Harold and Naoko’s relationship, but the book started to fall down as soon as mysteries started actually getting solved. What made the mountain frightening was its unusual height and the inexplicable occurrences there. When it was revealed as what it was, that actually added to those feelings, of being at the whim of the universe and there being nothing you can really do about it. But when it was revealed that there was a actually a 'who' behind it, it lost all sense of tension for me. they were too human to be believable as something that could do all the things they could. the characters (aside from Harold) also suffered. No one really got any development and in a lot of ways merely represent things in relation to Harold. On its own this would be fine, but given how much plot there is, and coupled with the fact that all the women have no agency or character and disproportionately suffer, it starts to get a bit tiring. I also really struggled to like Bettan, he was the worst part of the whole experience for me. It makes sense for him to be there, and he has some cool moments, but his character was really grating for me (more than I think was perhaps intended).
On the whole I did like this book, and there were some really good uses of the letter format and Harold as a protagonist, I just wish I could have liked the second half more.

This book is surprisingly different. As usual I won't try to retell the synopsis as the professionals do it better.
The start of the book is most definitely just an introduction and doesn't really prepare the reader for the complexity of the adventure ahead. It is a tale of physics and adventure mixed with psychological horrors and mythology. Quite a heady combination and a rollercoaster of a read. To be honest not really my favourite genre but others will love it and it is clever!

I wasn't sure what to expect from this. This is a fascinatingly different tale that keeps you guessing. Plenty of twists, questions mystery. It incorporates science with myth and legends with fact. It is a story of life, how mountains can hide a multitude of secrets. How hidden surprises can create new whole new concepts of life and who we are. This is the fundamental question of humanity. Who we are, what we are here for. Thankfully there is not too much science and physics. The characters seeking to find the secret of this mysterious ascension, but will reaching the summit answer their questions or reveal more about themselves or the mountain.

Get ready for an incredible journey to unknown heights.

A mountain grows in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and a group of scientists from all over the world embarks on an investigation in the utmost secrecy.

The fact is this mountain is a challenge – not just a physical one, but a challenge of the mind. How is such a thing here? How did it come to be? The answers to these questions could fundamentally change how we see the universe. In the face of that, any concerns are trivial.

There is something about this place – the altitude, the cold, the sheer colossal size of it – that oppresses the mind. It shows you the truth behind certain things, what things really look like, under the surface.

A fantastic, deep, and emotional read with characters who not only examine the mountain but above all themselves.

Highly recommended.

Really enjoyed this, very much reminded me of Jeff VanderMeer and I think readers who enjoy Vandermeer would really like this. The plot was very twisty and I loved the way the backstory was weaved in. The final denouncement of this part was incredibly moving (no spoilers though!). It seemed well researched and I though Binge did a great job of weaving the research in carefully so it added to the story in a thoughtful way. Overall a great read. It had slightly too much action for my taste, but that said this really feels like watching a film or TV series so I would certainly imagine seeing this on TV soon - very cinematic.

Thank you, publishers, and NetGalley.co,uk for this pre-release version, I wont go over the synopsis of the story you can read this easily yourself. I had very little to go on when I first started to read this I didn't read other reviews and wanted to immerse myself in the story without bias. Elegantly written with the first 40% of the book mystifying me with where it was going, which in itself was no bad thing because it kept my 'interested' part of my brain tickling with questions. As the story developed, I realised the book could be distilled to words that describe 'more' than the word themselves- evolution, science, physics, time, faith, aliens, distortion, DNA vs RNA; just saying one of these words conjures huge discussion between individuals. The writer has deftly woven some big subjects into Ascension that make one think 'big' thankfully not that much physics to knot the brain. I found the first half of the book a bit tedious as the narrative twisted between early life, married life and of life of the main character which I personally found deflective I wanted to rush through these paragraphs and find out what the hell as going on. Keeping going did improve my understanding of the characters and the revelation as the story progressed towards the summit - literally. An interesting though provoking read that builds the characters paranoia with each other. Did I enjoy it you ask yes but at a 3 1/2-star level, I feel that as more readers read it maybe more of a marmite book, love, not love or ok, certainly worth a read.

Ascension

It starts with a foreword from Ben Tunmore whose brother, Harold, a renowned physicist has been missing for 30yrs. Ben then finds him in a psychiatric unit where he has been all that time but he is changed and is not making sense. Before he went missing he sent 3 letters to his Niece, Harriet (Ben’s daughter) and in his room in the hospital Ben finds the rest of the letters he never sent. The rest of the book is told through these letters and his ascension with a team of experts to the summit of the biggest mountain on earth that suddenly appeared from nowhere in the Pacific ocean and what they discovered. Part sci-fi, part mystery, part thriller, part horror, an enthralling journey of a read which twists time and gives a real sense of the growing paranoia of the characters. The characters are in turn fascinating and annoying with back stories that twist and turn. The mountain ascent is ominous and creepy with a treacherous conditions and a feeling of imminent doom. This was a fantastic read and I could not put it down.
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