An intriguing and mesmerizing science fiction thriller!
Ascension is a beautifully written piece of weird fiction with literary pretensions (well deserved), some sci-fi elements, and some horror told from the perspective of Harold Turnmore as a series of post hoc letters to his niece after the events several decades later. The book is absolutely brilliant!
Mr. Harold Turnmore is our resident genius, and some shadowy government-type military figures recruit him for a curious expedition to investigate an anomaly out in the middle of the Pacific. A gigantic mountain has just appeared out of thin air, and the first team to traverse it has failed to return...
Reality appears fluid, and time dilates and runs in flows that tide and ebb all along their climb, with weird visions and glimpses of the future seeming to be a regular occurrence to some while things continually seem to be getting out of whack the further they climb.
The formation of the mountain itself is an unusual mishmash, with strange creatures and microbes comprised of just RNA; will they be able to puzzle out this mysterious phenomenon of the mountain and its surroundings, or would it be their undoing? Read the book and find out!
The prose is utterly captivating and descriptive, making events ride in on an atmospheric fog that turns into a full-blown blizzard towards the end. Its smoothness and flow get interrupted abruptly as events shift perspective after every chapter, but it's splendidly done, thought-provoking, and philosophical in alternate doses.
One of my best reads this year so far. This is the type of book where one reads fast to get to the seemingly absent bottom (while, in truth, the reader is ascending along with the group) and yet not wanting the plot to conclude. I'll definitely be looking out for more from Nicholas Binge in the future, and I wholeheartedly recommend this.
