Thorough, informative and well authenticated but wholly lacking in literary style and readability. As I read the book I thought "with all this information a good editor and the benefit of literary style could have vastly improved the effort!" In reading the book I did discover that I am an unswerving 'linear reader'. No matter how bad the writing became I remained steadfast to the end hoping that this book could redeem itself. This effort will not be seriously considered a notable contribution to the history of climbing Everest. For that sort of book I recommend reading elsewhere.