This is the final book in the "Mountain Made of Light" series. The Summit by Edward Myers. [Roc Fantasy, 1994, 426 pages] A fine adventure story about travelling long journeys through the mountains, and in fact climbing them.
This series tells the story of the Mountain-Drawn, or the Rixtirra, an isolated indigenous people of the Peruvian Andes. Jesse O'Keefe visits the mountain land as an aspiring anthropologist and is caught in to the ancient faith the Mountain Drawn. He, a Rixtir translator named Aeslu, and a mountain climber Forster Beckwith soon set off to find the legendary Mountain Made of Light. The Rixtirra believe that a refuge exists at the top of the mountain, and that the Rixtirra would be led up to the summit by a chosen two: The Sun's Stead and the Moon's Stead, thought to mean Jesse and Aeslu.
I reported the second book on this blog previously; there's more backstory found there, so I won't go into much detail here, other than to say at the end of Fire and Ice, the group has made their way through the vast mountain land and reached the foot of the Mountain Made of Light.
The Summit concludes this story, mainly detailing the extremely dangerous climb up the mountain. Mountaineering and climbing gear and techniques are discussed in detail. This actually makes up much of the content of the book. They are stocked with supplies of Ice-hatchets, Ice screws, ropes, climbing claws for the hands and feet. They scale cliffs, snowfields, slick and steep ice, finding refuge only on small cliff edges or caves they have dug in themselves. This is a very tense, edge of your seat journey.
The tension is not only from dangerous, potentially fatal conditions, and limited supplies. Forster is actually the antagonist of this series, and he doesn't get along particularly well with Aeslu and Jesse. He wishes to climb to the Summit at any cost, and be the first one there. He doesn't care about his companions, and was merely making company with them out of mutual necessity and safety. Forster holds the Mountain Stone, which serves as a map of the Mountain itself, leading their route through its accurately carved contours, and etched symbols. The route leads them up a "chimney" (vertical shaft), indicated by etched symbols of smoke. There is a hole in the Stone, which directs them inside the Mountain, through a dark tunnel with absolutely no light. As they reach higher and higher up the mountain, they get increasingly more fatigued. Forster falls, and Jesse saves him, pulls him up by the rope to deal with his injuries. Forster himself realizes he is about to die and tells the other two to continue to the peak. The next morning, he is gone.
Nearing further and further up the mountain, two figures are seen above Aeslu and Jesse as they climb. Masses of ice and snow are soon pushed down the slope, attempting to kill the two climbers. This is revealed to be Forster, using his pack as a decoy. Forster is a good enough climber to have beat them up that stretch of the climb. After a scuffle with Jesse and Aeslu, Forster meets his doom, falling down the Mountain he tried so hard to conquer.
Jesse and Aeslu are at the point of near death. Things are looking desperate, yet they push on through the last stretch of the climb, to the Summit ridge itself. They find an ice cave, and inside it two bodies huddled together, encased in ice, frozen in time. Later this is revealed to be Lissallo and Ossonal, the Founders who created the faith of the Mountain Drawn.
At last Jesse and Aeslu reach the Summit. They find a small city, on an island in a natural lake carved into the Mountain. They find that this city is deserted; no sanctuary afterall. Still, the two had reached the summit, they had accomplished their goal, and nothing feels more powerful to them than looking over a mountain range from the highest peak. They make their way back down, as must happen. This idea is illustrated by a symbol of a mountain peak; two diagonal lines: one up the mountain, the other from the peak downward. Of the Mountain Drawn awaiting them below, some believe Jesse and Aeslu, in concluding that the Founders had indeed climbed the mountain, visited the fabled city, and died on the return journey. Their prophecy of salvation, is just that, mere legend. Others remain faithful to their now outdated faith. Most of the Rixtirra who were not slain in the civil war, entered the Lowland to find new lives.
Like the two preceding books, The Summit is told in first person. The first two relied on Jesse's journal entries from the time of the events, and Aeslu's Chronicle of the Last Days, which is essentially a journal as well. Fire and Ice uses these sources as well, while also including interviews with people who were once Rixtir and witnessed these events. The Summit, on the other hand, is told completely through interviews the author Edward Myers conducted with Jesse himself some 50 years after the events of this series. Many different storytellers are not necessary because the only characters in the book are Jesse, Aeslu, and Forster. During this interview, taking place when Jesse is almost 80- he is missing several fingers due to frostbite. He is coaxed into talking about the events by offering a picture of Aeslu that Edward had somehow come across during his investigations. Aeslu had chosen to leave Jesse when he decided to return to the Lowlands- and he never saw or heard from her again.
The "Mountain Made of Light" trilogy is a very convincing adventure story depicting an insanely lengthy and dangerous journey. Faith conquers man, and man conquers nature. Though it takes place here on earth, the mountain land of Rixtir seems almost like an alien world, so far removed from our reality.
The narrative of Edward Myers' Mountain Made of Light trilogy can seem choppy, jumping around between different characters' journals, letters, and interviews. This both gives deep insights into the characters' inner thoughts, and leaves a lot for the reader to fill in and imagine themselves. The investigative approach makes this a convincing Fantasy tale.
All said and done, after reading all three books, this series gets two thumbs up from me. Still more books beckon...
Upward to the Summit!
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