The Abominable was published by Little, Brown in 2013. Like The Terror, it takes a real historical setting — Himalayan mountaineering in the 1920s, the golden age when Everest was still unclimbed — and overlays a supernatural horror element. In 1924, a young British lord disappears on the North Face of Everest. The following year, a team of three climbers (an American, a Frenchman, and an Englishwoman — a deliberate anachronism, as women were not permitted on Everest expeditions in this era) is hired by the lord’s aunt to recover his body.
What they find is that the lord was murdered — and that a group of early Nazi occultists, obsessed with Thule Society mythology and the idea of an Aryan super-race descended from Himalayan origins, is also searching the mountain. The “abominable” of the title refers both to the yeti legend and to the political abomination growing in 1920s Germany.
Collecting The Abominable
First edition (Little, Brown, New York, 2013): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $15–$35
- Signed first: $40–$80
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation.
The Mountaineering Novel
The Everest sequences draw on extensive research into 1920s climbing techniques — before supplemental oxygen was standard, before fixed ropes, before helicopters. Simmons recreates the specific physical horror of high-altitude mountaineering: frostbite, altitude sickness, avalanche danger, and the psychological toll of weeks spent above 20,000 feet. The addition of Nazi occultists and Himalayan mystery transforms a climbing narrative into something closer to adventure horror.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 1925 Everest expedition real? The historical framework is real — British expeditions to Everest in the 1920s (including Mallory and Irvine’s fatal 1924 attempt) are well documented. Simmons invents a fictional expedition and characters but grounds them in the real logistical and physical challenges of pre-war Himalayan climbing.