By Kim Stanley Robinson

...I've had this book sitting unread on my shelves for a few years and after taking some stick for clearly lacking the good taste, refinement and education to understand his writing was cajoled into reading it as the 'antidote' to my KSR thinking, and I have to say, it's a hoot!

Clearly a big departure from his usual work, Escape From Kathmandu is a collection of four novellas, 'Escape from Kathmandu', 'Mother Goddess of the World', 'The True Nature of Shangri-La' and 'The Kingdom Underground' featuring the same motley cast of characters in a bizarre mix of boys-own adventure stories, hippy philosophy and left-of-field humour that is hugely entertaining and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny.

George Fergusson is an expat climber and backpacker who lives in Nepal and works as a guide for a company called 'Take You Higher' shepherding groups of tourists around the trails and occasionally to the foothills of the Himalayas. He lives in relative luxury - his room at the Hotel Star has a tap he can sit under to shower - and relishes his quiet life, a bit of dope to smoke, some half-decent food a beer or two until some backpackers led by his namesake George 'Fred' Fredericks come into his life with a tale of how, after a sighting on a previous expedition, one of their number has captured a 'Yeti' (yes, an abominable snowman) and plans to take it back to the US and keep in captivity. Needless to say this rankles with them and they set out to rescue the poor creature and return it to the wild, and one far-fetched and hilarious thrill ride later they do exactly that.

The next three stories all follow roughly the same pattern of George Fergusson and 'Fred' Fredericks as they, at various times, battle Nepalese bureaucracy, invade China and Pakistan, almost start WW3, kidnap the King of Nepal, save Shangi-La, help a reincarnated lama escape a 100 year old promise chains and scale Everest on a whim, all more by accident than design and always with lashings of great humour on the way.

Yes it's whimsical and a little silly and if you're a fan of the hard science fiction of the Mars trilogy you might have trouble with, especially the overt political messages around Tibet Vs China, the corruption of governments, the Dalai Lama and so on, but if you need to kill a couple of hours on a plane or a beach and don't want to stretch yourself too far then this could be a welcome diversion.

For my part, more of this would've made me a fan long ago.

Escape from Kathmandu is pretty hard to find these days but can be picked up second hand from Amazon and can probably be ordered from Blackwell or another good book store.

This is the closest you'll come to a Kim Stanley Robinson website.