Martin Hayes, Chris Askham ‘Abominable Glory’ Review

A plane goes down in the Himalayas after being surprised by a brutal storm. Early details inform us that the crew that went down were extracting a spy of some sort. That spy, however, is looking less important by the moment, as the storm rages on. But more soldiers do indeed arrive, looking to help out the crashed crew. That’s a bad mistake, as the storm hides something more sinister than the cold.

First, a firefight between the English and the Americans who survived the crash breaks out. Casualties slowly build up. But a cave is spotted in the near distance, and figuring it for their greatest hope of recouping and recovering, they make the short trip. It turns out to be a bad move.

Deep within the cave waits the titular creature, the Abominable Snowman. And, judging by the corpse in his hand and mouth, he’s hungry.

I don’t need to spoil the remainder of the story for you, but know this: it all hits the fan, and the blood sprays about as freely as limbs and heads. And to be honest, it looks absolutely amazing, and I love the fact that the Yeti murders without discrimination: if you’re in its way, you’re going to be torn to pieces.

I love the that the story is built atop a war foundation. It adds an extra dimension to the story. This isn’t just about surviving a family of Yeti, it’s about surviving one another. That adds a stellar human quality to the narrative, and it helps the story to speed along. It’s a fine wrinkle in what could have been a very straight-forward man vs. yeti tale.

The book comes to a conclusion with – first – an absolutely epic war with the beasts, but then we get the shock of a lifetime, as writer Martin Hayes pays perfect homage to George Romero’s classic zombie pic, Night of the Living Dead. It’s a melancholy note to wrap a story of this nature… but I can’t fathom it concluding in any other way.

Stellar read with some absolutely gorgeous art from Chris Askham, and you can grab it right here.

Rating: 4.5/5