promising premise let me down big time. Maybe because it was set in the past, but the writing feels so stale, like reading a book that's aged poorly before it's even aged.

The book is a long slog with an uninteresting, cliche resolution. Right up to the appearance of high altitude squid monsters I was all like Whoa! excellent! But then every other reveal was totally bogus

Who gathered this top notch team of "scientists"? nondescript evil corporation. Who is the mysterious anthropologist I AM ALIEN, sorry, Niel Amai? an alien. What's at the top of the mountain? literal god. the mountain is a test to find the best human. Could this be more heavy handed? No. I'm still left asking myself why are the last two to the top are so shattered to learn they can't control destiny when they were Just in a space/time rift where all of time was laid out in all directions, proving determinism. also why bullets only work sometimes, but hey, plot reasons.