This book consists of three parts. The first part basically sets up the story - - we join Ed on K2 making some bad choices, and jump to some other scenes and people he's known. I thought this introduction unnecessary and basically confused, but it doesn't last that long.
The meat of the book is an autobiography, leading up to Ed's mission climb all 14 of the world's 8000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. This part is great.
Finally, the last, short part of the book discusses a little of Ed's life after he successfully summits all the 8000m peaks. He's now a corporate motivational speaker, and he gives his readers some motivational points. These are pretty platitudinous, and I can never figure out why corporations pay people to deliver them.
In the middle part, my only complaint is that Viesturs hasn't quite decided whether this is an autobiography or a professional autobiography - - in other words, how much of his personal life is appropriate? He spends a lot more time on his professional life, which is the right choice. This means talking about his wife Paula in terms of someone who worries about him when he's out of radio contact, which is all well and good. But then we learn that, between peaks, Ed and Paula disagree about whether to have a third child. There are a few such personal items in the book that just don't fit right because they don't have anything to do with climbing.
Those objections aside, this is a good autobiography of a great mountaineer. His ghostwriter did a good job keeping a chatty, conversational style (presumably from taped interviews) while working the book up and polishing it. If you like reading about mountaineers, you'll enjoy the book.
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No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks Books In Print, Audio Books.