The Terror: A Novel
by Dan Simmons
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Book Reviews of The Terror: A Novel
Book Review: Great Summer Read
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel is unlike , in many ways, either genre it straddles, historical fiction and horror. To do justice to the former requires time and pages result. But I never found those pages at all tedious. I was sorry to see the book end. The greatest horrors in this book come largely from the rigors and disease the real expedition must have faced but, fear not, there is monster here - most would agree, more than one kind.
I started reading horror when I was in Jr. High School with Poe and have never stopped. I never read historical fiction but I trusted Dan Simmons to do right by me and he has delivered in every way. I'm just sorry I waited this long to pick it up. One other caution, just because you know the historical truth here, do not let this dissuade you. It is not all "they get sick and freeze." No, there is much, much more here. It is also a perfect summer read when it is 105 degrees in Texas.
Book Review: This was certainly a page turner
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember hearing bout this book in a magazine, there was a brief review of it and got a very positive review. So I ordered this from Amazon.... and WOW, what a book, mixing historical facts with fiction, I love books like that. I had a hard time keeping track of the characters. There are characters who you root for, feel sorry for, and who you despise. And to think this is based all on a real voyage to find the Great Northwest Passage. Ok except the monster part, all made up by the Author. But over all this novel is a taught, tight, thrill ride. This book was just so spell binding. This is a great read for Winter, when you're not all ready cold enough, Simmons words describing the Northern Cold sends goose bumps down your back. Mixing history, Victorian times and tradition and Native Esquimaux legends indeed a great read. I do hope this never get's on Hollywood's radar and get's butchered on celluloid!!Book Review: Long and Tedious
Summary: 2 Stars
I love the premise of this novel. An imagining of what could have happened to a real expedition. I settled in for an interesting read that combined fact and fiction.
I loved the details, at first. The author obviously spent a great deal of time and effort researching for this novel and I will say it was quite refreshing to see that. But then the details became repetitive and I grew frustrated with the flip-flopping between characters and times. It IS possible for a novel to be too verbose. Exceedingly long and (more often than not) overwhelmingly tedious. Yes, I could feel the cold and at times this novel was entertaining. But then it would get bogged down in the massive amounts of details. Repetitive details. Oh, wait, I mentioned the repetitive details already. Well, you get my meaning.
Not a keeper for me.
Book Review: Like Watching Ice Melt
Summary: 2 Stars
All the books I read come well recommended by one source or another. That's why it's so disappointing when a book that I've been looking forward to reading sucks. This book is too long, by about 300 pages, and as slow in it's plotting as ice melting. Simmons tries to combine a failed Arctic adventure with a horror story and while the atmospherics work real well with the crew stranded for years on end, snow, cold, depravation, etc., its up to the reader to plow through all their deaths, their drudgery leading to their deaths, their drudgery trying to fight off their deaths, their drudgery surviving death, and the only payoff at the end is a very weak reveal--that thing trying to kill them is some Eskimo spirit creation that couldn't be killed by any natural means anyway.Book Review: Expedition Adventure
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a long and quite interesting book. I think I would've enjoyed it more if it hadn't been suggested as a similar book to _The Swarm_...
This was detailed and seemed quite well-researched. Some of it was quite horrific, but it did have a rather happy ending. It did, but the end, remind me more of those Native American books that I read when I was younger than anything else.
It was also a little disappointing to learn exactly what the monster was... also the last two chapters were little more than explaining away the previous 600 pages of the book, which was disappointing. However, I will watch out for his work because he has a real skill in crafting sentences... the books of his that I read will just be subject dependent, that's all.