The Terror: A Novel
by Dan Simmons
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Book Reviews of The Terror: A Novel
Book Review: Emotionally tolling, sagacious humanity
Summary: 5 Stars
Outside of my preferred genre of science fiction, I occasionally delve into the odder fares of fiction (China Mieville, Hakuri Murakami, Iain Banks and some classics). After reading Simmons' Hyperion saga, I was entrenched in his style, prose and humanity. Nevertheless, he doesn't disappoint in these regards.
Simmons' introduces a hearty number of characters with very human qualities; no one is gifted with any extraordinary skills but all are based in reality. There are those flaws (Crozier's social naivety and his fondness of the grog), those with charity (Goodsir's fair journal keeping and patient bedside manner), those with wickedness (Hickey's cynical hierarchy attitude and evasiveness) and those with innocence (Lady Silent's salubrious behavior and mysterious background). Multiply this cast by three and you have yourself one of the most diverse and human casts even laid upon the pages of a novel.
Placing this cast in the realm of a godforsaken landscape like the northern arctic produces an emotionally tolling plot which brings the reader's heart close to that of the collective soul of the ship. It was emotionally difficult to read the harrowing tale of men trapped on ice facing a likely future of starvation and hypothermia. With the foreknowledge of fate the Franklin Expedition, I honestly had a hard time trying to relate to the sailor's positive attitude while stranded onboard the ships even after two years. Their fate must have more sealed then they realized as the arctic winters are rarely as forgiving as the arctic summers. Once the men begin the arduous trek (sometimes only one mile per day) to the river mouth, it's obvious that the men are marching to their tragic death from botulism, murder, scurvy and hypothermia. Even though Crozier (here his naivety becomes clear) has a vision of reaching Great Slave Lake, the odds are staked very much against him.
The mystery revolving around the silent Inuit girl (Lady Silent) and the monster stalking the sailors (Tuunbaq) is fairly obvious and in the end not so mysterious. The ending itself attempts to provide a folklore path for the existence but ultimately feels like a whole new story, disassociate from the bulk of the novel. The uniqueness of the fulfilling and interesting conclusion is the inclusion of the old sea captains naivety.
While reading, I felt the novel deserved a strong four stars as I was able to read about 100+ pages per day and fell enveloped in the plot. But when I finished and started to review the novel, only then did I realize just how human Simmons made the part-fictitious cast and their three-year arctic saga. When I told others of the book I was reading, I found it hard to verbalize just how difficult it is to convey the plight the men dealt with and how the outcome is ultimately already written. This sheer difficulty in emotional conveyance is unique and merits Simmons' Terror worthy of the full five stars.
Book Review: I Couldn't Finish, but I tried
Summary: 1 Stars
I checked out Dan Simmons' The Terror from the library as an audio book. I had my hopes set on a story of intrigue and courage, with more than a splash of horror and the macabre. The cover to the book is beautiful and does so much for the imagination, and I confess that this was what initially attracted me to the book a few months ago.
The reader was British, which I thought was fitting for the setting of the novel. The Terror is based very loosely on Captain John Franklin's doomed expedition of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror into the Arctic. Technically, the book is classified as historical fiction with a tinge of fantasy/horror. The ships are searching for the Northwest Passage. While out at sea, their ships freeze up in the ice for an unusually long winter. No one is ever seen alive again. This ends the historicity of the book. Everything else is creative freedom. Soon superstitions are running wild on board the two ships. To add to their fear, some sort of monster always lurks out in the ice and snow.
Each chapter alternates between the present (1848) and the past, varying with different characters and giving some background to them. I suppose the reason for this is to build character, but I did not care much for this style.
It is the style that is the biggest problem with the book. Simmons dives in to a pit of historical research and bombards the reader with agonizing descriptions and details. Because of this, there doesn't seem to be much of anything happening, and the reader struggles to understand a time scheme. Thus, progress is painfully slow.
I was eager to hear about the struggles the crew faced, how they fought with scurvy and malnutrition. How they faced the brutal, freezing deathlands of the Arctic. Heck, I was even interested in the monster. Instead I felt that I was given brief samples of the struggles and an overwhelming amount of useless banter.
The Terror is the first book that I've put down in a long time. I made it over a third of the way through and didn't feel like there was any weight to it. Maybe the last two-thirds were great, but I just couldn't bring myself to go on anymore. I was minutely interested at the most, and so I decided to abandon the read. I'm not sure what became of the crew, but I'll wager that they sank into madness and turned on each other. Perhaps one day I'll grab an actual book and read it myself, but I wouldn't bet my life on it.
Book Review: Toto, We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Summary: 4 Stars
Though I have read many books larger than this one, I was still hesitant to start this tomb. "How in the hell can this author write such a thick book about just a bunch of guys trapped in the Arctic?" I thought. I overcame my reservations based upon the glowing review by Stephen King. No question, Mr. Simmons knows how to spin a good yard. The merging of an actual historical event with an element of the supernatural works very well in this circumstance. The author has an excellent knack for describing the harsh Arctic environment, the atmosphere of living in an ice-locked ship and historical zeitgeists of the 1800s. But the misery just keeps piling on and on and on... Much like the characters, the reader will start wishing for the hardships to friggin' end. Mr. Simmons does certainly incorporate quite a bit more excitement, horror and grotesquery than I thought possible. However, this book is not for the casual reader who leans towards quick, fluffy prose or Reader's Digest condensed versions. I enjoyed it, but was glad when it was over.Book Review: A New Genre?
Summary: 4 Stars
Simmons has seemingly created a new genre that is part history, mystery and a gothic supernatural outing. I was originally drawn to the subject of Sir John Franklin's last expedition as is it is truly a great mystery and one on which I have read several nonfiction accounts. Simmons uses the lives of the men aboard the Erebus and Terror as a jumping off point for an often terrifying and somewhat perplexing tale of their fate. There are real or imagined beasties and spirits, near and real mutiny, appalling conditions, and more interpersonal conflicts than my family reunions. I really enjoyed the author's take on Franklin himself imbuing him with a stoicism that is offset by his refusal to adapt to conditions. At first I was unsure of what I was reading but by the end I was rewarded and entertained.Book Review: Excellent Read
Summary: 5 Stars
This is Dan Simmons at his best: great setting, well developed characters and a sense of existential doom all translate into a delicious read. Books like this are few and far in between, just like good movies.
Speaking of movies, those who have seen Wolfgang Petersen's "Das Boot" are guaranteed to enjoy "The Terror". This is about humanity trapped and isolated, haunted by evil within and without, tortured by its own choices, yet somehow triumphant despite the horror and the suffering.
Just like Petersen in his celebrated movie, Dan Simmons makes his craft seem easy and effortless, which is the mark of a true master.
I thoroughly enjoyed every one of the 771 pages!