The Terror: A Novel Summary and Reviews

The Terror: A Novel
by Dan Simmons

The Terror: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Dan Simmons
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-01
ISBN: 0316008079
Number of pages: 992
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Book Reviews of The Terror: A Novel

Book Review: A captivating, awe-inspiring epic.
Summary: 5 Stars

Every now and then, a new book will come out that redefines the boundaries of its respective genre. Dan Simmons's THE TERROR is one such novel--with its clever blending of historic fact, scientific research, mythological surrealism, and adventurous bravado, THE TERROR has turned the horror genre on its head.

The whole novel revolves around a rather intriguing concept: What really happened to Sir John Franklin's 1845 voyage to the Northwest Passage? All we really know is that the two ships--the Erebus and the aptly-named Terror--vanished. Simmons has decided to take advantage of his literary license, and has crafted a nine-hundred-page-plus epic spanning the plight of the men stranded on the ice. The novel picks up roughly two years into the ordeal, after Sir John Franklin has perished, leaving Captain Crozier in charge. The men are running out of food; the winters are getting colder; and there is something on the ice, some monstrous creature that is toying with the dying men. Captain Crozier now faces a challenge: Should he stay and fight, resulting in almost-certain death; or should he and his men make one last-ditch effort to escape the frozen Hell that surrounds them?

Do not underestimate THE TERROR. It is perhaps the most literate horror novel I have read in years; it is intelligent, well-researched, and thoroughly gripping. The fact that it is based upon a true-life mystery adds a bit of allure, granted; but the action here is all Simmons's creation, and his imagination is feverish and frightening. THE TERROR is as much an adventure novel as it is a horror novel; there is a monster on the ice, but there are other monsters: the cold, scurvy, encroaching insanity...THE TERROR is truly an epic novel, one that is engrossing from first to last page. If this were a just world, Simmons would be winning awards right and left. For now, it looks as though he'll have to settle for having written a novel that, I'm willing to bet, will stand the test of time.

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