The Terror: A Novel
by Dan Simmons
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dan SimmonsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-01-08
ISBN: 0316017442
Number of pages: 784
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Book Reviews of The Terror: A Novel
Book Review: "Terror" is terrific!
Summary: 5 Stars
As Stephen ("I am in awe of Dan Simmons") King implies on the cover of several of Simmons' books, Dan Simmons is a great writer. "Terror", his most recent novel, is no exception. I was haunted by this book for days. I got up in the middle of the night a couple of times to read just a little more and tore through the 700 plus pages in just a few days (fast for me).
While the novel is well-researched historical fiction based on a true, very infamous and disasterously failed expedition aimed at finding the Northwest Passage, "Terror" also features Simmons' trademark blend of horror, epic adventure, cultural legends and very fine writing. It is hard to fix a genre to this novel. It is unlike all of the other Simmons books I have read, which are all more easily described as science fiction or horror. Several of the characters are so very well-defined that they stay with the reader long after the end of the book.
A few of the other reviewers have complained that the first part of the book jumps around chronologically, but since each chapter begins with a date and location from the ship's log it is not hard to determine where and when in the story you are. It gives away very little to say that "Terror" chronicles the fate of two ships, the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus and their crew, on an ill-fated Arctic expedition starting out in the summer of 1846. By the first 150 pages the reader knows the expedition is in deep trouble, that most are unlikely to survive, and that there is some sort of monster living out on the ice that is stalking the men, one by one. When I got to page 150 or so I wondered how Simmons was going to fill the remaining 600 pages. I shouldn't have doubted. The story gets tighter and tighter and more and more suspenseful right up through the last few pages. This was really one great book, perhaps my favorite of all Simmons' work.
I recommend "Terror" highly to old fans of Dan Simmons from the "Hyperion Cantos", "Carrion Comfort", and "Ilium/Olympos" days as well as to any one who likes historical fiction and plain old good writing.
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