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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific!, 27 Feb 2007
To be honest, I never thought I would enjoy this novel as much as I did. The Terror was meant to be some sort of break from my preferred speculative fiction picks. The book being based on the true story of the ill-fated Franklin expedition, I was expecting a detailed historical thriller. The Terror is indeed that, and then some! I should have known that an author such as Dan Simmons would have integrated a few "fiction" elements to the mix.
What is beyond the shadow of a doubt the most brilliant facet of this novel is the fact that it reads like a firsthand account. The acknowledgements at the end of the book demonstrate the kind of extensive research which was required to produce such a detailed work. Still, it took a master storyteller to weave all those disparate elements into such an excellent whole. À la Patrick O'Brian, Dan Simmons literally plunges the reader into the day-to-day life aboard HMS Erebus and Terror. Sailors, it seems, at least based on a number of references, share a proclivity for farting. . . As one reads along, you can definitely feel all an expedition through Arctic ice encompasses. Moreover, Simmons captures the frigid landscape and the Siberian temperatures beautifully. The narrative conveys the bone-chilling cold and its repercussions on the two ships and their crews in a manner I've never encountered before.
The characterizations are "top notch," another aspect which makes The Terror a "must read." Much like George R. R. Martin, most of Simmons' chapters showcase a different POV character. Witnessing the crews' struggle for survival through the eyes of such contrasting characters makes for an even better reading experience.
My only complaint would have to be that the book is at times overlong. Of course, any tale that recounts such a voyage down to the smallest of details will not engender a crisp pace. For the most part, this was no problem. And yet, I feel that speeding things up in certain portions of the novel would have helped with the overall rhythm.
I found The Terror to be an intense and satisfying read. If this book doesn't make my Top 10 of 2007, it will have been an incredible year!
If anyone elected not to pick this one up because of The Time Traveler short story/essay, you are missing out on an exceptional novel.
To all you fans looking for quality stand-alone books, look no further. The Terror is what you need!
Check out my blog: www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intense and sinister, 12 April 2008
I loved this book from start to finish. Based on the real voyages to find the North West passage it has historical authenticity but goes way beyond. Dan Simmons crates a claustrophobic and terrifying environment in which little is certain except the unrelenting nature of the cold and dark. He mixes the disturbing effect of isolation and starvation on people with a mysterious threat from outside which defies all normal precautions and considerations to create a frightening and unpredictable whole. In this intense situation characters have to make difficult and often harsh choices and are all the while stalked by the creature on the ice who seems to be able to take them at will. An excellent read. Recomended
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great "disaster" historical novel with the fantastic thrown in, 27 Jan 2008
The premise of The Terror is the ill-fated Arctic expedition, led by Sir John Franklin, of the 1840s. I must admit I knew nothing about the expedition beyond the basics when I read this novel, and as such I got a little lost when the point of view switches characters, but some research soon cleared that up.
This novel is meant to be historical fiction instead of a factual account, and in that regard it excels. Most of the characters are based on members of the real Franklin expedition, including the protagonist(s). Not wanting to spoil the plot, I'll say that the (fictional) encounters with native Inuits and the mysterious beast stalking the men are seamlessly woven into an historical context.
The plot itself is a marvellous one; gripping and page-turning without resorting to cheap shock moments. The characters are well-established, and you feel a genuine pang of sadness if one dies. I read the whole 950-odd pages in under three days, not because it's a skim-read book (it isn't), but because I was so drawn in. The plot is exciting, with much of the "I have to know what happens next!" of good storytelling.
However, this is not a perfect book. There is no one major bad point, just a few little niggles that conspire to knock a star off the rating.
Firstly, and I understand this is a copy error not a writer error, the proofreading in the paperback copy was shoddy. There are more than a few cases of words running together - "theanimal" - and the typist often uses a quotation mark (") to mark plural possessive (childrens") instead of an apostrophe or other mark. Obviously this is a printer error and not Simmons' error, but it does detract from the story and stop you being drawn in when it happens.
Secondly, there is one exception to the "seamlessly blended history with fiction" as I detailed above. In the middle third of the book, two of the characters are discussing their previous voyage. In just one page they manage to mention Charles Darwin, the Beagle voyage, Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' and Charles Babbage and the computing engine. For myself, this jolted me out of the story somewhat. It felt like Simmons wanted to get even more historical context into the novel than there is already, and suddenly found his opportunity (a conversation between two learned men) to do it. A reference to one of the above three would have been fine, but a long list is a little much, and the fact that no other historical figures are mentioned anywhere else in the book adds to the feeling.
Finally, I have a small issue with one aspect of Crozier's character (a fictional representation of the real explorer Francis Crozier). Again in the middle third of the book, he uses an aspect of his personality to help him through illness (again, I don't want to spoil it). This personality thing comes out of nowhere and goes on for pages and pages. Apparently Crozier has had this ability all his life, yet he's been on an ice-locked ship for two years and we've never heard of it until now. Like the other minor niggles, this isn't a major complaint but it does detract from the story somewhat.
Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book - to any fans of historical fiction, disaster novels, horror novels or Arctic exploring in particular - but to every reader in general. It is an adult book; there are a few sex scenes and gruesome moments, so I wouldn't recommend it to children and younger teenagers. The novel is also quite in-depth and nearly a thousand pages long, so if you're a fan of skim-reading and quick books this isn't for you.
Before you read it, if you're not familiar with the Franklin expedition in history then you might like to do a bit of research, if only to more easily distinguish the characters. Also, I found that the chapter headings are very important, as they contain the date and the person from whose point of view the chapter is told, and as the book (for the first two-thirds at least) is told in a non-chronological fashion keeping track of the dates is key to understanding the plot.
So yes, I'd recommend this novel. I'd never read Dan Simmons before this book, but I'll definitely be seeking more of his work out now!
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