Having thoroughly enjoyed the 2018 TV series The Terror I wondered what the 2007 novel it was based on might be like. I checked out some reviews from trusted friends on Goodreads (thanks, Richard!) & off I set.
The novel is based on the true story of Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition to find the North-West Passage. It's an epic journey for the ships Erebus & Terror, & at over 900 pages it's an equally epic journey for the reader too!
Simmons has a fairly simple style of writing, which flows easily. Some early parts of the novel move back & forth between different time periods, which I found a little irritating & pointless. A linear timeline for this straightforward story would have served better. However, once timelines settle down it's a fine tale.
Simmons creates a superb atmosphere of Arctic isolation. There are plenty of great things in this novel that I could list, but it wouldn't do any of them justice. Just put some time aside & prepare yourself for a truly epic adventure.

Ich habe fast sieben Monate an diesem Schinken gesessen, bis ich endlich durch war. Eigentlich kein gutes Zeichen für ein Buch, wenn es nicht so zu fesseln vermag, dass es mich bei der Stange hält. Und trotz dieses Kaugummi-Leseerlebnis: das ist eine hervorragende History-Abenteuer-Horror-Mischung, auch wenn das Buch viel zu dick ist. Der Großteil der Handlung spielt aus wechselnden Blickwinkel auf den beiden Schiffen, die Ende der 1840er Jahre einen Weg nördlich von Kanada nach Asien suchten, die Nordwest-Passage, und dann im Eis festfroren.

Dan Simmons hat gut recherchiert und scheint ein Fachmann in Nautik zu sein. Die Langweile der zwei Hundertschaften beschreibt er hervorragend. Die Entbehrungen und klimatischen Grenzerfahrungen werden selbst beim Leser spürbar. Und da man bis heute nicht genau weiß, warum diese Männer alle so tragisch umkamen im Eis, erfindet Simmons noch eine fantastische Horrorgeschichten mit einem Menschen fressenden Monster im Yeti-Stil. Hat es diese Elemente zum Spannungsaufbau wirklich gebraucht? Mir hätte das Buch auch ohne das blutige Abschlachten gefallen. So bleibt letztlich die Frage offen am Ende, was den wohl nun gesicherte Erkenntnis ist und was Simmons Fiktion. Einerseits bringt die Fiktion Spannung ins Buch, andererseits verwässerten sie den historischen Aspekt der Erzählung zunehmend. Aber das ist Jammern auf hohem Niveau und auch nur die Erklärung, warum es den fünften Stern nicht gab.

The words that immediately come to mind in regards to Dan Simmons' The Terror are 'Horrendously overrated' and 'Incredibly repetitive'. Unfortunately, this book for me is the equivalent to how I feel about aubergines, and for the majority of this reading experience, I was willing for it to come to an end, and as a prior warning fellow readers, I'm definitely not going to hold back here.

After reading SO many positive reviews about this, I was expecting to be completely bowled over. (That doesn't happen to me often around here) and before buying this, I did my adequate research. I already knew that this book was based on the fascinating "John Franklin Arctic expedition" which personally interests me, and that is probably the primary reason for me purchasing this. I wanted history, and plenty of it, but instead, I was met with the unrealistic theme of the supernatural. I was obviously aware of this, but I found it completely swallowed any enjoyment that could be had from the historic side of things.

That was one of the prominent issues with this book; the two themes that never really gelled together. For a couple of chapters there was a monster out there to devour the men on the ice, then we abruptly jump back years to another scene, that has no real impact on the plot. It caused a detached feeling, and really, it knackered up my mind. I like to think I have patience, but this, this was abysmal.

I quickly discovered that scurvy is one of the main culprits for a long, painful death in "The Terror" and fair enough, I appreciated the detailed description of this, but when it is repeated constantly throughout the book, it becomes painstakingly tiring. Dan Simmons likes his scurvy, I guess.

I can't say I liked any of the characters, as all of them were kind of lifeless beings, and sometimes it was difficult to differentiate who Simmons was referring to.

I think the only notable scene which brought a smirk and and a swift eye roll from me, was the sex scene that occurred in the water. The fact that the male in question had no idea that his sexual partner was able to orgasm (due to being female, obviously) humoured me somewhat. We're all just in it for the male pleasure, you see.

This book might have been better if say, 400 pages were knocked off, which means I would have finished it quicker, and therefore, that would have enabled me to get on with my life at haste.

September 7, 2010: I don't want to talk about it right now. It's too soon and the pain is still too fresh. I shall review on another day.

September 17, 2010: It's been well over a week since my encounter with The Terror and the thought of writing a review still exhausts me, but here it goes.

I have read many glowing reviews of The Terror. That is, in fact, why I bought it. I mean, check out this kick ass plot:

Two British ships, the Terror and the Erebus, are frozen in the polar sea for years, waiting in vain for a summer thaw. This is, of course, based upon the doomed Franklin expedition, so we have some serious history going on here. Now, add to that a dash of the supernatural--something is out there on the ice. It terrorizes the men, seeming to materialize from nowhere. It's three times the size of a polar bear and has the vicious, bloodthirsty nature of a predator, as well as the keen intelligence of a man. It's like a giant cat toying with the two ships as if they were terrified mice in a corner. There's nowhere to go, guns don't faze the the thing the men dub "The Terror", and, now, the food supply is running out.

That's some frightening shit. It's the arctic. That alone is frightening. It can drive a man insane. It's the nothingness. The whiteness. The endless-ness. Howard Moon and Vince Noir knew not to take the tundra lightly.

And that's part of what ruined the book in the beginning. All I could think as I read the first few chapters was "ice floe, nowhere to go." I think that might have taken away from the tone a bit.

But here are some other more text-based reasons for the seething black pit of hatred that I have for this book:

a) History or supernatural, Simmons needs to pick a side because the two storylines always seemed to run parallel to one another and never quite came together. It was like, "Okay, for 100 pages, I'm going to have the men fearing for their lives as this thing attacks them. I'm going to build tension and suspense and have my readers empathetically shitting down both legs! And then I'm going to flashback for 50 pages to boring nautical talk amongst stuffy British types before the expedition and then spend 150 pages talking about Welsh Wigs and Goldner food tins and building sledges and maybe I'll even talk about buggering, but no mention whatsoever of the monster for another 50 pages!" Simmons was at his best when describing the encounters between the men and the thing on the ice, but these moments were so few and far between that I just got to the point where I didn't care anymore.

b) Too much historical minutiae. The book should have been 300 pages shorter. There were entire sections that didn't add anything to the narrative. I like my history like I like my men: short and concise.

c) Scurvy is some wicked bad shite. A slow death by scurvy is undoubtedly one of the worst ways to die. But do you know what's worse? A slow death by reading endless accounts of the symptoms of scurvy.

d) There are no likeable characters. In fact, there is little to differentiate one man from another. If you left out the dialogue tags, it would have sounded like one man having a conversation with himself. The only character I like is Pangle, who, alas, appears in just a chapter or two of this 766 page behemoth.

e) I was really pissed when I finally found out what the thing was. The main reason? THAT'S what I wanted to read more about. And it took roughly 700 pages to get to a point where I was actually interested and intrigued and it cut me off.

There were some bright spots. When Simmons wrote about the thing attacking the men, leaving bait for them and taunting them, he evoked moments that were truly terrifying and suspenseful. However, there just weren't enough of them. Sure, the attempts to survive against cold, hunger, and disease should have been compelling stuff, but they made for anemic reading when pitted against a terrifying adversary without name or shape. Also, the chapter in which the men throw a carnivale and erect tents that mirror the rooms in Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death is admittedly brilliant.

When it comes right down to it, though, The Mighty Boosh did a far superior job of capturing the terror of the arctic. When Howard admonishes Vince that "The arctic is no respecter of fashion," I still get chills. The same cannot be said of my reaction to The Terror.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder

Dan Simmons has a multitude of strengths -- undeniable attention to detail, dialogue that sings with clarity, set pieces that can haunt for days -- but most notable might be restraint from barreling down any one genre: ghost story, alien story, survival story. The Terror has elements of each but trusts the reader's imagination to give the novel shape and texture.

This epic is a fictionalized account of the final voyage of Captain John Franklin, who set off for the Arctic Ocean in 1845 to locate the Northwest Passage and never returned. In Simmons' novel, Franklin's ship HMS Erebus becomes trapped in the ice along with the HMS Terror, whose skipper Francis Crozier proves a far steadier command presence as starvation and scurvy set in among the men. Hunting expeditions are unable to shoot much in the way of game on the ice and Caulker’s Mate Cornelius Hickey makes matters worse by slaughtering a party of Eskimos that the crew briefly make contact with.

The sole survivor is an Eskimo girl whose communication skills are null; her tongue has been torn out. Lady Silence, as Crozier dubs her, is seen as a bad omen as shortly after her arrival on the Terror, giant footprints are found in the ice and a creature begins to prey on the crew. Assumed to be a polar bear, bullets prove no deterrent against the beast. The thing seems to come and go with the omnipresence of a ghost, but its teeth and claws are very real. It reduces the number of the crew even further, giving Hickey the fuel to divide the survivors into a mutiny.

The book is long in the tooth, with the creature's rampage extended without adding significant clues as to what it might be. Simmons had a great novel focusing on starvation, malnutrition and mutiny at the end of the world without the addition of a creature. Fantastic but credible, grisly but elegant, the storytelling is ingenious, particularly the way Simmons identifies members of the crew when their bodies are covered in coats and hoods and blankets to ward off the freezing cold.

An in grossing read absolutely loved it, felt as if I was on the terror with them.
One of the most atmospheric books I have ever read and it started my love for Dan Simmons novels.

A well-balanced mix of history, fiction and magical realism

Crap. I should have paid more attention to the effing LENGTH of this audiobook. I would have realized it was abridged. Did I pay attention? No. Of course not.

What I did instead was buy it, and listen to almost the entire thing, and then, at the end, when there are a lot of Eskimo words, I opened my copy to get a visual... and lo and behold, I see words, PAGES, that I didn't fucking hear.

THIS MAKES BECKY ANGRY. BECKY DOES NOT LIKE ABRIDGEMENTS. UGH! GAH! OTHER MISCELLANEOUS SOUNDS OF RAGE! WORDS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!!



... *sigh* I'm OK now. It's my own fault. I should have known. But what's done is done... Except now... Now I don't know how to rate this properly, because I feel like there was probably really awesome stuff that I missed.

OK... So, reviewing this ABRIDGED audiobook... Gah, I just want to give it a one star rating for duping me. Stupid motherf-- No. No, I said I was OK now. *breathes*

Here goes... in bulleted format, because I'd like to pop a cap in this hacked to pieces audio travesty.

- The audio was read by Simon Vance. I liked his performance, and I actually liked the accents he gave the characters. I thought it fit them pretty well.

- I liked the slow creepiness of the story, and how realistic it was. The frostbite, the scurvy, the hunger, the desperation were all terrifying enough on their own, but then to add in a supernatural monster into the mix? Awesome.

- I really liked Des Voeux, Crozier, Blanky, Irving, Dr. Goodsir and Hickey -- if for vastly different reasons.

However...

- I felt that this story was "telly" in places (which makes complete sense knowing now that it was abridged)

- I wanted more information regarding some of the characters' story arcs and how they evolved. Again... stupid abridged audio's fault.

- I felt like the end was very anti-climactic. I won't give away the secret, but... I will say that I wanted horrible awful terrifyingness, and didn't get anything like that. All things considered, the conditions the men faced terrified me more than the monster. Disappointing there. And I don't think this had anything to do with the fact that it was abridged.

So... I'm giving this one a 3 star "It was good but not great" review. I think it had so much potential to be an awesome book, but I bellyflopped on it by listening to an abridged version, and then the ending let me way down.

I'll probably read my paperback copy one day and review the full text. This is what I get for trying to multitask. *sigh*

On May 1845 two ships, HMS Terror led by captain Crozier and flagship HMS Erebus commanded by captain Fitzjames, set sail on the expedition to find legendary Northwest Passage. Leader of the enterprise which was to get England fame and glory but also establish it primacy on the field of Arctic exploration was sir John Franklin. The whole expedition counted 129 people in total. And no one of them ever returned from the voyage. Both people and ships get lost in the vastness of ice.

The whole undertaking, despite obvious risk, seemed to be doomed to success. Two well-equipped vessels, food stores for at least three, or in the need even five to seven years, experienced in previous polar expeditions commanders. We can only guess what went wrong. Some fatal factors : severe this year, even for the Arctic weather, misjudged chances, false pride, bad decisions, incompetency and greed in choice of the supplier of the food (most of it just rot or appeared poisoned with lead). Freezing cold, hunger and scurvy effected debility, decline of health and strength and slowly decimated the crew. Some of them arguably died on the ships, others had a try to escape ice trap and abandoned ships to find death in ice desert, probably in the end resorting to cannibalism. These are historical facts but also back story for Dan Simmons' novel The Terror .


HMS Erebus and Terror. (John Wilson Carmichael/National Maritime Museum)

I love reading about discovering new lands, brave travellers and adventurers of all descriptions, this mixture of courage, daring and curiosity which pushes people to go into unknown, to find their limits, to experience joy of success but sometimes meet inconceivable disaster. And amongst these readings polar expeditions are my favourites. The Terror is a work of fiction of course since virtually almost no evidence from ill-fated voyage remained but it feels, at least to some extent, very probable. Novel is very well-researched, Simmons from available sources, reliable reports from later rescue expeditions, from recent researches and discoveries wove a vivid and colorful story, creating a thrilling picture of courage and audacity, suffering and struggle to survive in harsh climate.

But, hey, since Simmons wrapped this story up in horror costume so we have here also an unearthly creature, half – bear, half-bloodthirsty thing from hell. Well, from Inuit myths and legends actually. And no, I didn’t mind it at all though I thought it was unnecessary. I rather like being scared by something unknown and inenarrable than graphic and literal description. It really does nothing to me. For people tormented by extreme weather and hostile environment, plagued by starvation and hallucinations, prisoned in the sea of ice for years there was no need for any mythical monsters. The Arctic itself was scary enough. Besides, I’ve always thought that real monsters live only in people’s minds.

It is a good and gripping reading though sometimes pace leaves a lot to be desired. It doesn’t definitely explain demise of the expedition, doesn't clear any doubts away but for sure brings to life wretched voyagers and leaves to our imagination their ghostly odyssey through ice landscape. And since in 2014 and 2016 shipwrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were located , though much further south than scientists assumed, there is a chance one day we get close to solve that mystery too.

3.5/5

*Update*

Read 02/12 & 03/16

This is probably in my top ten for any book in any genre.

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I'd volunteer for crucifixion before I volunteered for the Franklin Expedition. The supernatural element was unnecessary here; the reality of it alone was horrifying. Top notch storytelling, highly recommended.

I read this book back in December of 2020. I still think about this story and looking back should have given this book 5 ⭐ Changing my rating.

Rare case in which I’m actually glad I watched the AMC series first.

Timing plays such a large part in how much I enjoy a book, and The Terror ended up being a perfect "in-between" book for me. I was very sick over the weekend, and it provided the perfect escape/distraction to a far off arctic expedition.

At times, the book was a little slow and I feel the classification of "horror" for this book is a bit of a stretch. More like mild suspense/mystery. Yes, there is a creature killing off the men as they are stuck in the ice, but it wasn't a scary read at all. The screen adaptation did a nice job playing up the intensity, although I didn't find the show particularly scary either, just creepy and bloody.

The very last portion of the book dealt more with traditions/beliefs of the native people of the Arctic Circle and was probably my favorite part. Overall, I feel The Terror could have been a five star book if it had clocked in at 500-ish pages instead of 769—still, it was entertaining.

After reading and absolutely loving Alfred Lansing's real life account of  Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, and even Hampton Side's  In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, I felt pretty well versed in ill fated arctic expeditions. This was a fun twist on the historical survival tale.

*Based loosely off the true story of the 1845, Sir John Franklin Expedition.*

My favorite quote of the book wasn't actually Simmons at all, but a quote from Herman Melville's Moby Dick:

"This elusive quality it is, which causes the thought of whiteness, when divorced from more kindly associations, and coupled with any object terrible in itself, to heighten that terror to the furthest bounds. Witness the white bear of the poles, and the white shark of the tropics; what but their smooth, flaky whiteness makes them the transcendent horrors that they are? That ghastly whiteness it is which imparts an abhorrent mildness, even more loathsome than terrific, to the dumb-gloating of their aspect. So that not the fierce-fanged tiger in his heraldic coat can so stagger courage as the white-shrouded bear or shark."


n  Man Proposes, God Disposesn: an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Edwin Landseer inspired by the search for Franklin’s lost expedition which disappeared in the Arctic after 1845.

The Tuunbaq is a monstrous spirit bear which appears both in the novel and AMC TV series The Terror: