“We are all eaters of souls.”

You know those books that you absolutely love, yet wouldn’t blindly recommend them to everyone? That’s me with The Terror. Absolutely LOVED it, but I don’t think it’s suited to every reader.

Incase you didn’t know, The Terror is based on the Franklin Expedition, when two steam-powered vessels set out in 1845 on a mission to traverse the Northwest Passage. So think big ships and lots of snow and ice. But of course, Simmons puts his own spin on it and also throws in another threat that is hunting and killing the men. As if the threat of scurvy and hunger isn’t enough!

It is clear from the outset that this book is impeccably researched and so it became a learning experience for me as well as being a damn good story! However this is also where I would warn to proceed with caution, as not everyone will enjoy the extreme level of detail given. Some parts of the story are so bloody engrossing and you simply cannot stop turning the pages, but equally you get the lulls where there’s a lot of discussion over how the mission should proceed and so forth. But hey, I loved it all!

I truly felt like I embarked on a journey with these men and, boy, was it an emotionally exhausting one. The cast of characters is huge, but you quickly learn who to cheer on, and those you should wish a painful death for. It was horrifying, exhilarating and gut-wrenching. All of the adjectives!!

My one minor qualm is the ending - I obviously won’t give away much, but the last 70 pages were so beyond what I was expecting. But this book is all about the journey, so it really didn’t hamper my experience that much! Oh, and some of the detailed descriptions of pubic hair was just... ick.

However, I LOOOOOOOVED this! But again, it’s not gonna be for everyone! 4.5 stars.

This novel takes a historical event I am already very interested in—the doomed Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage—and turns it into a horror story. A lot of what Simmons does is interesting: the character arcs of two of the main players, Captain Francis Crozier and Dr. Goodsir, are very well done, and there are some excellent set pieces—in particular a staging of  Edgar Allen Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" amid the snow drifts and the polar ice. However, this was one of those books that I finished and immediately went, "Man! There is absolutely NO REASON for this thing to have been 800 pages long!"

Seriously. None. I got that the conditions were cold and nasty the first thousand times, and the atmosphere, while good, was nowhere near excellent enough to merit sustaining an 800-page narrative. At one point while reading and encountering an especially long action sequence, I joked to a friend, "Clearly, this is a MAN book." By which I meant: size, apparently, does matter, and very much.

So while there were aspects of this book I enjoyed, it never really moved, or even gripped, me. It was mostly just long, and kind of unpleasant.

Dan Simmons is an author's author.

Every time I read something by him that is either A: not quite in my interest zone, or B: reads workmanlike but nothing particularly brilliant, he SQUASHES my expectations.

HMS Terror and Erebus are out to find the Northwest Passage. In the meantime, I am tricked into caring about every one of the men on the ships. This is not a Darwin Award I'm reading, even though a few characters WERE on the Beagle.

This is a harrowing and perfectly period descent into an icy hell. Enjoy murder, scurvy, madness, a monster on the ice, wicked dreams, withdrawal, and... of course... SOYLENT GREEN.

Oh, wait, wrong book.

I'll leave it for posterity. :)

At least I never ate human flesh. At least I never ate human flesh.

Just keep telling yourself that, buddy.

I was lukewarm going into this, but it turned out to be one hell of a brilliant frozen horror. :)

I'll finish this book when Simmons hires an editor.

Why am I reading so many books about the cold? Maybe because it's freezing here in Chicago!

This is a buddy read with Cristina, and I'll review as I go.

The first couple of hundred pages were surprisingly slow-going. There was very little propulsion about the plot--just occasional glimpses of the "terror" along with long passages of backstory that I didn't really find compelling. I don't know why I reacted like that. Maybe it was because I'd just read Crime and Punishment, another (and very different) tome that managed to be fascinating throughout. Or maybe it was the prose, which isn't terribly stylish. I'm always a sucker for great prose, and I miss it when it isn't there. At that point, I would have given the book two or maybe three stars.

Then, at some point, things brightened up--the plot started shifting into gear, with all the various elements (the terror, the ice, scurvy, boredom, and inter-character conflict) starting to come together. I still think it took too long for that to happen, but boy, I'm glad it did!

[Some spoilers follow]

***

I love the scene of the Carnival, no doubt because it self-consciously replicates Poe's The Masque of the Red Death. You just knew, given that setup, that the creature would strike, but it was quite well-done all the same. And the scene where Irving watches the creature and Lady Silence together was just magical. It deepened the sense of the creature as not merely being a source of terror, but also perhaps something more.

Of course, against the backdrop of the creature striking, we have the "ticking clock" in the form of scurvy and running out of food. The sailors need to do something to escape, and their ice-bound ships will not suffice. What can they do? It's a terrific source of tension.

***

In the end they make an ill-fated attempt to cross the ice by foot, and here is where the interpersonal tensions come to a head. It's also where we see, in shocking terms, just what the cold does to a human body. The creature recedes somewhat into the background as the elements take over. I may have wished for more of a confrontation with the creature, as it seems to emerge at times conveniently, only to fade away when its presence is inconvenient, but this is a minor quibble.

In the end, the group splinters, and a new source of evil in the form of Cornelius Hickey comes to the front of the stage. The pages here are quite gripping, even as the moral valence isn't terribly complicated.

What does become complicated, and what ultimately elevates this book, is the relationship between Captain Crozier and "Lady Silence" that emerges after Crozier is left for dead by Hickey and his band. What's interesting is how Crozier changes and becomes like an Eskimo himself--how he becomes a different person. The climax is when the creature emerges and cuts out his tongue just as it had Lady Silence's, and while this is never really explained, I took it as a metaphor for the limits of language itself--how they had to free themselves from language to see beyond its obscuring haze of words. In the end, much of the final part of the book is interwoven with songs and language taken from the Eskimo, and while I couldn't understand it, it nonetheless had a certain power. Like a Latin Mass, the sounds themselves conveyed a certain meaning beyond the rational, which may have been part of the point--that all that British rationalism only got the men killed, while the liturgical melding of Crozier and Lady Silence and the landscape itself was what saved him.

Just re-read this deeply atmospheric gem of a novel and loved it just as much as the first time I read it! Probably even more since I have been thinking about this book for more than a year and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it again. I am absolutely gobsmacked by this riveting blend of historical fiction, adventure, horror and the folklore/myths of the Inuit people of the arctic circle. This was especially interesting to me since the long lost Northwest Passage expedition ship The Terror was just recently found in pristine condition under the freezing waters off Northern Canada - not even ten years after this book was written. This is one of those books that has you falling down all sorts of fascinating rabbit holes, researching and sorting fact from fiction. Simmons really did his homework on this spooky maritime tale.

It’s a door stopper at almost 800 pages, but you’re not going to be able to put it down. Grab a blanket, a cup of steaming hot tea and settle down in front of that fireplace for the journey of a lifetime. What a story! Highly recommend, one of my all-time favorite books ever.

Link to a recent article about the discovery of The Terror:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...

*************************
This was awesome! (April 2018)

One grim, grueling, spellbinding, mystifying odyssey! Historical fiction & horror. Fans of Hyperion will delight in the recognition of Simmons’ deft writing of characters, descriptions, & storylines. Captain Crozier proves to be one mesmerizing protagonist and there were a host of other interesting characters through whom the narrative was delivered, such as Dr. Goodsir, Lt. Irving, & Harry Peglar. The damnable Hickey really got under my skin as the tale unfolded.

It’s a solid recommendation but it’s pretty long. It’s for seasoned readers of epic tales, or lovers of horror, or fans of nautical lore. Simmons is a gifted writer, the book was gripping, it might’ve been overkill for some readers at some parts (e.g. whenever they’re man-hauling sledges, or the endless indicators of the cold) but his ability to develop a mysterious story and diverse, rich characters is worth the ride. I savored his descriptions of the frozen sea and its taxonomy of ice, respected his apparent research of the Eskimos and of the Arctic, relished his delivery of suspense & awe, and appreciated his depictions of how conditions were for The Terror & The Erebus ships. This is a pretty unique read due to its historicity—and it’s got a beast that is just as terrifying as The Shrike…

Holy hell...what did I just read? I finished the book yesterday, and I'm still parsing my thoughts into a cohesive whole.

It's not that this is the most amazing book I've ever read, or the most entertaining, or the most well-written...but damn is this thing fantastic. I can honestly say that I've never read anything quite like it. Take the historical detail of In The Heart Of The Sea, mix in some Stephen King worthy dread and horror, throw in a comprehensive look at the Esquimaux (Eskimo) peoples and their cultures, and add a liberal splash of Patrick O'Brian naval officer shenanigans, and you get...something much greater than the sum of those parts. It's hard to describe exactly, but I'll do my best.

The toughest part of all would be to categorize this tale...because it almost defies categorization. The basic structure of the tale is the true, and tragic, expedition of Sir John Franklin to search for a way through the Northwest Passage, which would open up a new trade route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Though other European explorers had attempted the same passage, Sir John Franklin's two ships, Erebus and Terror, managed to go farther than any of their peers. If you are looking for a very accurate, if heavily fictionalized, account of this passage, then this book is for you. Perusing the sources researched for this novel, it's clear that Mr. Simmons did his homework quite extensively. The vagaries of ship life are painstakingly detailed, but are not rendered in such detail as to be dull. The official happenings of official characters are explored, though only a few get a truly detailed treatment (only a few likely had details to use). Some of the people in this book were celebrated explorers in the 1800’s, living almost as celebrities given that so few people chose the explorer lifestyle.

And yes, most of these characters truly existed, though of course nearly everything that transpires within these pages is speculation...but very well handled speculation. The actual history is the framework, but the character interactions, and the terror they face, is the colorful detail within that framework.

And if that's all this book was, it would still be a great nautical tale for those curious about how events MAY have played out for our ill fated voyagers. But then we take these characters, add in a great horrific entity that is slowly stalking them and thinning their numbers, and you have a truly epic historical horror/adventure tale.

And when I say epic, I don't mean it in the traditional sense. This is actually a very self-contained tale, taking place almost exclusively (sans flashbacks) in the same couple of hundreds of square miles in the desolate arctic. But the sheer depth of the detail, the broad canvas of history that it pulls from, and the internal and external struggles that these men faced those years in the frozen north give it a grand scope.

The narration is done in both third and first person perspective, in addition to epistolary segments taken from personal diaries and letters. We have numerous viewpoint characters, though Captain Crozier is essentially the "main" protagonist of the tale, with the largest number of chapters and exposition moments throughout the book. The supporting cast of characters are richly drawn and varied; seamen and doctors, marines and aristocrats, and everything in between. There's some truly noble men, some truly despicable men, and a whole lot of ordinary people stuck in an extraordinary circumstance.

And I would be entirely remiss if I didn’t mention Lady Silence, the taciturn Esquimaux girl who becomes quite central to the plot. Though she never speaks, for reasons disclosed early on, she is still one of the fulcrums of the story, and undoubtedly my favorite character. To mention anything else about her would be to diminish her impact, so I’ll leave it at that.

For the hardships our hardy explorers face, that gets a little complicated. There are human villains...and then there is the Terror itself. A well imagined creature born of myth from the local artic area, the Terror is cunning, vicious, and seemingly unstoppable. There are moments of true tension and dread when the men are at their most exposed, when you just know that the creature is lurking close. Mr. Simmons handles these moments with expert precision.

Ironically enough, however, is that the creature may not even be the worst thing these hapless sailors have to face. Conditions in the northern seas are appalling at the least, nightmarish at worst. Temperatures rarely rise above freezing, and the cold permeates everything. These men spent YEARS in the frozen wastes, where nothing grows, and every second is a struggle to stay warm, stay sane, stay alive. The environment is just as much a character as the men themselves, and just as dangerous, or more so, to their survival than the creature on the ice. Strangely enough, while I was reading this book, we were having one of the worst snow storms I can remember here in Utah. I have over 3’ of snow on my roof, and more than that surrounding my house. I’m constantly shoveling, salting, and shoveling some more. And yet, I remind myself, this is a just a SMALL fraction of what these explorers dealt with in the Arctic waters on a daily basis. I have nothing but mad respect for these, and other, real life explorers who braved these inhospitable conditions for years on end, with the threat of death always two steps behind.

It must be stated that this is NOT a short book. Nor is it an easy read. While it may not be quite as dense as Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon (my current record holder for a dense read), it still requires effort to get through. It’s also quite graphic, with the language, gore, and trauma excellently conveyed. I also found myself laughing at some of the crews’ witticisms, as well as their rather colorful and creative curses.

One of the common criticisms of the book is that it’s overlong at parts. I have to agree, as some of the passages regarding the deteriorating health of the sailors certainly could have been shortened/omitted. I wouldn’t say that it was padding on the author’s part, so much as a vehicle to show the hardships these men endured. Still, it was occasionally too much, with a little more repetition than was necessary, and I sometimes found myself skipping words/sentences during these segments. And really, I think, that my only other complaint against the novel would be that at times I think it’s not sure what kind of story it wants to be. Like I said earlier, it reads quite a bit as a heavily fictionalized history lesson, until it takes a left turn into a more supernatural, and more traditional, historical drama.

That being said, the last fifth of the book is AMAZING. Simply amazing. I love where the tale takes some of our main characters, and the growth that one character in particular goes through. It was here that the novel took me completely by surprise, but it was a welcome surprise to be sure. It just felt a little…out of place given all that I’d read before.

So, is this novel for you? If you don’t mind the time investment or the graphic descriptions, and can handle the oppressive environment being constantly brought to the fore, then yes, this is a book you should check out. There’s really nothing else like it out there. Highly recommended!

Історичні факти: Навесні 1845 року два кораблі «Еребус» і «Терор» з екіпажем у 129 моряків вирушили з англійського порту курсом на Арктику на пошуки Північно-Західного проходу, що поєднує Тихий та Атлантичний океани. Востаннє їх бачили в серпні того ж року у берегів Канади. Протягом наступних двох років від експедиції не було жодних звісток. Протягом шести наступних років будуть здійснені 16 рятувальних операцій. Жодна не буде вдалою.
Сучасні знахідки: Корабель «Еребус», був знайдений у вересні 2014 року. Залишки судна були виявлені на глибині 11 метрів, поблизу острова Кінг-Вільям. Через два роки співробітники Arctic Research Foundation знайшли корабель, що підходить під опис судна «Терор». Корабель було виявлено на глибині 24 метри на 98 кілометрів далі від місця ймовірної кораблетрощі.
Книжка: фантазія автора про те, що ж стало з двома кораблями та їхньою численною командою моряків у арктичних льодах.
Мораль: якого б страшного звіра ��и не вписали в свою історію, найпідлішою твариною все одно залишиться людина.
Попередження: канібалізм.
Оцінка: браво!!!

Великолепен роман... „Ужас“ отвежда читателите на изключително опасна арктическа експедиция през 19-ти век, която предприема многоброен екипаж на два огромни и модерни за времето си кораба. В страшно суровите природни условия те се изгубват, което превръща приключението им същински кошмар. Дан Симънс отлично е вплел свръхестествени елементи в тази страховита творба, обаче в основата ѝ е поставил реални събития... Книгата определено е тежка за четене, но напълно си заслужава отделеното време!

GIANT SUPER-LONG ALL SPOILER CROSS-TALK REGARDING DAN SIMMONS THE TERROR - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

A few friends of mine and I read this last month. I've not had the time to back through all the traffic this has generated but there seem to be questions, particularly about the end of the novel. I have an interpretation, particularly with regard to "the rat-thing in the bunk." The following is a back and forth between myself and two friends not on this list. Everything from this point forward is SPOILER if you've not read the book. Before calling "nonsense" on this interpretation, remember that Dan himself once described this novel as THE THING in the Age of Sail - and look again at that dedication. Here we go;

DON'T READ THIS UNTIL YOU ARE FINISHED WITH THE TERROR

I believe after 700 pages of teasing, Simmons finally does acknowledge that this novel is - among many other brilliant things - a bankshot "prequel" to John W. Campbell's WHO GOES THERE? and the Hawkes/Carpenter movie adaptations of that story as THE THING.

I believe "the Terrible Thing On the Ice"/ Giant Polar Bear / Polar Bear shaped demi-god is a supernatural being in the broadest sense of the term. "Supernatural", if we are talking about an "earthly" nature.

I believe that he is The Hero of this novel and not the bad guy AT ALL.

I believe that the Eskimo translation of meteorite as "star-shit stone" is no accident and that the Real People know that everything that falls from the heavens is not necessarily good for them.

I believe the perfectly round black hole in the ice at the wrong time of year where the ice will not freeze over is some portion of some otherworldly craft that is still leaking massive amounts of heat - and possibly radiation. And that it has been there for SOME TIME.

I believe the Bear-God creature killed who it did mostly to keep people from getting south - to protect the greatest number of Kabloona.

I believe the people it killed below decks may have already been infected - perhaps very recently, which was why it appeared below decks in the first place.

I think it might be worth asking if Hickey and Manson (particularly Hickey) were still human by the end of the novel.

I think the entire Eskimo mythology chapter near the end of THE TERROR can be read as an Olaf Stapleton-esque SF novel that has been told for thousands of years until the SF edges have worn off.

I think the Norwegian rats were the 1st line of attack/assimilation by the REAL THING on the ice.

I think the two halves of bodies stacked on top of one another were a sloppy second attempt that failed. Either it couldn't be made to work or it was abandoned because it somehow sensed it would not be convincing.

I think the Norwegian Rat-Captain was a third failed attempt (but just barely) and prior to the destruction by burning of the Terror, that "stasis" was the best that could be hoped for.

I don't think Simmons broke the "two many impossibilities before breakfast edict" because he didn't portray two fantastic disparate elements in one novel- but rather two aspects of ONE fantastic element. This still plays by the rules. But in an obscenely clever way.

- Barney Dannelke


Barney,

Son of a bitch. I can't believe I missed that. Especially because my original expectation for the novel was "THE THING in the age of sail", back when Simmons put the note about it on his website including mentions of the Things (story and movies), and I'd just forgotten about that since then. I've even the THE THING FPS game on my PC.

It makes SO MUCH SENSE, because what the hell else was that man with 3-inch-teeth doing in Crozier's cabin at the end of the book? Authors don't drop things like that into books for no reason, especially at the END.

More later, because I'm tired and have had some wine, but I'm going to think about what else this explains.

Such as: why the attack on the Carnivale, and why weren't there more deaths? Because the men in costumes must have looked like infected men, Things who couldn't quite maintain proper human form, but a taste revealed that they were not, so no more need for a cleansing mission.

Why so few killings at the hands of an unstoppable monster? Because it only has to tag the infected.

I suspect you're right about Hickey, but not Manson. Because Manson died. But Hickey, Hickey survived at least 10-20 minutes naked on the ice before and after he killed Irving. In April - not August. Longer than 20 minutes, if he washed off the blood (with what? snow?) before
returning to camp rather than afterward, in a tent with
co-conspirators.

And if Hickey had been Thinged, and if Things could infect and animate dead (or at least recently-dead) flesh, Hickey may have been right when he though he could reanimate Manson and the rest of his party.

Are there any scenes in the novel that parallel McCready's heated-pin blood tests in the Carpenter THING? The sled-dogs freaking out at TERROR could be a nod to the dogs in the movie.

I don't yet have any idea about: - why the sixam ieua need to surrender their tongues - how the Thing vessel got to Antarctica for the short story/movies.
Is there more than one?
- why was the Tunbaaq after Peglar? With your idea in mind, would a re-reading note where he was infected?

Good stuff, Barney. It's already kept me up later than I'd planned to be up tonight, damnit.

- Kevin


Kev,

It's okay. I did a slow-ish reading until about the time Crozier is ambushed on the ice and then burned through to the end. All the while I played the game of saying HOW does this fit into the Campbell/Hawkes versions. Simmons was not too enamored of the Carpenter so don't look for as many parallels there.

It makes SO MUCH SENSE, because what the hell else was that man with 3-inch-teeth doing in Crozier's cabin at the end of the book? Authors don't drop things like that into books for no reason, especially at the END.


There was someone on Webderland who was also confused by this, but to me it makes perfect sense. It has plenty of bodies to replicate from or use as templates but I think the intelligence has been "seated" in the Norwegian rat brains so long that the fucked up rat-captain at the end was the "best" it could do. There may have been more than one of these sailing the Terror south and these were abandoned or self-cannibalized once their run for freedom was thwarted by the enclosing ice.

Such as: why the attack on the Carnivale, and why weren't there more deaths? Because the men in costumes must have looked like infected men, Things who couldn't quite maintain proper human form, but a taste revealed that they were not, so no more need for a cleansing mission.


Yes! Also why it may have given up on Blankey.

>> Why so few killings at the hands of an unstoppable monster? Because it only has to tag the infected.<<

Yes! It follows them out on the first and subsequent expeditions to King James Island, but it only kills a few when it could have killed SO many given what it did the night of the "bear-blind."

I suspect you're right about Hickey, but not Manson. Because Manson died. But Hickey, Hickey survived at least 10-20 minutes naked on the ice before and after he killed Irving. In April - not August. Longer
than 20 minutes, if he washed off the blood (with what? snow?) before returning to camp rather than afterward, in a tent with co-conspirators.

Consider he was approaching Manson in the ships hold VERY early on. This may have just been a homosexual liason, or Hickey may have been one of the earliest infected. I'd have to re-read the whole novel to pinpoint his infection AND it wouldn't explain why Hickey survived SO LONG since, if I were the bear-god I'd have made a bee-line for Hickey.

And if Hickey had been Thinged, and if Things could infect and animate dead (or at least recently-dead) flesh, Hickey may have been right when he though he could reanimate Manson and the rest of his party.


Agreed entirely. It was this aspect of the god delusion that I felt Simmons was steering us towards as forshadowing and to put us back into the THING -physics mindset.

Are there any scenes in the novel that parallel McCready's heated-pin blood tests in the Carpenter THING? The sled-dogs freaking out at TERROR could be a nod to the dogs in the movie.


I think Simmons has put some thought as to what the dogs do and when they bark but that's another reading. I think looking for point by point Carpenter parallels is a mugs game. I really need to see the old Hawkes/Arness version again. That's where there will be overt nods I suspect.

I don't yet have any idea about:
- why the sixam ieua need to surrender their tongues


I think this is Simmons bending known eskimo mythology to his story. Eskimos not kissing and having a cultural aversion to it. Also, it's not so much that it's the tongue as it is a removal of a body part. This is your final McCready test. Heh heh heh.

Think about who stayed healthy. Think about who avoided amputations.

- how the Thing vessel got to Antarctica for the short story/movies.

Is there more than one?

I think so. I think there are a few things coming out of the sky up and down there in the Hawkes and Campbell stories. If you broaden it to X-files type warring alien civilizations the logic starts to break down. I haven't worked this all out. But I strongly suspect Simmons has.

- why was the Tunbaaq after Peglar? With your idea in mind, would a rereading note where he was infected?

Maybe Peglar. Maybe someone else in the boat.

Another strong possibility is that not everyone was eaten by the Tunbaaq.

Or anyone, for that matter. Their boat could have been capsized by a rotating mini-berg. It's partially described that way. This shit happens up there. At that point the drowned bodies become a prime polar bear feast. And at THAT POINT, the Tunbaaq MUST start killing polar bears to be safe.

Masterful misdirection. The God-bear is our Hero.

- Barney

I'm a big Dan Simmons fan, but at several points during this book, I found myself thinking, "will someone get this man an editor?"

There's a great horror tale in here. Unfortunately it's buried under layers of fat. Ironic, since lengthy descriptions of starvation and scurvy take up so much space in the book.