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The Terror

A Novel

By Dan Simmons

(45)

| Hardcover | 9780316017442

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Book Description

The bestselling author of Ilium and Olympos transforms the true story of a legendary Arctic expedition into a thriller worthy of Stephen King or Patrick O'Brian.

Their captain's insane vision of a Northwest Passage has kept the crewmen of The Terror trapped in Arctic ice for two years withouContinue

Critics

Ice Men

Writing fiction isn’t an activity for the faint-hearted, and anyone who has managed, as Dan Simmons has, to generate two dozen books (in an impressive variety of genres) in just 22 years clearly deserves credit for discipline, diligence, resolve and, ... (read full critics)

nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

The Terror

We look to novels for different types of experiences. Some novels we read to enjoy a fast-paced adventure. Still others lure us with immersive depictions of worlds, times or places unfamiliar to us. Others offer readers glimpses of the imaginary, sna ... (read full critics)

bookotron published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

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5 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

Fascinating!

The Terror is a fascinating historical fiction about the doomed Franklin Expedition. It's a slow and chilling story about how the struggle for survival brings out the best and worst of human beings. If the book has a fault, it is that sometimes you give up hope.

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noebierzo said on Mar 6, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

A wonderful book, you can hear the ice creaking around the trapped ships. Simmons imaginations what life was like on the Arctic ice field and the creature that terrorises the Terror lives long in the mind after you put the book down, as does Francis Crozier's fate. As well as a superb novel the boo ... (continue)

A wonderful book, you can hear the ice creaking around the trapped ships. Simmons imaginations what life was like on the Arctic ice field and the creature that terrorises the Terror lives long in the mind after you put the book down, as does Francis Crozier's fate. As well as a superb novel the book makes you want to find out more about the explorer's - living 60 miles from Crozier's birthplace, I knew nothing of him until this book. I've read it and listened to John Lee's atmospheric audiobook reading.

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Alan Taylor said on Jun 13, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

If I could I'd rank it as 3.5 stars. It was reverting from the beginning until maybe 3/4 through. After that, especially the incessant references to The Terror on the ice, gets wearisome. The 700+ pages could do with at least 50 less. This is more fantastical fiction than historical dramatization. T ... (continue)

If I could I'd rank it as 3.5 stars. It was reverting from the beginning until maybe 3/4 through. After that, especially the incessant references to The Terror on the ice, gets wearisome. The 700+ pages could do with at least 50 less. This is more fantastical fiction than historical dramatization. To give it credit, the novel piqued my interest enough to move on to nonfiction accounts. But I agree with Franklin researcher Russell Potter that this is "the heaping of the impossible on top of the improbable".

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opensecrets said on Nov 27, 2010 | Add your feedback

Brilliant

This is based on a true expedition to find the Northwest Passage. The two expedition ships HMS Erebus and Terror vanished almost without trace. This book is a wonderful exercise in what if.
An author has to be very competent to demand a reader's attention for more than 500 pages. For more than 700 t ... (continue)

This is based on a true expedition to find the Northwest Passage. The two expedition ships HMS Erebus and Terror vanished almost without trace. This book is a wonderful exercise in what if.
An author has to be very competent to demand a reader's attention for more than 500 pages. For more than 700 they have to be amazing. This is a brilliant book. Creepy, menacing, atmospheric and well-researched, with some wonderfully human characters, but weirdly unworldly in places which means I"m going to have to re-read it again at some point.
One small complaint. I'm curious to know what happened to a group of minor characters who simply walk off about 150 pages before the end, never to be mentioned again. The lack of information about what happens to them is a bit distracting.

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Athene1710 said on Jul 13, 2010 | Add your feedback