The Terror: A Novel

I've been waiting for years for this in unabridged format. Dan Simmons tells a gripping story of courage and perseverance amongst the crews of HMS Erebus and Terror. Fascinating historical detail mixed with all kinds of horror. One of my all-time favorites expertly narrated by Tom Sellwood.

This is an interesting concept for a story - take a real life adventure discovery event and wrap it up in a horror story with a relentless monster. But relentless has become the operative word for me. This book is relentlessly dreary and hopeless. Two doomed crews stuck in the ice while S L O W L Y starving to death, S L O W L Y freezing to death; plagued by scurvy and some demon creature determined to slaughter every member of the crews over a L O N G L O N G period of time. The sense of foreboding and hopelessness really started to mess with my day to day attitude and by the time they abandoned ship while dying one by one of scurvy I just couldn't take it anymore.

Of course, I'd kind of like to know how it all turned out. In real life the entire mission was lost in the ice - interestingly only to be discovered fairly recently. And I would like to know who or what the monster was and his unusual relationship with Silence. At first I thought that perhaps she was one of the Harry Potter animagus, but after a few telling scenes it seems to have turned out not to be the case. A lot of people seem to love this story and I can't blame them. Simmons is a popular writer and I admire most of his work. The narration was superb, but I have to listen to something a bit more uplifting after being immersed within this doleful morass. I think I have the biography of Ghengis Khan up next. I can hardly wait. It has to be better than this one.

This book left me with one of those feelings I can't describe, but breathing deeply in and out seemed to help, and at one point in the book I had to stop listening and have a little cry and my heart felt fluttery. I did get lost in some of the story, mainly the characters and their flashbacks to keep up with. And there is lots and lots and LOTS of ice...and the author sometimes would start in on these long, endless explanations, which would usually get on my nerves, but I think it helped in this case. It helps you feel what the characters are going through. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere in freezing cold weather and trying not to go crazy. Although some characters didn't care about their sanity and even thought of themselves as beyond mere mortals.

And the mystical side of the story was interesting and kept me wondering what was going on. What is this thing that terrorizes the land and who is this girl that keeps appearing and reappearing and what do they both have to do with the relative plot of the story. Which you do eventually find out.

The performance was amazing. So many voices to keep up with and all the different accents. Job well done. I would usually re-listen to books I find a work of art, but this one does take alot of attention and can be hard at times to understand so I will have to warm up my brain for another go.

Probably. It's so detailed in so many areas of arctic exploration, survival and Inuit folklore, there's probably a few things I might've missed first time around.

The storytelling was amazing, and the narrator was first class!

Without a doubt, the Captain of The Terror, although the book is filled with fully fleshed-out characters, I thought he was the central figure in the story.

Searching for a northwest passage to the Pacific through the Arctic Ice, a 2-ship British Exploratory expedition faces challenges and hardships that tax the endurance and will of the officers and crews who must survive not only the incredibly harsh cold of the Arctic, but also the terrible wraith-like creature that stalks the men of both ships at will.

My only problem with the book centers around the delving (around chapter 62) into detailed ancient lore of the Inuit people, including a great deal of Inuit language descriptions of objects, etc., that bore no real addition to the story, beyond providing a short education into Inuit folklore. I must commend the narrator though, on what sounded like very knowledgeable pronunciations of the many Inuit words that filled the last couple of chapters. It sounds like a very difficult language to learn.

I enjoy this story so much that I have read the ebook for two summers in a row and the audiobook this summer. I love the dark and stark polar setting where this story is played out. Dan Simmons' writing style is smooth, descriptive and gives this tale the kind of ambience that carries the reader right into the world of these polar explorers. Simmons' characters are very well created and each unique personality makes them seem real. Based upon an actual expedition, the author has provided a well researched mesh to support the imagined account of how the ships, Terror and Erebus and all hands disappeared while trying to discover the Northwest Passage.

The performance could not have been better and it definitely enhanced the somber ambience of the story.

It's a long book but it keeps moving and the way the story is wrapped up is thorough and complete. While the story is not a documentary of the failed discovery service exploration its a good mix of fiction and fact.

This is the best and most literate (or literary) horror novel in years. Simmons creates an eerie atmosphere delicious sense of dread in this tale about a 19th-century Arctic expedition that gets stuck in the ice with no hope of rescue. Starvation, disease, subzero temperatures, and ravenous polar bears claim the men as they try to survive in the unforgiving environment, but there is something even worse stalking them. The gradually unfolding mystery surrounding this demonic presence is what drives the narrative and makes the book such a compelling read/listen.

The story is partly based on the 1846 Franklin expedition, in which two ships (the Erebus and the Terror) went to the Arctic seeking a Northwest Passage, only to become lost and never heard from again. Simmons speculates on what might have happened to the crews and their commanders. Years of research must have gone into this; the knowledge of 19th-century maritime life, as well as the details of the Franklin expedition, is quite impressive.

The perfect book to read/listen to by the fireside on cold winter nights.

I loved this story. For evermore, the phrase, it reminded me of "The Terror" will pique my interest, and inflame my curiosity!

There was one particular part that I skipped. I did. And in a way, it's a credit to Mr. Simmons, but still, the scenario rendered that portion unreadable for me.

Other than that, this book was perfect!

Great narration and the story started out good but it's long and then it began to drag. Truly there were some terrifying and haunting moments. I WAS invested in the very well developed characters so I rode it out. Then somewhere around the 17th hour there was some shouting in different accents that sounded more cartoonish than dramatic and I realized I didn't know what was going on because I'd just completely tuned out. This plus the boredome just made me resentful and I stopped listening. It's not that I can't listen to long books but I dunno... I couldn't stay with this one.

Für mich hätte ein kleines bisschen weniger Fantasy die Geschichte eher auf- als abgewertet. Insgesamt aber unterhaltend und sehr angenehm gesprochen. Dank google maps weiss ich jetzt auch wo Crozier und seine Mannen waren.