|
Loading... The Terrorby Dan Simmons
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
Loading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I loved the first 500 pages or so, but then Simmons started getting freaky with the supernatural and it fell apart for me. It wasn't the supernatural element that I disliked; it was that the tone of the novel changed and read, to me, like an entirely different book. The ending really drained the delicious tension from the beginning of the book, and it ended -- for me -- on a rather eh note. (  ) daykeeper | Feb 5, 2010 |  Decent...but suffers from meandering plot and word-bloat. Simmons in his pretentious mode. Earlier Simmons is recommended over this. Try "Song of Kali". (  ) jengel | Jan 18, 2010 | In 1845, the HMS Terror and its sister ship, the Erebus, sailed off from England to explore the Arctic Ocean and never came back. The story, based on the few remaining bits of evidence of what happened to them, is pretty horrific, but still very interesting. The men have to battle for survival against subzero temperatures, crappy 1840s technology (especially the new and not-quite-perfected technology of canned food), starvation, and each other. Above all, there's the monster they refer to as "the thing on the ice", which may be a freakishly large polar bear, or something much, much worse. The book is very long (956 pages) but worth it. Reading it in the middle of January probably helped a lot. One warning/mini-spoiler - the book takes a very odd turn near the end, so much so that the last hundred pages or so feels like an entirely different book in some ways. (  ) drewandlori | Jan 15, 2010 | Dan Simmons' monstrosity of a book took me months to read (granted, I don't have unlimited free time on my hands), but was well worth the time and effort. Simmons re-imagines the story of the Franklin expeditions to the arctic north, combining factual history (the ships Terror and Erebus did, in fact, get stuck in the ice and the men all slowly died of starvation and scurvy) and supernatural horror. In Simmons' telling, the men on the ships are stalked by a terrifying "Thing" on the ice--a monster similar to a polar bear, only twice as large and much more intelligent and deadly. This combination of real terror and supernatural terror make for a gripping story that both frightens and fascinates the reader. ( )1  ChicGeekGirl21 | Dec 16, 2009 | A brilliant and complex novel, historical fantasy based on the final exhibition of Sir John Franklin to the Artic. Told through the eyes of a number of the crew, it describes their doomed journey.The title hints at the horror they face; the name of one of their trappedd ships; the behaviour that human's can show; and of a supernatural or mythic monster that stalks and kills them. There are hints of The Thing and possibly of Frankstein. It is a long read, but really worth it! The historical research is excellent - and the novel bears arelationship with the same author's Drood, ( )1 Jennifertapir | Nov 28, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
References to this work on external resources.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Book description |
|
Their captain's insane vision of a Northwest Passage has kept the crewmen of The Terror trapped in Arctic ice for two years without a thaw. But the real threat to their survival isn't the ever-shifting landscape of white, the provisions that have turned to poison before they open them, or the ship slowly buckling in the grip of the frozen ocean. The real threat is whatever is out in the frigid darkness, stalking their ship, snatching one seaman at a time or whole crews, leaving bodies mangled horribly or missing forever.
Captain Crozier takes over the expedition after the creature kills its original leader, Sir John Franklin. Drawing equally on his own strengths as a seaman and the mystical beliefs of the Eskimo woman he's rescued, Crozier sets a course on foot out of the Arctic and away from the insatiable beast. But every day the dwindling crew becomes more deranged and mutinous, until Crozier begins to fear there is no escape from an ever-more-inconceivable nightmare.
(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:41:04 -0500)
The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.
Quick Links |
Wikipedia in English (3)
