Book Review: The Terror by Dan Simmons

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.

“We are all eaters of souls.”

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.

Johann

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