Reviews

The Terror by Dan Simmons

lexbox's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

youngthespian42's review against another edition

2.0

This book is simply too ambitious for me. In a review of Ship of Magic Mike’s book review described he likes treasure island nautical books but not Moby Dick. The terror has so much Movey Dick. I cannot read about coal use burn rate any more. I don’t see me passing on this forever but not a something for me right now and not on audio. DNF

tommi's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

szu's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

If it wasn't for Dan Simmons' compulsion to turn almost any appearance of a female character into something sexual, this could be a good book. As it stands, his clumsy, hamfisted attempts at bad pulp erotica crop up precisely at moments where they manage to ruin the story and cheapen any great writing that may have preceded them.

The idea of an ancient beast prowling after wasteful colonists on their fools' errand of an expedition, leading them to their desperate deaths in the barren polar wilderness they stupidly thought they could conquer is delightful, and to pose this on the mysterious Franklin expedition we still know so little of was a good idea, but undeniably would've been better left in the hands of a more capable writer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Death, and Gore

clockwork118's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

3.5

cyroh's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

beevimes's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

whimsicalmeerkat's review against another edition

4.0

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that this book would have waited from being finished in February to being reviewed in July even had my year not been inhumanely busy. Despite the disgustingly hot weather, I have goose bumps thinking about it.

[b:The Terror|3974|The Terror|Dan Simmons|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165368437s/3974.jpg|3025639] is taken from the name one half of a pair of ships sent on an Arctic expedition at some point when reinforcement technology for ice breaking ships still involved the types of wood used in conjunction with some iron. Near the beginning a character thinks to himself that the number of awards given to the returning commanders of these expeditions seems to be higher the more lives are lost. I'm inclined to agree.

This book was dark, dirty, and above all cold. To steal from the inimitable karen's review, "oh my god, let me never get scurvy." There are many things I could add to that list. I have no idea how realistic it may be, but the descriptions of the conditions experienced by the people on those ships make me wish I could forget hearing them.

Sadly, I feel the same way about much of the element of this book that throws it into the fantasy heap. It somehow went from a scary thing that could have been made frightening to a rather campy and eventually lame rehashing of a mythology that I suspect is nowhere near as simplistic as it seems. The last 10 or so chapters could have been left off the book. More HMS Terror and less of the Terror would have made this a far better book.

heartland_hermit427983's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

clameron's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

5.0