Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - The Terror

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Terror by Dan Simmons

43 reviews

chungledown_bim's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Watched the miniseries, gushed about it to a work colleague who said to try the book because it was even better. I didn't believe them but I'm glad I picked The Terror up anyway- what a book! The unstoppable force of colonial/capitalistic hubris vs the immovable object of the primordial inevitability of nature.

Feel like the author did well to describe the racism, homophobia, classism, toxic masculinity, sexism, & general fuckery of the time without participating in it. Usually you'd see the descriptor 'historical' & assume this means whoever wrote it is excited to drop the N word. Not so much here but all these concepts are as present as the arctic cold.

...I say that but Silence does seem to

'<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/breasted-boobily">'breast boobily'</a> at times & end up as a trophy

.

It's long, but I was engaged the entire time, despite this not at all being the sort of thing I'm into. I really enjoyed falling into a rabbit hole by searching up the Franklin expedition & Inuit mythology afterward.

The ending

was a little disappointing. I mean, I loved reading about the process of Crozier surrendering but I wanted something to chew his face off. Get bent, British Empire, you don't belong there

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nyxlikesbook's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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anjalirenee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

slow paced is an understatement please heed my warning. the pace picks up mmmmm around page 350 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). pretty good although TONS of unnecessary detail about the minutae of ice formations, ship layouts, and wayfinding.

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perfectcupoftea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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szu's review against another edition

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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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