The Terror: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Dan Simmons (Author)
Key Phrases: dead room, great cabin, open polar sea, Sir John, Captain Crozier, Des Voeux (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Hugo-winner Simmons (Olympos) brings the horrific trials and tribulations of arctic exploration vividly to life in this beautifully written historical, which injects a note of supernatural horror into the 1840s Franklin expedition and its doomed search for the Northwest Passage. Sir John Franklin, the leader of the expedition and captain of the Erebus, is an aging fool. Francis Crozier, his second in command and captain of the Terror, is a competent sailor, but embittered after years of seeing lesser men with better connections given preferment over him. With their two ships quickly trapped in pack ice, their voyage is a disaster from start to finish. Some men perish from disease, others from the cold, still others from botulism traced to tinned food purchased from the lowest bidder. Madness, mutiny and cannibalism follow. And then there's the monstrous creature from the ice, the thing like a polar bear but many times larger, possessed of a dark and vicious intelligence. This complex tale should find many devoted readers and add significantly to Simmons's already considerable reputation. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
Reviewed by David Masiel

The fate of Sir John Franklin's last expedition remains one of the great mysteries of Arctic exploration. What we know, more or less, is this: In the balmy days of May 1845, 129 officers and men aboard two ships -- Erebus and Terror -- departed from England for the Canadian Arctic in search of a Northwest Passage to the Pacific. They were never heard from again. Between 1847 and 1859, Franklin's wife pushed for and funded various relief missions, even as the expectation of finding survivors was replaced by the slim hope for answers.

It's a story perfectly suited for fiction, if only because we have so little else to go on. Dan Simmons's new novel, The Terror, dives headlong into the frozen waters of the Franklin mystery, mixing historical adventure with gothic horror -- a sort of Patrick O'Brian meets Edgar Allan Poe against the backdrop of a J.M.W. Turner icescape. Meticulously researched and brilliantly imagined, The Terror won't satisfy historians or even Franklin buffs, but as a literary hybrid, the novel presents a dramatic and mythic argument for how and why Franklin and his men met their demise.

The book opens well into the middle of things, at the onset of the ships' third winter beset in sea ice. Months after Franklin's own death, his second-in-command is now in charge. Gothic imagery pervades, as "Captain Crozier comes up on deck to find his ship under attack by celestial ghosts." This "attack" turns out to be an artful description of the aurora borealis, though Simmons never tells us that directly. Indeed, the power of his metaphoric language comes from the archetypal superstitions of the crew, who, despite their anchor of Protestant Christianity, are a pagan lot deep down.

But the crew's belief in witches and magic may or may not explain their main fear: a "Thing on the ice" that stalks, beheads, eviscerates and otherwise kills off crewmen one by one. For 200 pages or so, we aren't sure if this beast is a figment of their overactive imaginations, maybe a giant polar bear or a yeti of Northern lore, a monster suggesting the "beastie" of Golding's Lord of the Flies -- the terror within -- or Beowulf's Grendel, not to say Grendel's mother -- a preternatural, evil intelligence bent on destruction.

Faced with mutinous threats, general starvation, intense cold and something wrong with their tinned food supply (scurvy and lead poisoning appear rampant), Crozier provides leadership without arrogance. As the novel's protagonist, he is a man of the people, a realist, unlucky in love. As an Irishman in the British Royal Navy, he has been largely ignored by the Admiralty despite his stoic competence.

By contrast, Franklin represents most of what was wrong in early British Arctic exploration. His prior expeditions had met with minimal success, making him best known in England as "the man who ate his shoes," though given all the other things men ate to stay alive on Arctic expeditions, it's unclear why shoe leather would be singled out for ignominy. Goaded by his very public failings, Franklin retained his penchant for arrogant idealism and wasteful ritual. He brought along fine china and monogrammed silverware, among other "necessities." In the end, his primary mistake is cultural: Out of xenophobia he refuses to adopt local methods of travel, shelter and hunting. Yet to say that Sir John gets his just deserts is unfair if only because 128 others suffer the same fate.

Crozier recognizes the captain's weaknesses, and therein lies the novel's poignant sense of loss. He dispenses shipboard justice out of practical necessity rather than lofty idealism. In their desperate hours, he preaches not from the Bible favored by Franklin but from the "Book of Leviathan" -- his own recitations from Thomas Hobbes, which, among other things, explains the birth of superstition and religion: "There was nothing which a Poet could introduce as a person in his Poem, which [man] did not make into either a God or a Divel." As the novel descends toward its hellish climax, the "Divel" chasing our crew -- that "Thing on the ice" -- transcends its monstrous nature and becomes the manifestation of earthly retribution, wild payback for the hubris of Western civilization.

The vehicle of that transcendence is Lady Silence, a mute Inuit girl who lives on the ship and goes at her own whim, providing a portal to Eskimo mythology and shamanism. Northern spiritual philosophy gives the world -- and this novel -- its ultimate balance, predicting the coming of kabloona ("pale people"), whose arrival brings "drunkenness and despair," melts the sea ice, kills off the white bear and calls forth the "End of Times." While Franklin's men are unable to escape the realities of starvation, brutal cold and the violent urge, Crozier's instinct for survival pushes the novel to its ethereal end.

This mix of historical realism, gothic horror and ancient mythology is a difficult walk on fractured ice, and anyone without Simmons's mastery of narrative craft would have undoubtedly fallen through. Despite its Leviathan length, The Terror proves a compelling read, while making the average meal consumed by the average American seem a precious gift from warm-weather gods.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 784 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (January 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316017442
• ISBN-13: 978-0316017442
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (280 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #88,030 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is by far the best novel of 2007!!!!!, February 1, 2007

By	Wayne C. Rogers (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wow! That's about the only word that comes to mind with regards to Dan Simmons' newest novel, The Terror. Call it a coincidence, but on the day I got the book in the mail from Amazon back around the middle of January, the science show on PBS, Nova, had an hour special on the 1845 Franklin Expedition. I watched it with great interest, wondering how Mr. Simmons was going to add to the tragic story with his novel. When I was able to start the book a few days later (766 pages of small print), it surprisingly took me almost two weeks to finish it, and I'm a fairly fast reader. I'd read each night before going to bed for a couple of hours and end up having bloody nightmares about the Artic, the cold, the sounds inside the ships, and the strange creature lurking out on the ice, patiently waiting for each of the crew members to make a careless mistake so that it could kill them. I don't generally have nightmares, but I did with this book, which shows the utter craftsmanship that was used in its writing. I can happily blame Mr. Simmons for two weeks of restless sleep! Before I move on to a brief synopsis about the story, let me just say that I've been reading the novels of Dan Simmons since the late eighties and the publication of The Song of Kali. Mr. Simmons is one of those unique authors who can write with true excellence in any genre that he chooses--science fiction, horror, suspense, hard-boiled crime, mainstream, and now historical/horror. I've never been disappointed with a novel by Mr. Simmons, and when he sets his mind to it, he can literally scare the living daylights out of you with the written word. Few writers today are capable of doing that to a reader.

The Terror deals with the two ships and 126-man expedition into the Artic Circle region in 1845 by Sir John Franklin, who hoped to find the infamous Northwest Passage. In September of 1845, the two ships (H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror) found themselves trapped in a pack of crushing ice with no visible escape in sight. There was no worry at that time since both ships were heavily loaded with coal for heat, canned goods and salt pork for food, and the belief that the ice would eventually thaw and allow them to search for the waterway that would carry them to Alaska and then Russia. That wasn't to be. The ice never thawed, and the ships and men were trapped for three incredibly long years with dwindling supplies, poisonous canned food, the illness of scurvy takings its toll, and the freezing temperatures that averaged -50 Below Zero and colder. But, that wasn't the worse of it by far. Something roamed the ice that was both vicious and cunningly intelligent, and it had a distinct taste for human flesh. This uncanny creature began to slowly kill the members of the expedition one and two at a time, including the Commander of the crew, Sir John Franklin. When the Commander is killed, the duty of saving the remaining men falls onto the shoulders of Captains James Fitzjames and Francis Crozier, but it's Crozier who takes the lead, having a strong instinct for survival and an intrinsic authority for leading men. The only way to escape their perilous predicament is to walk back out the way they'd come, across hundreds of miles of frozen ice while being stalked by something that doesn't want them to get away.

As the Nova television show explained, as well as previous non-fiction books and records, no one from the expedition was ever seen again. But, what happened to everyone? This is what Dan Simmons tries to convey with his stark imagination and monstrous size novel. He gives his version of what might have happened to the 126 men of the Franklin Expedition, and it isn't a pretty one. Though I'm aware of the tremendous amount of research that Mr. Simmons had to do in order to write this novel, the book is so damn good and detailed oriented that it's like he was actually there himself. I could feel the unbelievable cold to my bones, the hunger and weariness of the men, the pungent smells and the hundreds of strange sounds below deck on both vessels, and the utter terror that was out on the ice just waiting for its chance. This novel is so well written that it should win every award that's out there, not to mention hitting the New York Times Bestseller list. I'm not kidding, either. This should at least win the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award for 2007. During the course of reading The Terror, you will be there in the Artic Circle experiencing the same trials and tribulations as the rest of the expedition. You'll know what it's like to be hunted, yet never knowing from what direction the attack will come or when. You'll slowly come away with a clearer understanding of what it truly means to be afraid. As an example, there's one scene where the mysterious and deadly creature gets below deck on the Erebus and hunts the members of its crew through the pitch-black darkness with screams of terror ringing out from every direction. Mr. Simmons captures the atmosphere and sense of desolation perfectly. He brings all of the characters to life. There's going to be those you care for and those you hate with a grim passion. Captain Francis Crozier, of course, is the hero of the expedition, but even he isn't prepared for the frightening challenges that face both him and his men. The Terror is certainly movie material. All through the novel, I kept seeing the British actor, Clive Owen, as Francis Crozier. If I were Dan Simmons, I'd have my agent send Mr. Owen's agent a copy of the book. Who knows what may happen. The Terror by Dan Simmons is by far the best novel of 2007 and is highly recommended to those who love vividly written stories with a strong dose of horror thrown in for good measure.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be prepared to be truly terrified and awed by this incredible novel , January 26, 2008

By	Lilly Flora "by Lilo Drandoff" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Terror: A Novel (Paperback)

One of the things I love most about historical fiction, and history, is creation myths and the impact they have upon their culture's religion and social ideas policies. Knowing a creation myth can give you the outlook on life for an entire culture. For instance, Greeks believe that first there was chaos and out of it came love and then the world, the sky, the gods and finally animals and people. Eskimos believe something entirely different and it says much about their culture and way of life.

Now you may be asking what Eskimo creation myths have to do with a historical novel about an expedition to find the Northwest Passage which was never seen from again. The answer is quite a lot really. I won't give it away but keep in mind that the author of this novel, Dan Simmons is known mostly for his science fiction and fantasy work. Keeping with that genera, though this book is definitely historical fiction, it has heavy mystical influences and a great deal to do with the creation myths of the people who habitat the cold land near the article circle.

"The Terror" is based on real people and real events-to an extent. There was an exploratory expedition headed up by Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage and the two ships were named "The Erebus" and "The Terror" and they did disappear never to be seen from again. However the events of this book are all fiction.

When we begin the story the two ships have been trapped in the ice, immobile for two years. Their food supplies are running down, and their coal, and their moral. A mysterious Eskimo woman with no speech is living with them, feared by many of the men as a witch. On top of that, a creature-seemingly a polar bear but much larger, faster, smarter and meaner than any bear could be, is stalking the members of the crew, picking them off one by one and clawing to get into the ships....

Sounds creepy doesn't it? It is, very creepy. Like reading this book at night all alone in the dark makes you think a polar bear is out to get you creepy.

It's also extremely well written and very atmospheric. I had worried at first about reading a book about a group of guys stuck all alone for two years (I admit-most books I read are about women by women) but there is not one boring page in this entire book. The atmosphere is too good. You can really feel the increasing fear and desperation of the sailors-the fear about never getting home, their hunger, their increasing madness and their complete terror of that thing on the ice. Oddly enough, though the bear is a source of terror and horror in the book, the most horrifying part of the whole novel for me was when the men started to turn to murder and cannibalism, maybe because it inspired a more rational kind of fear on my part.

One thing about this book that was kind of off-the narrative rotates around from several different crewmen, including the captain of "The Terror" Crozier, who has more chapters than anyone else. In the beginning, his chapters are all in the present tense and are the only parts of the book that are written so, but later they change to past tense and then present again. I have no idea what this means since it doesn't seem to have anything to do with his state of mind or hope about escaping the ice but I seriously doubt it was just a thing that got past the editor. I think this author is very deliberate in what he does so if anyone can tell me what this change in tense means I would appreciate it.

I do recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction, nautical fiction, horror or mythical fiction. That's a pretty broad group so basically there is something for everyone in this novel. And my little speech about creation myths will make sense in the end.

Five stars.

117 of 133 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be Prepared, January 15, 2007

By	J. Brian Watkins (San Dimas, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Staggering. This book is a litany of failure and not so subtly the failure of western civilization itself; however, there is a surprisingly redemptive streak running throughout. Simmons is a tremendous author, capable of producing masterworks in any genre of his choosing and he is at the top of his powers in this work, which though ostensibly historical fiction owes a debt to mystery, biography, horror, and science-fiction with liberal doses of Shakespeare, sociology and philosophy.

More than a retelling of the Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage, "Terror" is the story of Captain Francis Crozier who commands HMS Terror. Crozier has to overcome bad food, poor leadership, even poorer subordinates, mutinous sailors, cold, scurvy and a Monster, in order to reconcile himself with the future that he has seen but fails to understand. Strangely the journey through this dark and 750 plus page novel is ultimately reaffirming and as voiced by a character late in the novel, salvation was always waiting for Crozier who just had to make his choice.

Though ostensibly about failure, this book summarizes the triumph of man over adversity. Though ostensibly about discovery, the book details the tragedy of men dying needlessly within reach of the very survival skills they refused to seek much less adopt. This duality of themes gives great weight to the story; indeed, Simmons quotes liberally from Hobbes, Shakespeare, Homer, Poe and probably several others that I missed. And for fear of spoiling the read, suffice it to say that the author's erudition serves his purpose of rendering the tale disturbingly modern. It is a cautionary tale and in his wisdom, Simmons leaves us to determine what we take from it.