Synopsis:
The men on board the HMS Terror — part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage — are entering a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, they struggle to survive with poisonous rations, a dwindling coal supply, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is even more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror clawing to get in.
Review:
Genre is a tricky beast. It’s a worthwhile shortcut for authors and readers alike, a secret shorthand that’s something of a promise between the author and the audience. Read this epic fantasy, and I’ll treat you to an expansive story with world-shattering stakes and deep magic. This military sci-fi will be filled with spaceships and plenty of guns.
Genre is a useful tool, and certainly a fun one to argue and quibble over, but I’ve found that some of my favorite stories of the past few years don’t fit neatly into any major genre. The Terror by Dan Simmons is one of those books. It’s largely an adventure novel and survival story of two ships searching for the Northwest Passage and getting stuck in the ice. Simmons’s research is extensive, and his knowledge of seafaring and the unique difficulties the arctic explorers faced is evident on every page.
There is horror here, too. Elements that don’t fit neatly into the adventure genre but fit this story better than the mittens Simmons’ protagonists wear to protect their hands from nearly instant frostbite. The horror is fitting, for when humanity pushes beyond the edge of its maps, the terror of the unknown lies in wait.
This was a book that hooked me from beginning to end. Simmons jumps across POVs, through time, and into journal entries to give us a complete picture of the stranded vessels and the wide variety of souls that sought a way through the frozen north.
The Terror is perhaps 80% adventure and 20% horror, but the elements of both work in perfect harmony here, and for those that partake of either genre, I’d recommend it in a heartbeat.
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