Reviews

The Terror, by Dan Simmons

goddess_of_gore_vix's review against another edition

5.0

This book is huge and daunting. But this book is also so chilling and filled with perpetual darkness, ice and snow. Greasy, filthy, stinking descriptions, it was easy to find myself a crew member aboard the Terror, slowly being poisoned and starving with the crew. Despicable crew members (Hickey is the absolute worst) blindly trying to find a way back to civilization. The fact that this book is written in 2007 is crazy because for the whole book I was easily taken back to the end of the 19th century. Dan Simmons is a fantastic epic storyteller. If you think this book is too big I tell you NO - it's a big terrible story that you need to hear.

neko123uchiha's review against another edition

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

5.0

jant8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

thissydknits's review against another edition

I had such high hopes. I love the setting of the story and the idea of the monster but I just can't handle the racism. It is beyond gratuitous. I can't see past how the Indigenous characters are talked about. You can't tell me that the racism is period-relevant. There are ways to write racist characters without referring to indigenous people solely using slurs and insults. In the end no matter how much I liked the plot I couldn't get past how unsafe the author makes me feel. I would even get into the fact that the WHITE author invented his own Inuit folklore inspired monster... Just watch the TV series, it is much better and far less racist and homophobic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual harassment

pad9's review against another edition

5.0

This was a very good book. It almost made me sick to my stomach with all the pain they went through. Sometimes I actually wished they would all die and be spared the hell on the ice. Now, the only thing that seems odd to me is that with all the research that went into the making of this novel, it was so short. Granted, 700 plus pages is long enough, it left so much info out.

daviana's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

_pickle_'s review against another edition

4.0

A very enjoyable book, let down only by the ending which feels like a cross between a Wikipedia page of Inuit mythology and a bad livejournal fantasy story. I liked so much of this book, the feeling and mood, the way it captured an artic hell, the characters and the desperate quest to survive. For the most part I liked the terrible monster that haunted the men, although in some way it felt underdeveloped and not totally compelling. That said the monster was the cause of some suspenseful scary moments.

It is the old the ending, the last 70 or so pages, that let down the book. Throughout the book I was trying to imagine how it would end, and I'm sad to say that while I didn't think of this, I was not happy to see it. I think Simmons should have went back to the drawing board.

If you liked rich thick books with exciting and dramatic plots, generally well told, then then this is for you.

mindysbookjourney's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

5.0

jennapfingsten's review against another edition

3.0

This book was way too long by at least 300 pages. Would have been 2 stars, but the last 25% sucked me in and I couldn’t put it down. And then the last 10% was a 180 from the rest of the book

gwengwyn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.5