marleymut's review against another edition
4.5
Thoughts and emotions were all over the place with this book. Not sure I read a book that effected me as much as this book. Loved it after all the ups and downs.
jcpdiesel21's review against another edition
3.0
Two years ago, when it first premiered on AMC, I tuned into the TV adaptation of this book, thinking that it sounded incredibly intriguing and would make for a good watch. I lasted three episodes before throwing in the towel mostly out of boredom, figuring that the source material was likely stronger and more cohesive. Upon finishing the audiobook, I had a very similar experience, but this time managed to soldier through to the very end. The premise of the story is compelling, as is the mix of history and fantasy, yet Simmons doesn't quite pull it off in a satisfying manner. Although there are moments of genuine terror, these are buried amidst dull historical minutae and endless accounts of scurvy symptoms as well as characters who are rather difficult to root for. When the plot moves away from the monster and instead focuses on the horrific actions of some of the men during the third act is where my interest peaked; the book unfortunately peters out at the end. I'm glad that I finally satisfied my curiosity with this story, but it should have been a shorter, less frustrating read.
durbeyfield's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
adrizeuza's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
This is probably my most disappointing read of the year. I had somewhat high expectations for this book, since I tend to enjoy slow paced novels and am obsessed with exploration disasters and The Terror tv series. The biggest saving grace of this audiobook was the narrator, if not for him I would have definitely DNF'd this 4 hours in. The middle 10h were a painful sludge. Around the 22h mark it finally began to pick up. I had to listen to this on 2x speed. I was expecting to feel the dread of the crew intensify as the book progressed, but the repetitiveness of the dialogues and of the descriptions completely ruined the tension building for me.
Whilst I was listening to this LONG audiobook, all I kept thinking about was how good the tv show was. How good the adaptation decisions were. And how ?? Dan Simmon's decisions in writing The Terror were in comparison. I lost count of how many times the question "... why?" popped into my head.
Geniunely cannot understand how nobody edited this down to a 400 page book. There was no reason for this to be so long. Crozier's POVs were extremely repetitive and not that interesting after a while, most other POV's did not do much to advance either the plot or our understanding of the ships' or characters' dynamis. So... why??? Even some scenes where there was supposed to be tension were completely dried out due to the dragged out descriptions the author made. Also, shout out to the cringiest sex scenes and sexual descriptions I have EVER read in my life.
Dan Simmons clearly knows how to write. And he researched the hell out of the Franklin Expedition. But my biggest grip with this book comes down to the choices he made. The reviews about women's poor treatment are real. I cannot stress enough about how poorly and superficially women are portrayed. Especially Lady Silence, and all Inuit women who show up, are so grossly objectified BY THE NARRATOR. Another choice I have a massive problem with is that with SUCH A LONG BOOK how is there not ONE POV of an Inuit character, namely Lady Silence who is one of the driving forces of the plot?? Don't even get me started on the end of her arc.
Anyway. I can't wait to rewatch the show!
Whilst I was listening to this LONG audiobook, all I kept thinking about was how good the tv show was. How good the adaptation decisions were. And how ?? Dan Simmon's decisions in writing The Terror were in comparison. I lost count of how many times the question "... why?" popped into my head.
Geniunely cannot understand how nobody edited this down to a 400 page book. There was no reason for this to be so long. Crozier's POVs were extremely repetitive and not that interesting after a while, most other POV's did not do much to advance either the plot or our understanding of the ships' or characters' dynamis. So... why??? Even some scenes where there was supposed to be tension were completely dried out due to the dragged out descriptions the author made. Also, shout out to the cringiest sex scenes and sexual descriptions I have EVER read in my life.
Dan Simmons clearly knows how to write. And he researched the hell out of the Franklin Expedition. But my biggest grip with this book comes down to the choices he made. The reviews about women's poor treatment are real. I cannot stress enough about how poorly and superficially women are portrayed. Especially Lady Silence, and all Inuit women who show up, are so grossly objectified BY THE NARRATOR. Another choice I have a massive problem with is that with SUCH A LONG BOOK how is there not ONE POV of an Inuit character, namely Lady Silence who is one of the driving forces of the plot?? Don't even get me started on the end of her arc.
Spoiler
Why would she f*** and basically marry + have children with an old rude white coloniser riddled with diseases after 700 pages of not indicating that she gave a damn about him??Anyway. I can't wait to rewatch the show!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Sexism
Moderate: Cannibalism, Classism, Gore, Racial slurs, and Sexual content
litteratur's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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? Yes
4.5
Ich würde hiernach auch für Captain Crozier ins Eis gehen!
Auf einer wahren Tragödie basierender
Abenteuerroman mit mystischen Elementen, der mich 700 Seiten komplett mitgerissen und emotional ausgewrungen hat.
Als die Geschichte 80 Seiten vor Schluss dann die realen Spuren der Franklin Expedition verließ, war ich allerdings emotional raus. Schade.
Sicher nichts für jeden, da die Abläufe auf See wirklich lang und breit erzählt werden, zudem wirkt es beinahe satirisch, wie jede Erwähnung von weiblichen Charakteren in die Sparte "she breasted boobily" passt. Ich hab es trotzdem verschlungen, als wäre es ein Stück Robbenspeck im Winter 1847/48.
Auf einer wahren Tragödie basierender
Abenteuerroman mit mystischen Elementen, der mich 700 Seiten komplett mitgerissen und emotional ausgewrungen hat.
Als die Geschichte 80 Seiten vor Schluss dann die realen Spuren der Franklin Expedition verließ, war ich allerdings emotional raus. Schade.
Sicher nichts für jeden, da die Abläufe auf See wirklich lang und breit erzählt werden, zudem wirkt es beinahe satirisch, wie jede Erwähnung von weiblichen Charakteren in die Sparte "she breasted boobily" passt. Ich hab es trotzdem verschlungen, als wäre es ein Stück Robbenspeck im Winter 1847/48.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
raechel's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
3.0
I'm so mad at this book. I'm writing this review and genuinely don't know how to rate it.
The doomed Franklin expedition is my hyperfixation. I love a good maritime disaster and horror is my favorite genre. This should have been the perfect storm for me. And.. sometimes it is. And sometimes it isn't.
<b>The good:</b> It's very clear that Simmons spent a long time researching the Franklin expedition and took a lot of care to weave in the real men on board and learn some of their histories. I learned a lot about ships and different words for ice formations just how unrelenting and unforgiving the cold can be. I loved reading how Simmons included real facts about the expedition into the story. Reading the addition to the note in the cairn was so interesting.
Some reviewers have expressed the idea that they think this book is too long. It's definitely a doorstopper, and while I usually don't read books this long, I think a story like this HAS to be a bit of a slog. It's like a reflection of the endless dark and the years on the ice and the uncaring north. All you can do is continue on. Then you get these amazing moments of the monster, the terror (not the ship) attacking and <i>taunting</i> these men. There's an intelligence to this beast and it's horrifying.
<b>The bad:</b> Where do I start. With the treatment of women? Of which we see, technically, three. But one doesn't really count because she's old. The most we hear about women are the two teenage native girls and their big ol' sweaty boobies.
That's right everyone, one of the women (who literally can't speak because why would she need to) is constantly getting her (often) bare breasts oogled by these men on the ship. Lady Silence is always lounging around on furs with them gazongas just hanging out. And she lets you! It's totally cool. And, as many characters point out, you can't tell how old these native girls are anyway so it's probably fine. And according to Franklin's inner dialog, these treacherous native women are always trying to steer these good British men astray with their evil sexuality. It's not because these literal teenage girls may feel they HAVE to align themselves with one man when literally dozens of armed white men show up.
The other (teenage) native girl we see? Her name is Boobs. Sorry, that was crude. I mean, her name is Big Tits. And just to make sure we know that's her name, a dude pulls her jacket up so we can all see them jubblies bouncing around in the cold air. What a cool author Simmons is to talk about teenage girl boobs every other chapter in this behemoth book. Literally in the SECOND TO LAST PAGE of the novel we hear that Miss Big Tits and her parka puppies are doing just fine. Thank god.
Also, Lady Silence, she of the Sweaty Boobs Who Also Sexes Up A Snow Monster, is totally into this 50+ year old white man and does the dirty with him. She doesn't care that he hasn't bathed in years and has scurvy and doesn't speak her language. She's down to sex up an old white dude and this totally isn't Dan Simmons writing in some wishful thinking.
What else is bad... well, we have two gay couples. That's progress right? Except one gay could are the Evil Gays, you know because they have gay sex. The other gay couple are the Good Gays because they don't have sex as that's against the rules. It's definitely not a reflection of Dan Simmons. Now let's get back to "accidentally" walking in on topless teenage girls lounging around, amirite guys??
Hahahaha I still don't know how to rate this book. Why do authors do this. 5 Stars for the historical horror, 1 star for anything else in this book.
The doomed Franklin expedition is my hyperfixation. I love a good maritime disaster and horror is my favorite genre. This should have been the perfect storm for me. And.. sometimes it is. And sometimes it isn't.
<b>The good:</b> It's very clear that Simmons spent a long time researching the Franklin expedition and took a lot of care to weave in the real men on board and learn some of their histories. I learned a lot about ships and different words for ice formations just how unrelenting and unforgiving the cold can be. I loved reading how Simmons included real facts about the expedition into the story. Reading the addition to the note in the cairn was so interesting.
Some reviewers have expressed the idea that they think this book is too long. It's definitely a doorstopper, and while I usually don't read books this long, I think a story like this HAS to be a bit of a slog. It's like a reflection of the endless dark and the years on the ice and the uncaring north. All you can do is continue on. Then you get these amazing moments of the monster, the terror (not the ship) attacking and <i>taunting</i> these men. There's an intelligence to this beast and it's horrifying.
<b>The bad:</b> Where do I start. With the treatment of women? Of which we see, technically, three. But one doesn't really count because she's old. The most we hear about women are the two teenage native girls and their big ol' sweaty boobies.
That's right everyone, one of the women (who literally can't speak because why would she need to) is constantly getting her (often) bare breasts oogled by these men on the ship. Lady Silence is always lounging around on furs with them gazongas just hanging out. And she lets you! It's totally cool. And, as many characters point out, you can't tell how old these native girls are anyway so it's probably fine. And according to Franklin's inner dialog, these treacherous native women are always trying to steer these good British men astray with their evil sexuality. It's not because these literal teenage girls may feel they HAVE to align themselves with one man when literally dozens of armed white men show up.
The other (teenage) native girl we see? Her name is Boobs. Sorry, that was crude. I mean, her name is Big Tits. And just to make sure we know that's her name, a dude pulls her jacket up so we can all see them jubblies bouncing around in the cold air. What a cool author Simmons is to talk about teenage girl boobs every other chapter in this behemoth book. Literally in the SECOND TO LAST PAGE of the novel we hear that Miss Big Tits and her parka puppies are doing just fine. Thank god.
Also, Lady Silence, she of the Sweaty Boobs Who Also Sexes Up A Snow Monster, is totally into this 50+ year old white man and does the dirty with him. She doesn't care that he hasn't bathed in years and has scurvy and doesn't speak her language. She's down to sex up an old white dude and this totally isn't Dan Simmons writing in some wishful thinking.
What else is bad... well, we have two gay couples. That's progress right? Except one gay could are the Evil Gays, you know because they have gay sex. The other gay couple are the Good Gays because they don't have sex as that's against the rules. It's definitely not a reflection of Dan Simmons. Now let's get back to "accidentally" walking in on topless teenage girls lounging around, amirite guys??
Hahahaha I still don't know how to rate this book. Why do authors do this. 5 Stars for the historical horror, 1 star for anything else in this book.
danimcrobbie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ashp208's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0