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A review by penguin_emperor_of_the_north
The Terror by Dan Simmons
3.0
The story about surviving while ice locked in the Arctic was very good. The story about being stalked by a unknown monster lurking in the dark was good too but they didn't mesh together very well.
The survival story started slow because of how long they stayed on the ships (makes sense in context) but once they started their trek to civilization the story certainly became engrossing. The constant struggle to survive in a bleak, frozen, desolate land was very engaging and the contrast between the struggling Englishman and the apparently thriving Inuit was interesting. Also, the increasing tensions within the group made for an interesting sideplot with brutal consequences. I was very invested in that whole story.
The plot with the monster on the ice was well written, there's one scene at the mid winter Carnivale that might be the best written part of the book and it lent additional stress to the story. But the whole monster on the ice thing felt odd in conjunction with the rest of the book. Like the crew is freezing, starving, it's constantly dark . . . and there's a monster. It should've worked better, it's what I was expecting based on the blurb but in this case I think having the monster subplot distracted from the stranded in the Arctic subplot. Like you've got all these real world problems and there's a monster too! Just felt weird but that's likely very subjective.
Then there's the ending. Bittersweet, heavy on the bitter. And with what happened, the sweet part was nice considering this is based on a historical event with no survivors but it definitely felt tacked on.. Then there was the fact that the book just stopped to info dump about Inuit mythology which was interesting in itself but awkwardly placed and hurt the pacing. I wish that would've been introduced more organically but that would've introduced its own plot issues. Though this way lead to the monster subplot feeling even more tacked on.
The survival story started slow because of how long they stayed on the ships (makes sense in context) but once they started their trek to civilization the story certainly became engrossing. The constant struggle to survive in a bleak, frozen, desolate land was very engaging and the contrast between the struggling Englishman and the apparently thriving Inuit was interesting. Also, the increasing tensions within the group made for an interesting sideplot with brutal consequences. I was very invested in that whole story.
The plot with the monster on the ice was well written, there's one scene at the mid winter Carnivale that might be the best written part of the book and it lent additional stress to the story. But the whole monster on the ice thing felt odd in conjunction with the rest of the book. Like the crew is freezing, starving, it's constantly dark . . . and there's a monster. It should've worked better, it's what I was expecting based on the blurb but in this case I think having the monster subplot distracted from the stranded in the Arctic subplot. Like you've got all these real world problems and there's a monster too! Just felt weird but that's likely very subjective.
Then there's the ending. Bittersweet, heavy on the bitter. And with what happened, the sweet part was nice considering this is based on a historical event with no survivors but it definitely felt tacked on.