The Terror
the novel that inspired the chilling BBC series
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4.3 • 30 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Hailed by STEPHEN KING as 'a brilliant, massive combination of history and supernatural horror'.
Now a chilling 10-part TV series from RIDLEY SCOTT on BBC2 and iPlayer
The most advanced scientific enterprise ever mounted, Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition in search of the fabled North-West Passage had every expectation of triumph.
But for almost two years his ships HMS Terror and Erebus have been trapped in the Arctic ice. Supplies of fuel and food are running low. Scurvy, starvation and even madness beging to take their toll. And yet the real threat isn't from the constantly shifting, alien landscape, the flesh-numbing temperatures or being crushed by the unyielding, frozen ocean. No, the real threat is far more terrifying.
There is something out there in the frigid darkness. It stalks the ships and snatches men. It is a nameless thing. At once nowhere and everywhere, this terror has become the expedition's nemesis . . .
Readers are gripped by The Terror:
***** 'One of the best books I have ever read. I couldn't put it down!'
***** 'A tremendous weighty achievement in atmosphere and storytelling.'
***** 'So beautifully written and well researched. I can't praise this book highly enough.'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
Great beginning, confusing messy ending.
The book started great, and maintained a great quality until the last few hundred pages where the story goes off on some divine tangent and suddenly just says “the end” it seems like he ran out of ideas and just slapped some ending together.
Pretty disappointed with the ending but still recommend you read it.