Talking about books is different than talking about movies. When people ask me about movies, I can say, “I watched The Dark Knight” and they’ll usually know what I’m talking about. Or even if I’m talking about an Indie or foreign film, I can say, “I watched an indie or foreign film” and they’ll realize that I’m a pretentious asshole. I can’t do that with books. There’s not really and indie or foreign book scene that has an identifiable presence for most people. So when talking about books, I usually have to give a quick blurb or plot summary to explain what I’m reading. I’ve generally found that the better the blurb, the better the book.
For example, if I say that I’m reading McSweeney’s 29 (which I just started), you might say, “But Shawn, what is that?” To which I would respond, “It’s a collection of short fiction.” That blurb doesn’t say all that much about the book. It could be a collection of great short fiction (like Babylon Revisited, or it could be a collection of bland, overrated trash, like Winesburg, Ohio. However, if I tell you that I just read The Terror, by Dan Simmons and you respond, “But Shawn, what is that?” I could reply, “It’s a book about the 1840s voyage of two ships to find the Northwest Passage that get stuck in the ice for over a year and are attacked by a giant spectral polar bear that may or may not be controlled by a tongueless Esquimeaux girl.”
And that blurb doesn’t really cover the scope of The Terror. It’s historical fiction, so much of what’s described actual did happen to Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated expedition. I doubt the whole giant spectral polar bear thing is based on fact, but the scurvy, food poisoning, and other maladies the crew faced certainly did happen. The contrast between the real and the supernatural is what helps make The Terror such a great book.
Now, I realize that some of you might be saying, “But Shawn, how can a book about a bunch of cold, malnourished sailors languishing on an ice floe for over a year be exciting? I mean, won’t the giant spectral polar bear just devour them all, since they have no place to run or hide?” That’s a great observation, but fortunately author Dan Simmons anticipated such a response and makes the giant spectral polar bear more of a tormentor. The giant spectral polar bears takes his time hunting and mutilating the ships’ crews. This methodical torture, along with the novel’s narration, helps The Terror stay suspenseful and engaging throughout its 800 pages.
The story of The Terror is told by its crew. Each chapter tells the point of view of a different character. At first, it’s just Sir John Franklin and Captain James Crozier, but soon the narration expands to include other officers and crew members. The point-of-view remains in the 3rd person throughout the entire novel, so this isn’t a Faulknerian exercise in investigating the real truth of a situation. It’s simply Simmons’ way of involving all the major players on the expeditions, from the Captains to the Ice Masters, all the way down to the lowly, mutinous sodomites. Oh yeah, The Terror has sodomy, plus mutilation, decapitation, amputation, astronomical calculation, and even an Edgar Allan Poe inspired celebration. Clearly, The Terror has a little something for everyone.
The one problem with Simmons expanding the scope of the novel to cover a wide range of characters and topic is the issue of resolution. Simmons does a fantastic job of crafting captivating character. With each new chapter, I’d actually be excited when a new character point of view came into the story. Unfortunately, Simmons doesn’t cleanly wrap up all the various narratives that he starts.
Since The Terror is historical fiction, it’s pretty much a given that all the characters will die. But Simmons’ engrossing characterizations made me want to know how the characters die, to know how close they came to getting away or to rescue. With the last few chapters of the novel, however, Simmons chooses to abandon some characters in favour of concentrating on Captain Crozier and Esquimeaux mythology. Spoiler alert: the giant spectral polar bear is a actually some sort of malevolent spirit, out to punish those who do not show proper respect to nature, or some shit like that. It’s disappointing.
I honestly don’t give two shits about what the giant spectral polar bear is or where it came from. In fact, leaving its origins a mystery makes things more interesting. Is it a familiar? A summoned demon? The physical manifestation of fear? The evil in the heart of man? Having all these possibilities makes things more intriguing. I would much rather have found out what happened to all the characters in the novel than having what should have been Shakespearean in magnitude ending turn into a lesson from a 9th grade cultural studies class.
Fortunately, there’s more than enough of The Terror to make up for the unsatisfactory conclusion. If you like Poe, Hobbes (the philosopher, not the tiger), Darwin, botulism, colonialism, and people losing their limbs to both frostbite and giant spectral polar bear bite, then The Terror is the book for you. On my scale of 1 to 5 tiny Ludivine Sagniers, I give The Terror four tiny Ludivine Sagniers.
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