The Terror by Dan Simmons (#3, Fiction)

I started The Terror a year ago and threw in the towel after about 200 pages of nothing satisfying happening. My sister recommended this book to me and having greatly enjoyed Ahab's Wife, another book suggestion from her, I took a chance and tried to read this 700+ page book while completing the 50 books in a year challenge. Needless to say, when I wasn't making headway on it, I abandoned ship, leaving Captain Crozier and his frozen crew aboard the Terror for greener, shorter pastures.

Not in a rush to finish books this year, I decided to climb aboard Terror and give Dan Simmons and his very technical, very descriptive writing another chance. I struggled a bit getting back into the story but there are definite moments of brilliance. Certain characters start to grow on you and it gets harder and harder as the men keep dying from scurvy, or from attacks from the creature stalking the men. I think I kept reading because I really just wanted to know what the hell the thing on the ice was that kept killing the men.

As my sister said, there were several twists in the storyline that were highly shocking. And the last 100 pages made it worth slogging through 600 pages to get to. The explanation of the creature on the ice was highly satisfying but I do think that Simmons could have tightened his prose. The Terror shouldn't have been 700+ pages. I found the endless descriptions of the ships and the cold tiring. I wish the whole book could have been as good as the last 100 pages.