radiosaturday's reviews
748 reviews

This is my first experience with Dan Simmons, so I can't really talk about it in the context of his oeuvre. I will probably be reading more from him, however. Considering this is a novel about a hundred-odd Englishmen (and one sad, drunken Irishman) dying horribly and slowly in the Arctic, "The Terror" was a gripping novel. It was well-paced and exciting, and Simmons' handling of scenes and situations that might otherwise have dragged was masterful. In particular, the pacing and point of view shifts surrounding a reconnaissance expedition, which goes horribly awry, was really exciting - quite a feat, considering the expedition took many days and half the main characters were left to wait on the boats stuck in the ice.

The characterization of the leadership of the infamous Franklin expedition, on which the novel is very closely based, was especially strong: Franklin himself, along with the captains of the two ships sent on the expedition and the most junior of the surgeons on the voyage, are well-drawn. Side characters are sometimes given short shrift, but the leads shone.

SPOILERS BELOW

However, it's impossible to read this novel outside of its context. The colonialist mindset of the main characters, as well as a distinctly odd venture into white-saviorism near the end, are discomfiting, to say the least. While Simmons never paints the protagonists' attitude to indigenous populations as positive, the "going native" trope is used more or less uncritically, which was a surprise after a relatively thoughtful handling of other issues in the nove, and the fact that it's trotted out right at the end of the novel left a bit of a sour aftertaste (even more so than the many graphic depictions of death by scurvy and, in a horribly memorable chapter, Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease). However, the rest of he novel was really strong, and I for one am excited to see the forthcoming TV series based on the novel.

In this book, David Benatar makes some very compelling arguments that coming into existence is a distinct harm and that one ought not have children. However, I have rated it at 3 stats due in large part to the lazy ableism that permeates the book. This is most noticeable in the first few chapters, and while Benatar eventually addresses disability-rights arguments, much of his fundamental argument is weakened by this lazy reliance on "the disabled" as an example of intrinsic human suffering. However, his discussion in chapter 2 of why coming into existence should be seen as harmful is fairly strong, and his conclusion gains strength in light of his address of disability rights arguments in chapter 4. Worth reading, but not without flaws.