Dan Simmons attempts to write a supernatural, horror, historical novel version of Moby Dick. Where Melville’s monster was an albino whale stalking Ahab’s Pequod, Simmons conjures up a mythical beast that roams the Arctic Circle slowly picking off the crew of the HMS Terror and Erebus frozen in ice. And like Moby Dick, Terror plods along much too long with unnecessary plot lines and characters that only serve to let the author discuss themes.
Evolution? Check! Nihilism? Check! Absurd 19th century social mores? Check! Evil white man? Check! Noble savage? Check! Alcoholism? Check! Environmental concerns? Eskimo mythology? Betrayal? Love? Cannibalism? Check! And so much more.
What works well within the novel is the depth in which Simmons describes life aboard a Royal Navy ship and what it takes to run it. Using the ill-fated John Franklin expedition, in search for the Northwest Passage as a backdrop, each chapter is told from a crewman’s perspective, with the main character being Captain Francis Crozier. The novel begins mid story and chapters go back and forth into the past (of the expedition, characters lives) to tell how the crew got to its absolutely depressing point.
Pointedly, men die as the novel progresses, in numerous ways. And like the unbearable cold of the Arctic, this tone doesn’t let up. Give us something to hope for, as there’s not much. Like most horror stories, what can go wrong whether it be from sheer character stupidity or the horrific force bearing down upon the characters, will go wrong in Terror. You have to wonder, is anyone intelligent or gives a damn enough to live?
The blend of historical fiction and horror works, however, the unnecessary diversions to draw out themes bloats the story. Melville used an entire chapter on cetalogy, the study of whales. Simmons uses a sermon about Jonah being swallowed by a great fish. There’s a crewman who plays the human villain, who is a homosexual, while there’s a chief crewman who’s also a homosexual who feels like a token character to balance out the other. At one point, Crozier suddenly gains supernatural abilities himself, when there was no inkling that he had them at all. This feels forced.
And then there’s the end, which feels forced, pulled out of nowhere to create a happy ending. Sure, we don’t know what happened to the crew of the Terror and Erebus, more than likely they all froze to death, but their descent into unintelligent-able madness seems a disservice.