Apocalypse Snow: The Terror, The Terror

Despite a few defaults (repetitive set pieces in the middle section, some predictable twists, probably too many characters), this tale of the ill fated expedition of the Royal Navy to the Arctic in the 1840s will be worth your time. Based on a true story (what fiction isn’t these days?) this mixes brilliantly exploration, survival and fantasy with a vivid style that will make you feel the cold, pain and suffering of the sailors who went to discover a passage to the north and found despair, scurvy and death. And for a few redemption.
Many chapters that you will experience (not read) show Simmons’ amazing writing powers in action : the Carnivale, the mutiny, the desperate looking for open sea, and overall the last quarter which navigates between cannibalism and paradise lost. Do not expect a pure fantastic tale or a pure horror tale, this is something of a different kind which interrogates the place of men and destiny with a keen eye. A better editor’s work might have made this a true masterpiece, but for now there is nothing wrong with a very solid piece of entertainment.