Saturday, November 24, 2007

THE TERROR, by Dan Simmons

Title:
The Terror
Author:
Dan Simmons (Bestselling author of Olympos.)
Novel released as hardcover January, 2007, soon to be released as paperback.
ISBN number:
ISBN-10: 0-316-01744-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-316-01744-2
Published by:
Little, Brown & Company Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/
Price (as hardcover):
$26.99 USD / $31.25 CAN

What an intense piece of work this one is! Mr. Simmons has done a monstrous (ahem) amount of work on this novel of an arctic exploration gone wrong. Vivid details, strong charactors, suspense and mystery done to a turn in a bloody-bones sauce of horror, this story will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. The research is well done indeed, the delicacy of the thread holding us is titanium strong yet cobweb light, as weirdly illuminating as the northern lights.

My only complaint is that, while there is no doubt this is a tightly woven story, it's almost wordy in its massive glory. While on the edge of my seat quite literally, at times I wondered when we were ever going to get to the punchline.

We did get to the punchline, however, and it is a doozy! There is no way I'd have seen the end coming, and it involves one of my greatest interests (which, in the name of keeping a spoiler down, I won't pass along just yet). An unpredictable ending is priceless in a world filled with more and more books.

Visit Mr. Simmon's delectible imagination and see for yourself. This novel will have you asking questions and shivering fit to shatter bones even if you're in a beachside summer cottage with heavy clothing on and the heat cranked up high. Those flags are nothing more and nothing less than the northern lights -- high, wide, and handsome, a mystery from without and within.

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Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Dan Simmon's interesting novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

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Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

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