The Terror: A Novel Audiobook by Dan Simmons [Free Download by Trial]

The Terror: A Novel by Dan Simmons

The readers can download The Terror: A Novel Audiobook for free via Audible Free Trial.

Summary

The Terror: A Novel Audiobook by Dan Simmons is a novel depicting the fictionalized account of Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition. The novel deals with two ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror and the journey of the 126 member crew into the Arctic circle in 1845 in search of the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic. The ships were loaded with sufficient coal to keep the crew warm and with high levels of food stocks for the journey.

The crew members were of the view that the ice will melt and they will discover the waterway passage which they were looking for. However, the ice never melted and the ships were trapped for three long years in the ice. The weather was much colder than normal and the food reserves were fast declining. There was lack of any wildlife which can be hunted for eating. The winters were long and dark with the night temperature reaching -50 degrees.

This was only part of the danger which the crew were exposed to. There was a ferocious and cunning creature in the night which killed many of the crew members including the captain Sir John Franklin. After his death, Francis Crozier became the commander and Captain James Fitzjames was assigned as the executive officer.

Both of them decide that the only way to escape their current dangerous situation is to go back the way from which they had come. It involved undertaking a long journey of several hundred miles while being stalked by a hostile creature which does not want them to get away to safety. The adventure of the crew and how they escape their fate forms the remaining of the novel.

Review

The Terror: A Novel Audiobook by Dan Simmons is a chilling book written on the fate of the crew members of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. The crew members were never seen again and the author attempts to provide a fictitious account of what may have happened. The plot is tight and fast-paced and keeps the readers totally engaged till the climax.

The author has nicely depicted the difficulties faced by the crew in extreme weather conditions and how they react to such situations. The novel has a thriller element to it with high degree of horror also put in. This is a must-read novel.