The Terror

All right.

I'm going to go with the terror.

I love that book because it's like very detailed, um, It's like a comfort read for me on the audiobook version.

And I don't even know a specific reason, but I love it.

You want to dive deep into a thrilling narrative, but tackling a massive doorstopper of a book like Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves just isn't feasible for you this weekend.

Or Dan Simmons' The Terror.

You know, you just don't have the time.

Right.

But across 112 pages, you feel Chris's days blurring together.

You feel the quiet becoming deafening right up until the point where the whispering actually begins.

It's the terror of your own mind turning against you simply out of sheer boredom and loneliness.

But let's contrast that very grounded home office horror with this next one, which absolutely blew my mind.

Hi, I'm Ralph, and this is the Fictoplasm Podcast, where I talk about fiction and RPGs.

This episode, I'm tackling Dan Simmons' The Terror, which fictionalises the disastrous 1845 Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage, and adds the suspense and horror of a supernatural predator.

Now the novel was published in 2007 and I think I started reading it maybe more than 10 years ago.

I had a physical copy.

I thought it was an AMC production, but, you know, what do I know? Anyway, this book was nominated for the World Fantasy Award in 2008, and...

Of course, Simmons has a long list of acclaimed science fiction and fantasy works, including the Hyperion Cantus and Song of Kali.

Now, Simmons is keen on his literary references, and I note that The Terror is absent from that part of the Wikipedia page that lists his literary references.

But I suppose the references to Dickens and Poe in The Terror are as popular contemporary reading from the broadsheets at the time.

It does.

If we are looking for a landscape that acts as an executioner, there is literally no better starting point than number two on the overall ranking, The Terror by Dan Simmons, published in 2007.

Oh man, this book.

I-

It really is.

It is a slow, freezing suffocation.

But, you know, if the terror explores an environment that freezes you out and rejects you, there is another side to that coin.

Oh, right.

Thank you for listening.

Next time, I'm probably going to keep with the icy theme and cover The Terror by Dan Simmons, who passed away earlier this year.

Words are by me, and music is by Chris Zabriskie, who you can find out more about by following the link in the show notes.

Bye-bye.