The Terror by Dan Simmons

This is going to be a love letter to this novel. I cried five times while reading this book, yes I am an easier crier, but the story is just that good.

It has the elements that I like: it is long historical novel, based on real events, and is considered to be part of the horror/supernatural genre. It is full of evil men and their poor choices, yet it still humanizes the men to the point that you are devastated. This is not a happy ending.

I pick books based for the most part on their cover and title, I am okay with the briefest of synopsis, and I am chasing a random whim. If anyone recommends a title, and I have not read it, I will add it to my list.

I bought the book after I watched the first couple of episodes of the show and read the wikipedia page for the failed Franklin expedition, being snagged by book to show tie in. I decided to buy the book so I could compare it to what I had already watched. If you haven’t noticed already, I am a sucker for a book that is being made into a film or show.

I had already read the Hyperion Cantos series years back, based off a recommendation someone made when I said I wanted to read more sci-fiction. I did not connect the author as being the same until I was already a hundred pages into The Terror, when I decided then to look up his other works.

This is all to say I am not sure if Dan Simmons is problematic, please let me know so I can be informed. I hope the author is not though, because I am a fan and these books will always be something I will recommend. It is amazing to me when a writer can get their message, and complex ones at that, across varied genres. His imagination to build multiple worlds and tie in all the events to the very end, is something that many people struggle with in their singular genre. 

The Terror is the name for a ship that was part of a lost expedition led by Captain Sir John Franklin in 1945 that was meant to explore the Northwest passage. From what they found at several sites (there were still sites being discovered as of 2014 that might indicate what happened to the men) it is an incomplete accounting as to why they men did not survive. 

There are several major timeline points and educated conjectures based off the different contributing factors to their deaths. Over the course of three years, the men faced the same unexpected winter conditions that would trap and make cannibals out of the Donner party. A factoid pointed out in The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party which at his point is the more optimistic story of the two. If you have not read this nonfiction novel add it to your list as well. 

 To tell this story, and scare the shit of you, there are elements of: medical and body horror, cannibalism, stalking and overwhelming prey, and random acts of cruelty. There is no reprieve between the factual details over what they men would face and the monster that is reaping the men in dire conditions. 

I think it is important to read the page first if you wish to read The Terror, since this is a narrative taken from history. What is documented is a series of error after error. 

It brings such life to it, that even though Dan Simmons is imagining what may have happened, he crafted so many distinct voices that it seems just as plausible as what did happen. I love The Crucible for the same reason, Arthur Miller has the same skill at taking history and molding it to his vision as a means to replace the story so that we cannot tell fact from fiction.

In between the action, that in such a clean matter pieces together the story all the way to the end and leaves no detailed unexplained or unexamined, the characters are so full it is almost impossible to believe that this did not happen. 

This is about a group of white explorers, so that colonizer attitude is not ignored. If you want to see a book where men mansplain to other men, only to ensure their deaths in a land that was not theirs to fuck around without proper esteem and resect, this is the comeuppance tale for you. This habit of allowing prejudice and judgement to rule when it comes to their choices, is not just cruel against women, it was something that en masse men will have to turn away from in order to same themselves from themselves. Even back then they were doing it, but to each other! 

I feel the moral is don’t do it, don’t be so obstinate, get your head out of our ass, and be ready to listen or else you are going to die. But also no one really deserves to die of scurvy, starvation, hopeless, and far from home. No one should have to carry the burden of such graceless and cruel deaths. 

Unlike some other recent stories I read (Shifts), there is a range of loves in this story. There is range of competence, malevolence, and deserving of their fate. But in the end, even for the worst of the men, I did not want them to succumb as I knew they would. 

One of the gay relationships described is soul crushing. I cried several times, and even now I can think about them without feeling sad. This is like anytime I have a conversation about the old man in Shawshank Redemption, I work myself up and feel it as much as the first time I sobbed at that scene. Listen, I cried so hard. 

Why do I like survival novels in which no one survives? Why put myself through the anxiety only to come out knowing it wouldn’t matter? I can only say that it is worth it with book to go on that journey even knowing that is will be impossible to survive. 

Read it, read it, read it. 

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

The thoughts you are about to stumble through is meant to be more for those who have already read the book or series. There are some spoilers, which I think are needed if this is something you would like to get into. 

I fell for Anne Rice and vampires in high school, like all the cool kids do. After I read every book involving Lestat, while listening to the Queen of the Damn soundtrack on repeat on my discman, I needed to move up in my addiction to her other novels. My mother had the second book, and not knowing what it was about or that I was reading out of sequence, I picked it up. I enjoyed it, but this was also the first time that I thought Anne Rice was kind of fucked up.

Nearly two decades later, the beauty that is the AMC show Interview with the Vampire brought me back to the series, just like before. Clearing the mental cobwebs I moved from The Mayfair Witches show to buying the first book in the series. While I believe that the movie, show, and novel for Interview with the Vampire are all beautifully written in their own ways and are amazing adaptations, The Mayfair Witches show does not hit the same way. The book is much better.

With that being said it does not change the following trigger warnings: incest, pro-life, rape, and child sexual abuse. 

I am a bit iffy on the racism, it is a white woman writing a time period that a lot of other white people idolize for all the wrong reasons. If you feel it is racist, I can see your point. And if you do not really think about those things… like maybe you should?

The causal racism, leaves me feeling confused. But maybe that it the point. It is honest to what white people were thinking about in that time period in the south, even liberal ones. The racial slurs the white characters use, and their interactions with those of color, belays the attitude that others don’t concern or impact them. 

I love Anne Rice but it fucking unsexy. This is not a steamy book and I feel that it was written to be so. Especially knowing now that she also wrote bondage erotica under a different name. I found this out reading a friends copy while she was attending her UT classes, hanging out in her room at one of the UT dorms across the street from the mall. AND YOU BET I JUDGE HER WHEN SHE CAME BACK (even though I was wrong to do so). 

I believe she did write it to voice some people’s fantasies. I have to remember the time period. of when she wrote it, the time period for my high school experience, and how I think now. I was a product of a toxic environment and time, I have fetishized paleness or leaned into what plays for the male gaze, over exploring what I really enjoy. No one is born with a healthy sexual appetite and a woke mindset so they can avoid the pitfalls of racism, sexism, and ableism - it all has to be learned. It is just easier for us to learn how to be fucked up, racist, sexist, and ablest.  

So now, as a more healthy version of myself (who will hopefully continue to grow and evolve) I say with ally my conviction that one of the main characters and love lead, Michael, ain’t shit. Some of the thoughts she gives him is gross and leads me to side eye Anne Rice for writing him that way. But what Wytch or Vampyre book doesn’t have horrendous sex scenes written by women that makes you go “damn” while you clutch your pearls? 

It is also clear how heavy Catholicism plays on her foundation, because the pro-life scenes are rough. As we all know with J.K. Rowling, women can have some really shit and regressive opinions when given a platform to write. That is not fair though, Anne Rice is still a more skilled, intelligent, and innovative writer. 

On that thought, like the consumer that I am, I would die for Universal to acquire the Immortals universe and plop the right next to Hogwarts in the park. I can see myself, and other millennials, stumbling out of the castle through the gift shop taking a turn into the French Quarter heading towards the young, attractive, would be actors performing songs from The Queen of the Damned soundtrack in the Admiral’s Arms. Though my body was never made for Aaliyah’s outfit, I and many others would be heading over to pay top dollar for a costumed version to shove ourselves into. 

If you like Anne Rice, you will enjoy this book though. It has all the elements that she is known for, descriptive, well researched, and even through the boring or gross bits, you are transported to wherever the characters are.

On page 258, she plays with us in a way that made me appreciate that she was able to write all of this even with her dubious plot choices. We see Anne Rice describe herself and her writing style via a comment on Petyr van Abel’s style. I became more forgiving because of this, with a quick paragraph I was in love again with the technique. It also helps that this is where the real meat of the book starts. 

It is a thick book, and I have so many other novels to clear off my to be read list. I will be buying the second novel, to do a re-read, at some point. This is a series that I need to finish as I find it hard to believe that the show will come to completion or be able to swing their storylines back to what as in the original series. 

Shift and Dust by Hugh Howey

These are my thoughts:

1. I am not going to be getting rid of the books anytime soon. 

2. For me personally, this series was the kind of writing that made me say, “well if he could do it and get published then I could.” 

3. I read that it started off as a short story. That the first novel (or maybe the whole series?) was requested from readers to elaborate on that idea and that the author worked on it while you know working a real job that is demanding and paying the bills. This makes sense if true.

I want to start by saying, I will probably read more from this author in the future. There are just some elements of this series that I would not have made or attempted to write. It is amazing that he has a community interested in his idea and his work. It is amazing that he kept at it and finished three books. These are all goals that any writer would wish to achieve. 

These are the reasons why it was not for me:

1. Around chapter 80 in Shift I was very much “why would you do that?” about the whole thing. This happened in each book. There are certain actions the characters take to drive the plot that seems narrowing, frustrating, and hard for me to understand the motivation or logic behind it and the world.

2. In Dust it was pretty much immediately, but chapter 32 really stands out as to me as being eye rolling.

3. The story was very heterosexual in that there is no gayness and the romance or love between characters was lacking in chemistry. Not to spoil the set up of the novels but Shifts really ignores a concept of sexuality and society that is everywhere. Basically there is a lot of men and not a single comment, story, or motivational plot point around the possibility that any of them are gay - be it open or closeted. 

4. To go in more on the lacking of chemistry: all the characters are flat. Regardless of sex, villain or hero status, how interesting or invested I should be in them they all seemed to be part of the same hive mind in this universe and I was not in tune with it as others might be. Nobody had main character energy, it was the literary equivalent of NPC.

5. Also it was too much math to be that illogical. I am horrendous with math, and time progressing is not something I like to think about, but if my understanding of the timeline is anywhere near close to accurate that was a lot.

Should you read it? I guess if you are into the story idea or show. 

Should you watch the show? Totally up to you! I am going to. Already there have been changes. (Do I think it is going to drive the plot forward in a way that will make me say they did it better? Hell no!) This is one of those situations where the book is better, but who knows maybe I could be wrong.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I was in a reading slump. After the birth of my son, I had the ability to read a lot while he was breastfeeding. But then I had to learn how to navigate being a work from home mom with a year old, and it was hard to find any sort of routine. I lost myself and stopped reading. (I did fall in love with The Wire and Oz. I watched a lot of Law and Order SVU. It was easy to get the need for story from amazing tv.)

This book brought me back. I have read two of her other titles, this one by far is my favorite. I am a fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing. 

Sometimes I judge other writers for the tropes they slip into, it doesn’t prevent me from buying their books - it just prevents me from being kind. This is not the case with her, she has a style and a distinct voice. I do not spend my time predicting what she will write next so I can congratulate myself of seeing that shit coming, I savor her choice of words and the story she decided to tell. I would say that I am patient, but I was not with this novel. Though I read it quickly, I have such a vivid mental impression of the world it was if I spent weeks in the Yucatán peninsula. 

I have not read the novel that this retelling is based off of, but now I want to. Will I be disappointed in the original now after hearing from the daughter? 

This novel is not explicit, not like some of the others I read since then. It is the only one recently that managed, even in the subject matter, to be sexy. Not steamy, but a honest and non-cringe inducing way to describe sexuality. And the reveal… with the nuance she weaves into the story, there are layers stacked to give depth to the characters that is admirable. 

The context changes as more secrets are revealed. This is a science fiction novel, it fits the genre well because it questions who are the monsters, why do humans believe that they are not animals and more closer to creators, and how much control does anyone really have within the roles of society. Even with the impossible elements, compared to the life I have lived and the stories that I have read, the women in the novel felt real. This was one of the more believable depiction of women’s place, how that leads to the roles that are chosen for us, and what we do and become when we fall into it. 

Read it, read it, read it.