Like many modern readers, I impatiently demand that an author hook my attention from the very first paragraph. Yet one of my absolute tiptop favorite novels, Lonesome Dove, begins slowly.
Dan Simmons’ brilliant fictional saga, The Terror, requires some patience as well. The problem isn’t the crackling opening. It’s because many Americans are unfamiliar with the ill-fated 1845 British expedition to the Arctic Circle led by Sir John Franklin. The fate of the 129 men became an obsession in Britain because most of their bodies were never found. For Americans, it may take a few pages to grasp the setup and connections. Rest of book review at USA Today is here.
Recently there was an episode of NOVA that dealt with the expedition. The web page for the episode is here.
The expedition took 2400 books with them.
You can see a list of their provisions here.
The title of the book comes from the name of one of the ships on the expedition, the HMS Terror.
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