Stephen Robert Collins's Reviews > The Terror

A perfect book for the hot weather as it's -50 set in Antarctica circle near Baffin Island & on King William Land in 1845-1848 in locked ships The Terror & The Erebus this has been made into AMC TV series From Sir Ridley Scott of Alien fame .
Set in between 1843-48 this book about two ships locked in the ice & it's also about man's fight with the cold but worse still there is something in the dark hunting them, something from old times pure evil.
What makes this so good is the descriptions 'His pale , lumpy face & stubbled jowls remind Crozier of a rotten white peeled potato stuffed under a Welsh wig' p57 if that doesn't sum up fantastic image I don't know what does .He has all craft of Dickens.
Made into a Ten part TV series
This book is difficult to explain it has the haunting atmosphere of John Carpenter's The Fog with its unexpected ghostly eeriness & The Monkey's Paw twists it is really Bloody horrible in parts .The things people will eat when you are starving .Even Polar bears but not as book says their liver as it's deadly; I have heard that before .But even eating shoes or boiled Leather but worst of all each other.
If want book that give the willies this it. The most interesting person is Lady Silence the Eskimo with no tongue she is classed by the crew as a witch & a Johan because the all the trouble starts is the day she arrives she is young erotic sexual haunting & mystic .She gives the story an extra twist.
This the paperback version with TV cover & is more pages 936 & really good print .Also the map at front of this book helps to make it easier to read because see where they are.
I had relies that the ordinary Sailor of low ranks are £60 a year,the Carpenter's £70 & Skilled Blacksmiths & the engineers at £80 over per years over 3-4 that's huge amount & it's puree profit as it's full board & lodgings as they are on the ships. Wow ! in 1840s is hell of a wage no wonder they went & then all the huge amounts of food, coal & ships were hell did get all that money they must been very very rich into it would. be like Richard Branson doing a Virgin tour.
An erotic love flashback also to brake up the ice .This what makes this book so good it's not just the The Leviathan but it also has other thinks in it like the disgusting Opium Wars in China which lot of people may not know was not about stopping Opium been sold but selling it. The British wanted Chinese Tea but to buy tea we need something to Trade with but the Chinese had Gunpowder, silks,spices & lot more but only thing we had to Trade was Opium but when The Emperor saw what did to his people he tried to ban it so we went to war over Tea & selling Opium to make people into druggies .We won
.At same time the green tea plants were rare & explores classed as spy's under pain of Death if caught got the rare Tea plants out to India & they created the Black tea thus the East India Tea company was founded. A cup PG tea is founded with the blood of the Chinese Opium druggies. Bet did not know that sad is not that that's what Britain great in the early Victorian times Opium .
This book also talks about Naughty naked swimming & it gives a glims of sex in 1840s .It also talks about religion but most of its the Terror make you wet your self as cold shivers creep down as read & more erotica. An extra even a juice murder
The biggest thing about this book is that it is like Melmoth The Wander, Moby Dick, Poe it has both Lovecraft & other classical fiction influence but is a modern horror like It by. Stephen King, Savage or UK authors such as Shaun Hutson or Kim Newman this the sort of book 20years from now you will remember it its like Lord of the Ring or as said Moby Dick because they are sort of books that stand out also because of it been a historical book it never date even 1000 years from now.
Some books are to good to forget this one of them.
WINNER OF THE TOP LIBRARY BOOK
2018.WINNER OF TOP HISTORICAL BOOK 2018.
THE MOBY. DICK AWARD 2018
TOP HORROR MALE BOOK 2018 TOP BOOK 2018✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳