The Terror (novel)

The Terror is a 2007 novel by American author Dan Simmons. It is a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition, on HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, to the Arctic, in 1845–1848, to locate the Northwest Passage. In the novel, while Franklin and his crew are plagued by starvation and illness, and forced to contend with mutiny and cannibalism, they are stalked across the bleak Arctic landscape by a monster.
Most of the characters featured in The Terror are actual members of Franklin's crew, whose unexplained disappearance has warranted a great deal of speculation. The main characters in the novel include Captain Sir John Franklin, commander of the expedition and captain of Erebus; Captain Francis Crozier, captain of Terror; Dr. Harry D. S. Goodsir; and Commander James Fitzjames.
The Terror was nominated for the British Fantasy Award in 2008 and adapted for the first season of an eponymous television series that aired on AMC TV in 2018.
The story begins in medias res in the winter of 1847, when HMS Terror and HMS Erebus have been trapped in ice, 28 miles north-northwest of King William Island, for more than a year. The weather has been much colder than normal, the ships' tinned provisions are dwindling, often putrid, and tainted with lead from soldering. Furthermore, the sea ice and landmasses are mysteriously devoid of any wildlife that can be hunted. In addition to the natural dangers, the crews are being stalked and attacked by a monster resembling an immense polar bear.
In a flashback to 1845, Sir John Franklin is assigned by the British Admiralty to lead an expedition into the Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. Franklin's second in command, Captain Francis Crozier, joins the expedition as a means of distracting himself after being rejected as a suitor by Franklin's niece. Although the expedition begins auspiciously enough, three men (John Torrington, John Hartnell, and William Braine) die of disease during their first winter in the ice, and soon afterward, Franklin makes the fateful decision to travel around the northwest coast of King William Island, which results in Terror and Erebus becoming trapped.
In the spring of 1847, Franklin sends out parties to search for open water. One of the parties encounters a pair of "Esquimaux" on the ice, a young woman and an old man. They accidentally shoot the man, whereupon they are set upon by the monster, which kills the expedition's fourth in command, Lieutenant Graham Gore. When the party returns to the ships, the woman follows them. Surgeon Stanley names her "Lady Silence", as her tongue appears to have been bitten off, rendering her mute. After the man dies aboard Erebus, the monster begins stalking the crews. Although the creature shows signs of intelligence, the men initially assume it is merely an unusually big and aggressive polar bear. Franklin is killed in a botched attempt to bait the animal, and a number of other crewmen are killed as the months progress.
Crozier assumes command of the expedition, with Commander James Fitzjames assuming the role of executive officer. Despite some initial tension between them, they gradually become friends as they attempt to deal with the conditions facing their men. An ill-fated New Year's Eve carnivale masque ends with a large number of the expedition, including three of the four surgeons, being killed by the monster and friendly fire from the expedition's Royal Marines detachment. Crozier subsequently orders Caulker’s Mate Cornelius Hickey (for wearing a white polar bear costume) and two other men (for unbecoming behavior) to be given fifty lashes. Hickey begins to plot against the officers.
As the spring of 1848 approaches, Erebus is eventually crushed and sunk by the relentless ice. Its remaining crew decamps to Terror until Crozier finally orders the ship abandoned. The survivors relocate to "Terror Camp", a tented refuge on King William Island. After ruling out an attempt to reach the far side of the Boothia Peninsula, Crozier and Fitzjames conclude that their best hope is to haul the lifeboats of both ships south to the Back River and row upstream against the current to an outpost on Great Slave Lake, an arduous journey of several hundred miles. Before they can set out, Hickey murders Lieutenant John Irving and lays the blame on a band of Esquimaux whom Irving had in fact befriended; the Esquimaux are attacked and massacred in revenge. From this point on, the crews fear and avoid the native population.
The trek across the island is brutal, and many men die from exhaustion, exposure, and disease – including Fitzjames. The monster appears with deadly frequency, at one point slaughtering an entire boat crew as they explore an open lead in the ice. With no other options, the men continue to press south and eventually reach a position on the southern shore that they name "Rescue Camp". From there, the survivors splinter into several groups. Hickey and his faction declare their intent to return to Terror Camp, while another group opts to return to HMS Terror. Crozier agrees to let them go, but later he and physician Harry Goodsir are lured away from the camp and ambushed by Hickey's men. Crozier is shot and apparently killed by Hickey, while Goodsir is taken hostage. The remaining crew, led by Mate Charles Des Voeux, reluctantly decide to keep marching south.
All three groups eventually meet with disaster. Hickey's group, despite resorting to cannibalism, begin to either starve or freeze to death in a blizzard; the remainder are murdered by Hickey, who has begun to suffer delusions of godhood. Goodsir poisons himself, ensuring that any of Hickey's crew who eats his body will die. The monster delivers a death blow to Hickey, but pulls away and does not consume his soul. A later vision relayed to Crozier suggests that the monster will eventually become sick and die from consuming the souls of the explorers. The other groups' fates are not revealed, but it is implied that they also perished, rendering Crozier the expedition's sole survivor. Crozier is rescued by Lady Silence, who treats his wounds with native medicine and brings him with her on her travels.
As he recovers from his injuries, Crozier experiences a series of visions which finally reveal the true nature of the creature. It is called the Tuunbaq, a demon created millennia ago by the Esquimaux goddess Sedna to kill her fellow spirits, with whom she had become angry. After a war lasting 10,000 years, the other spirits defeated the Tuunbaq, and it turned back on Sedna, who banished it to the Arctic wastes. There, the Tuunbaq began preying on the Esquimaux until their most powerful shamans discovered a way to communicate with the demon. By sacrificing their tongues to the beast and promising to stay out of its domain, these shamans were able to stop the Tuunbaq's rampage. Lady Silence is revealed to be one of these shamans, and she and Crozier eventually become lovers. He chooses to abandon his old life and join her as a shaman.
Some time later, Crozier and Lady Silence (her real name revealed to be Silna) have two children, and he has taken the name Taliriktug. Travelling with an Esquimaux group, the family encounter the still-standing Terror almost two hundred miles south of her original location. After exploring the decaying ship and encountering a shriveled corpse in his former bunk, Taliriktug sets the ship alight and watches the conflagration with his family, as Terror sinks below the ice.
In the March/April 2007 issue of Bookmarks, the book received a (4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with a summary saying, "The different perspectives lead to some repetition, but reviewers agreed that, overall, The Terror is an unsettling, suspenseful read".
After the success of the show The Walking Dead, the US network AMC produced a horror TV series based on the novel. In March 2016, it was confirmed that AMC had ordered 10 episodes of the show, which premiered on March 26, 2018. David Kajganich and Soo Hugh served as co-showrunners, with Kajganich also penning the adaptation. Ridley Scott, Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, David Zucker, and Guymon Casady served as executive producers.