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The Terror (2007) is my favorite Dan Simmons novel and one of my favorite novels ever. (See earlier intro post about Simmons here.) This is historical fiction and horror. It is based on the historic lost Franklin Expedition, a British expedition of two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, sent to look for the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic in 1845 under the command of Captain Sir John Franklin.
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Historically, the two ships and all hands were lost without a trace except for the graves of three crewmen and a note left behind. It is still one of the great arctic mysteries. Simmons researched the case, as well as arctic exploration in that age, and then added his own imaginary spin to it. As we read, we experience the deep cold of the six-month arctic night as the ships are frozen into the icepack. Added to this is Eskimo mythology and the associated terrors of the Far North.
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One reason that I like this book is because of its authentic descriptions of true cold. I have bivouacked out in the cold down to 40-below-zero but never in the amazing deeper cold experienced by these men. While I had lived outside at minus-40 for a week in 1970s gear, these guys had inadequate clothing and gear, and they were starving to death over a long, long time. It gives you the shivers, and this might be a good book to read on oppressively hot summer days. If you read it during a long northern winter, it will take you into a long dark tunnel of terror.
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I also like the main character, Captain Francis Crozier, historic captain of the HMS Terror and second-in-command of the expedition under Franklin. Crozier was an Irishman, and thus an outsider in the mainly English naval establishment. He was also a melancholic and a substance abuser – much like me in my younger military days.
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Simmons also gives Crozier memories of alienation from his earliest days, of standing alone outside a village on a winter’s night, looking at the village lights but feeling completely estranged from his community. I had this same winter experience – many, many times while growing up – e.g., standing alone in a frozen pasture, or a wood lot, or on a snowy hilltop above my own native village after dark, watching the snowstorm against the town’s lights, feeling apart from all humanity. The character of Crozier really touched me, and my own experience of expatriate re-birth outside of my native culture makes me appreciate him and the destiny Simmons gives him even more.
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The only previous literary background required to enrich the reading of this novel is just a minor familiarity with English philosopher Thomas Hobbes – and I can provide the context you need right here. The few references in the novel are more of an inside joke. Hobbes was an extreme pessimist and an advocate of completely authoritarian political rule. His most famous work was Leviathan (1651) in which he argued for an extremely strong government because human nature is perversely wild and dangerous.
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Caveat: I do not agree with Hobbes about human nature, and I am completely opposite him in politics. I advocate little or no government while Hobbes wants absolutism.
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One of Hobbes’ primary arguments is that the horrible religious warfare of his times was because of too much freedom of religion – too much choice – and that one absolute ruler or ruling group should dictate one religion for all to follow in order to stop the fighting between sects. (But I would say that, while a large amount of religious freedom did encourage the flowering of countless religious sects, it was precisely the mix of government power with religion that caused the insane wars within Christianity in Hobbes' day.)
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When Crozier is assigned, against his inclination, to conduct a Sunday religious service on his ship, he announces that he will read from “The Book of Leviathan, Part One, Chapter Twelve,” and he reads from the very cynical Hobbes on historical religious flights of fancy from the most ancient of days. That whole episode is – to me – a philosophical joke, one of my favorite passages in the book.
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In addition to the above, certainly the most famous quote of all from Hobbes’ Leviathan is that, without an absolute government to intimidate and control people, man’s life will be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Keep that quote in mind, as it identifies Crozier's attitude before his redemption.
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A final note on this book. I was reading it while waiting for supper at The Saxophone pub in Bangkok and listening to a good jazz band, and I came upon its description of a bonfire on the ice as a “Guy Fawkes Day above the Arctic Circle.” I checked my calendar, and indeed it was 5 November, Guy Fawkes Night, that very night. (“A penny for the old guy.”)
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I love this book.
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-Zenwind.
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03 August 2010
Review: Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
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The first Dan Simmons works I read were the four big science fiction novels making up his Hyperion Cantos series. This had a lot of background involving the English Romantic poet John Keats. Keats – or a clone of Keats – even appears as a minor character. I had always been a great fan of Keats’ shorter poems, but I had never read his slightly longer attempts at epic poetry in his poems “Hyperion” and “Endymion.” The four novels of this Cantos series are Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion. Read them in order.
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The narrative style of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales also figures into to the beginning of this series, as various characters give their backgrounds during a long journey. One is also reminded of Boccaccio’s Decameron, where everyone tells their tales.
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Before I started those four books I did some major homework, finding a volume of Keats’ complete poems with biography, extensive commentaries on the poems, selected letters of his, etc. I read his drafts of the epics “Hyperion” and “Endymion” for the first time, and I immersed myself in the world of Keats, ending with his young death of TB in Rome near the Spanish Steps. With this background I enjoyed the Simmons’ novels more. When the Keats clone is in his room near the Spanish Steps, I already know what it looks like. Reading it, homework and all, was a major project which I really enjoyed.
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The first Dan Simmons works I read were the four big science fiction novels making up his Hyperion Cantos series. This had a lot of background involving the English Romantic poet John Keats. Keats – or a clone of Keats – even appears as a minor character. I had always been a great fan of Keats’ shorter poems, but I had never read his slightly longer attempts at epic poetry in his poems “Hyperion” and “Endymion.” The four novels of this Cantos series are Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion. Read them in order.
.
The narrative style of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales also figures into to the beginning of this series, as various characters give their backgrounds during a long journey. One is also reminded of Boccaccio’s Decameron, where everyone tells their tales.
.
Before I started those four books I did some major homework, finding a volume of Keats’ complete poems with biography, extensive commentaries on the poems, selected letters of his, etc. I read his drafts of the epics “Hyperion” and “Endymion” for the first time, and I immersed myself in the world of Keats, ending with his young death of TB in Rome near the Spanish Steps. With this background I enjoyed the Simmons’ novels more. When the Keats clone is in his room near the Spanish Steps, I already know what it looks like. Reading it, homework and all, was a major project which I really enjoyed.
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01 August 2010
Book Review: Ilium / Olympos, by Dan Simmons
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One of Dan Simmons’ best is the science fiction double novel, Ilium and Olympos, in which the Greek gods are reincarnated or duplicated as characters on the planet Mars of the future. Mons Olympus, the old volcanic cone on Mars is the highest mountain in the solar system, and a lot of action will happen there in a new Olympos. Action on the battlefield at ancient Troy is featured, with all the Homeric heroes there in this revised story. There are anomalies of time and space in the story, so that over 5,000 years in time and the entire reach of the solar system are involved. You simply will not believe how the stories of both Achilles and Odysseus end up.
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The background literary context of these two huge books is Homer, most especially The Iliad, but also to some extent The Odyssey, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Those are the most important sources and are most important to read as background, but Simmons also refers to Nabokov’s novel Ada or Ador: A Family Chronicle and to Proust’s multi-volume work In Search of Lost Time, aka Remembrance of Things Past. Since certain literary/mythic characters and their stories pop up in these novels, I first refreshed my readings of some of those classics, re-reading The Iliad, The Tempest and surveys of classical mythology. However, I passed on perusing Proust, and I never got a chance to acquire the Nabokov novel. I really enjoyed Ilium and Olympos and recommend them. Read the two in their proper order.
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One of Dan Simmons’ best is the science fiction double novel, Ilium and Olympos, in which the Greek gods are reincarnated or duplicated as characters on the planet Mars of the future. Mons Olympus, the old volcanic cone on Mars is the highest mountain in the solar system, and a lot of action will happen there in a new Olympos. Action on the battlefield at ancient Troy is featured, with all the Homeric heroes there in this revised story. There are anomalies of time and space in the story, so that over 5,000 years in time and the entire reach of the solar system are involved. You simply will not believe how the stories of both Achilles and Odysseus end up.
.
The background literary context of these two huge books is Homer, most especially The Iliad, but also to some extent The Odyssey, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Those are the most important sources and are most important to read as background, but Simmons also refers to Nabokov’s novel Ada or Ador: A Family Chronicle and to Proust’s multi-volume work In Search of Lost Time, aka Remembrance of Things Past. Since certain literary/mythic characters and their stories pop up in these novels, I first refreshed my readings of some of those classics, re-reading The Iliad, The Tempest and surveys of classical mythology. However, I passed on perusing Proust, and I never got a chance to acquire the Nabokov novel. I really enjoyed Ilium and Olympos and recommend them. Read the two in their proper order.
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Reviews: Dan Simmons' novels
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Dan Simmons is one hell of a fiction writer and one of my favorites. (I thank Jeff Riggenbach for pointing out his works many years ago.) Simmons writes in many genres: science fiction, historical fiction, horror, fantasy, mysteries and thrillers – and he sometimes mixes several genres in one book. Some of his works stand alone while others are part of larger series, and most of the individual novels are huge. I have only yet read a fraction of his voluminous body of work, but I’ve never been disappointed.
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Simmons excels in “intertexuality,” where his stories and characters often refer back to other works of literature such as Homer, Shakespeare, Keats, etc. I had heard about this aspect of his work, so I have always made sure to first do my homework – i.e., to find out which authors/works are referenced in any one book, and then to try reading those works – before beginning a new Simmons novel. He is richly versed in literature. When he often delves into themes of Classical Antiquity, it is wise to have a reference work on Greek and Roman mythology close by, such as the ones by Bulfinch or Edith Hamilton.
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I will soon review here, separately, some of Simmons’ novels that I’ve read: The Terror, which is my personal favorite; The Hyperion Cantos, consisting of four novels; and Ilium and Olympos, a set of two.
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(About his first novel, The Song of Kali, I’ll only say this here: Don’t read this one unless you have a perversely excessive taste for true horror; Simmons may have gone way over the line with it. One of Simmons' latest novels is Drood, which is concerned with Dickens' last and unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It is told from the viewpoint of Wilkie Collins, a friend of and frequent collaborator with Dickens.)
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-Zenwind.
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Dan Simmons is one hell of a fiction writer and one of my favorites. (I thank Jeff Riggenbach for pointing out his works many years ago.) Simmons writes in many genres: science fiction, historical fiction, horror, fantasy, mysteries and thrillers – and he sometimes mixes several genres in one book. Some of his works stand alone while others are part of larger series, and most of the individual novels are huge. I have only yet read a fraction of his voluminous body of work, but I’ve never been disappointed.
.
Simmons excels in “intertexuality,” where his stories and characters often refer back to other works of literature such as Homer, Shakespeare, Keats, etc. I had heard about this aspect of his work, so I have always made sure to first do my homework – i.e., to find out which authors/works are referenced in any one book, and then to try reading those works – before beginning a new Simmons novel. He is richly versed in literature. When he often delves into themes of Classical Antiquity, it is wise to have a reference work on Greek and Roman mythology close by, such as the ones by Bulfinch or Edith Hamilton.
.
I will soon review here, separately, some of Simmons’ novels that I’ve read: The Terror, which is my personal favorite; The Hyperion Cantos, consisting of four novels; and Ilium and Olympos, a set of two.
.
(About his first novel, The Song of Kali, I’ll only say this here: Don’t read this one unless you have a perversely excessive taste for true horror; Simmons may have gone way over the line with it. One of Simmons' latest novels is Drood, which is concerned with Dickens' last and unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It is told from the viewpoint of Wilkie Collins, a friend of and frequent collaborator with Dickens.)
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-Zenwind.
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Vampire Book Review: The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
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If you love history and are fascinated by Dracula stories – both the gothic tales and the real history of Vlad III The Impaler -- you should enjoy this novel.
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More precisely, if you appreciate the sound methodology and scholarship of true historians, if you love libraries and old books, if you can get hooked on well-told arcane histories of exotic places and times such as the late medieval Balkans as the Ottoman Turks are over-running Southeastern Europe, if gothic tales of vampirism tempt you, and if you like good fiction writing mixed with it all, then The Historian (2005) by Elizabeth Kostova should be well worth reading.
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I had heard good things about this book, but I was not prepared to like it so much. I had read In Search of Dracula and follow-up histories about the real Vlad Dracula, aka Vlad III Tepes (1431-1476 CE), when they were first published several decades ago, and of course I was a major fan of Bram Stoker’s novel, of Bela Lugosi’s movie classic and of a few other of the better-made vampire films.
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In this novel, the historical detail fascinated me, and the historian-as-detective plot delighted me. The action sweeps across many decades in the 20th century – as well as the 15th century and other times – and much of it takes place in the 1950s in an Eastern Europe that is still behind the communist Iron Curtain and in the grip of sinister masters.
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I could not put the book down until I had finished. You might want to keep an Atlas or world map handy while you read, as the scenes often include travels to places most of us usually do not visit or know much about.
.
-Zenwind.
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If you love history and are fascinated by Dracula stories – both the gothic tales and the real history of Vlad III The Impaler -- you should enjoy this novel.
.
More precisely, if you appreciate the sound methodology and scholarship of true historians, if you love libraries and old books, if you can get hooked on well-told arcane histories of exotic places and times such as the late medieval Balkans as the Ottoman Turks are over-running Southeastern Europe, if gothic tales of vampirism tempt you, and if you like good fiction writing mixed with it all, then The Historian (2005) by Elizabeth Kostova should be well worth reading.
.
I had heard good things about this book, but I was not prepared to like it so much. I had read In Search of Dracula and follow-up histories about the real Vlad Dracula, aka Vlad III Tepes (1431-1476 CE), when they were first published several decades ago, and of course I was a major fan of Bram Stoker’s novel, of Bela Lugosi’s movie classic and of a few other of the better-made vampire films.
.
In this novel, the historical detail fascinated me, and the historian-as-detective plot delighted me. The action sweeps across many decades in the 20th century – as well as the 15th century and other times – and much of it takes place in the 1950s in an Eastern Europe that is still behind the communist Iron Curtain and in the grip of sinister masters.
.
I could not put the book down until I had finished. You might want to keep an Atlas or world map handy while you read, as the scenes often include travels to places most of us usually do not visit or know much about.
.
-Zenwind.
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