Pessimist Book Club discussion

I am going to paste my general review of the book here, and maybe add a few more notes at the bottom:

Spoilers...

This book was nasty, brutish, and very long, to borrow from Crozier's "Book of Leviathan". Once again, Dan Simmons has shown me that he has access to and understanding of human nature. A book about hundreds of men spending 3 years trapped in the ice sounds like it could get very boring and repetitive, but humans do what they always do. They love, they fight, they betray, and they murder. I've read other reviews that try to summarize what "the Terror" really is in the novel, but the terror is in everything. This book never lets up, and had me gripped until the very end.

I love that Simmons used so much historical fact in the writing of this book. Not just using real names, but also giving plausible explanations for why and how the real people died in the ways that they did. Why groups were fractured, and how they met their ends. The only problem I have with this book (which I partly forgive, because having read Simmons' horror fiction, I know he can't resist the supernatural) is the introduction of Crozier's Catholic mysticism, and Silence's Inuk magic. The ending of the book strays into the tonally bizarre, and I don't know why. If Simmons had stayed closer to reality, I think the ending of the book would have been more impactful, even with Crozier choosing to stay with the tribe. The addition of psychic mind links was totally unnecessary for a story grounded in such real and primal fear.

Even so, 4.75/5.

Also, the audiobook narrator was fantastic, and really coloured in the characters for me.

Notes:

I had the strongest emotional reaction to a book that I have had in years. That emotion was revulsion. Holy fuck, did I just wanted Hickey to die. What an absolute piece of garbage. When he killed Irving, when he ambushed Crozier, when he tortured Goodsir, I could not help but feel total hatred. Hickey was the scariest thing on the ice, worse than the monster, and worse than starvation. Goodsir was right though, even in the worst of it, someone always has to create more suffering. Hickey is horrible, but he is just a manifestation of human nature that Simmons had to include. He is pathetic, and pitiable, but he is malicious, vengeful, and psychopathic. I think Hickey is one of the worst villains of all time, and I hope I never meet such a spiteful creature.

I am not yet done, but here are my thoughts so far

I think Dan Simmons does something interesting in this book and how he plays with horrors we find "evil".
The first is the natural evil: the extreme weather condition of the freezing cold, in a barren land. Nothing for miles but just the cold bite of the wind. It always gave me a chill, everyday is the same, cold, brutish, small rations of food. The threat of scurvy on the brink of a break out.

Next we are introduced to this monster, this terror. It is something not of this world, Peglar and Bridgens talk about it's significance in terms of evolution and this terror seems to break every natural law. It should not exist. It is something we simply don't understand. It is the unknown evil. It is merciless, and the way it follows the group as they Crozier's group head towards Terror camp, while everyone knows it is following them, it truly is the terror, a lurking evil, patiently waiting in the distance.

Think of it like this, they all seem to be at the edge of death, the shear cold biting at any open skin, scurvy starting to kick in, hunger, exhaustion, 24 hour darkness, as far away from civilization, lonely, and to top it off a beast not of this world that is slowly ripping apart everything in its path. Everything seems to be against you.
And yet these men did not break under such extreme conditions. What could possibly drive men to survive such extreme conditions? Could I?

And then we are given something worse, the human evil, Hickey. The others seem so lesser in comparison, though I foresaw Irving's death after the first failed attempt, when we was out alone and Hickey was part of the group I knew it was gonna happen then, just not to the extreme of also involving the Eskimos leading to an even more loss of hope. There was this small chance of hope, for survival and it is thrown out the window due to petty vengeance. This evil act feels like it outweighs the rest, even though statistically the monster/or cold/disease killed more crew members, Hickey feels more evil and I think it is because it feels like a betrayal. We feel betrayed in this act, as maybe we (humanity) thought better of ourselves, that we wouldn't succumb to such temptations? It reminds me weirdly enough of a quote in the Witcher, "You don’t need mutations to strip men of their humanity. I’ve seen plenty of examples."

I find this book reflects to me that there is no need to invent monsters, for we ourselves are often the monsters.

Unrelated note: I do find it odd though, when the monster attacks in the earlier chapters when it is on the boat (killing on the deck or in the cabins), that the whole ship does not seem to notice what is going on. The beast seems massive, it's shear weight should alert the whole boat of its presence when it is on the boat no?

I am at the part were Crozier just finished investigating the crime scene, so you don't spoil anything ahead of that

After a long 4 month journey with this book, I have finally finished it. I am still somewhat perplexed on the total shift after chapter 62, when Simmons introduces the Inuit mythology into the mix. I feel like the whole tone of the book shifted after that chapter. In a sense it was interesting to learn about the mythology around the monster, but it also strayed into the bizarre were it felt confusing to introduce all this new information into the very last 50 or so pages of the book. It explains the weird scene near the start were Irving witnesses Lady Silence's weird singing to the beast, as well as the whole backstory towards the beast, I just feel it would of been a lot smoother if the whole mythology around it was revealed bit by bit maybe?

I agree with you on the Goodsir quote when he was being tortured by Hickey, on the lines of "why do you have to cause more suffering when there already is so much going around." Which comes to my next point, the dead human in the terror.

When describing the Inuit mythology about the Tuunbaq's origin, the book mentions the creature being banished to Earth long ago, and then:

"The Tuunbaq, deprived of its monstrous spirit form but still monstrous in essence, soon changed form — as all tupilek do — into the most terrible living thing it could find on Earth. It chose the shape and substance of the smartest, stealthiest, most deadly predator on Earth — the white northern bear — but was to the bear in size and cunning as a bear itself is to one of the dogs of the Real People."

So it turned into a monstrous super polar bear which enjoyed eating animals and people alike, until the shamans learned to contain it to the north by working out a deal, where they would feed and worship the Tuunbaq in exchange for peace. This peace would last until:

"The sixam ieua knew through their forward-thoughts that when the Tuunbaq’s domain was finally invaded by the pale people — the kabloona — it would be the beginning of the End of Times. Poisoned by the kabloonas’ pale souls, the Tuunbaq would sicken and die."

We see the Tuunbaq's domain being invaded by white people, and the Tuunbaq feasts on their souls and presumably sickens.

And maybe, before it dies, it realizes that the white man (People like Hickey) is now the most terrible living thing on Earth, an even smarter and deadlier predator than the white bear. So it takes the form of a monstrous white man (thus the enormous teeth) and goes to dwell in the place where it saw the white men come from, the Terror.

Hickey's death felt very odd, during his whole venture, I just wanted the Tuunbaq to show up. I'm not sure I understood the whole, ascended to Godhood on his part, maybe it was due to turning to cannibalism, and slowly going crazy in the pitch black. Having the power to choose who to eat next. It was all very strange, and in the end, the Tuunbaq does show up, but doesn'y eat Hickey? Maybe ate his corrupted soul which ultimately proves too wicked and rotten for the creature leading to the Tuunbaq death?

In the end, Crozier falls in love with Silence because he also has this special third eye ability that the shamans inherit, and stays with the tribe. I feel most conflicted with this end of the story than the rest, as I just thought it kinda killed Crozier character for me.