Kevin's Watch

Has anybody else read this? I am about halfway through and am absolutley loving it!

Basically, it's a semi-historical novel about two British ships, the Terror and the Erebus, in the late 1840s and their doomed expedition to find the northwest passage. It's equal parts sea-yarn, historical fiction and horror novel. The majority of the story (at least so far, aside from flashbacks) takes place with the two ships locked in the arctic ice - where they stay for years. As survival gets more difficult in the harsh conditions, a supernatural element enters as well - the survivors are being stalked (maybe) by something on the ice...

I'd never read Simmons before, so really didn't know what to expect. He does a fantastic job in this book - lots of good historical detail, lots of tension and action, and very good characterizaion - which with essentially all of the characters being sailors - could have been difficult - the characters easily could have run together, but they don't - they are all very distinctive.

I'm learning quite a lot as well. The historical elements appear very well researched - lots of detail about the workings of these types of ships and exploratory voyages.

I was concerned going in about the setting - 700+ pages of ice and snow might get old. But again, so far, Simmons is doing a fantastic job of highlighting the dramatic arctic weather. The relentess cold is oppressive (as it should be) but never old. Some of the descriptions of the scences have stayed with me days after I've read them. Sometimes, I swear I feel cold reading this - no small trick on an 85 degree August day.

And the horror elements are very nicely done as well - just enough to rachet up the tension in an already tense situation, but not too much. There are definetly some hearkenings back to "classic" horror elements - the isolated situation, increasing desperation, etc.

Normally I would be hesitant to recommend a book where I was only halfway through, but this one is really strong. I am throughly enjoying this.

I need to read this, Simmons is an incredibly talented writer-love the four Hyperion books and need to read Ilium and Olympos (sp) as well...

Yup, I read it. Agree with everything you said. A very enjoyable read.

Danlo, that thread about seafaring stories a while back was yours, wasn't it? You'd really like this one, I bet.

Brinn, it's good to hear someone else read and liked this one. I just got past the part where they have their New Years Eve celebration -

Spoiler

The description of the costumed, drunken sailors first cavorting, then fleeing through that odd canvas structure out on the ice - with all of the different colored rooms - was awesome.

That was one of the most exciting, vivid scences I had read in a long time.

Funny, I was just wondering if you had reached that point. That was an excellent scene. Keep it up, the book keeps the momentum going and the ending was very surprising to me. Song of Kali is another good one from Dan Simmons if you want to read more of his horror fiction.

If the rest of his stuff is this good, I may just have to check some more of it out.

So now I'm at the point where

Spoiler

the remaining surgeon is doing autopsies after the esquimaux massacre. The killing of Irving by his shipmate caught be totally by surprise - but makes perfect sense in retrospect considering the realtion between to two of them - again very nicely done.

And I thought that this was a very tragic event, too. Just enough had happen to think that things were going to improve, then....

Sorry, double post.

One of the things I'm very impressed with is Simmons' ability to not "show" the reader what "it" is.

As much as I love Stephen King, he sometimes slips a little in this respect, IMO. He sometimes gives too much detail - too closely defining "it"; whatever "it" may be in the given story. To paraphrase King himself - from Danse Macabre - anytime you reveal a 10 foot cockroach, part of the audience is always relieved, in a sense, that it wasn't a 12 foot cockroach. In other words, the imagination is always more frightening than anything that can be put on the page.

Simmons obviously knows this. He is walking a perfect line in showing the reader just enough about "it" to frighten, but never so much that "it" become definable. He guides the reader into scaring themselves rather than trying to scare them outright.

As far as I'm concerned, he's doing a fantastic job.

Ok, triple post - I know, 50 lashes with a wet noodle for me....


Finished the book a while back. It was fantastic, all around. The ending section had quite a different shift in tone from the rest of the novel, and it could have felt very disjointed. But again Simmons did a great job seeding small things throughout the novel to make the events of the end cohesive with the rest of the book.

Spoiler

Things like Crozier's rare episodes of Second Sight, completely allowed his transformation at the end to be believable.

And even in the more "mystical" events near the end, there was quite a lot of esqiumaux history and culture put in there.

A very, very good book.

Just wanted to chime in that I loved this book. Since I read it, whenever it's icy cold weather, it makes me think of passages in the book.

Seem to be a number of Simmons fans here. I liked Hyperion, loved,the second book, just found Endymion in a used book store, but not going to read it till I find the second. Anyway...have any of you read his 'vampire' books? [Carrion Comfort I think was one I read long ago...and something with Night in the title (helpful, isn't it?)...probably this doesn't belong here, but no use starting a thread if noone cares, and this horror thread seems more likely than the sf one.

Jeff wrote:Seem to be a number of Simmons fans here. I liked Hyperion, loved,the second book, just found Endymion in a used book store, but not going to read it till I find the second. Anyway...have any of you read his 'vampire' books? [Carrion Comfort I think was one I read long ago...and something with Night in the title (helpful, isn't it?)...probably this doesn't belong here, but no use starting a thread if noone cares, and this horror thread seems more likely than the sf one.

Carrion Comfort was one of the best and most original vampire style book I've read. Been thinking about rereading it soon. Summer of Night is the other one you mentioned. Another fav of mine.

Song Of Kali is also excellent. Won the Bram Stoker award for horror.

A friend of mine raves about Carrion Comfort. Very hard to find around here, though.

Montresor wrote:A friend of mine raves about Carrion Comfort. Very hard to find around here, though.

This is one of a handful of books, that I couldn't get thru the first time I tried them (after only a few pages) but then tried again and am so glad I did.

Really looking forward to reading this aye.

Got this novel as a gift last year. Eventually got 'round to reading it and was extremely impressed. Very eerie, with startling details as well as a sense of "reality" both physical and emotional. Must admit to having a weakness for works that answer historical mysteries.

Two other Simmons novels worth a look are 'Drood', a strange ans erie tale of the relationship between Dickens and Wilkie Collins and the effect on it of Dickens meeting with a goulish charachter named Drood at the train crash site in which he (Dickens) was nearly killed. Secondly,Summer of night is almost like an eighties horror film to read eg poltergeist and that sort of stuff. Not nearly as accomplished as Drood - but pretty chilling in places!