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Dan Simmons: The Terror (Hardcover, 2007, Little, Brown and Company) 4 stars

The bestselling author of Ilium transforms the story of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition into a …

Review of 'The Terror' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The last 10% of this harrowing novel feels nothing at all like the rest. Nothing. My first reaction was disappointment, as I'd been comfortable with the rise and flow of the words, and this last bit felt like it was written by a different author -- tacked to the end of an Arctic journey it didn't match like some belated MadLibs.

It wasn't until I started writing this review that the ending finally clicked for me: the ending is so vastly different than the rest of the book because it represents a massive perspective change for the narrator. Whether this works for a reader, I suppose, would depend on how consistent you like the tone of your narrative. I found the transition jarring, but I can now appreciate narratively why that was done.