Noted author, bigot Dan Simmons reported dead of stroke.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
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My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2/27/26 11:58, James Nicoll wrote:

Noted author, bigot Dan Simmons reported dead of stroke.

He was 11 years younger than myself.
Too bad. Look for anthologies to be published.

bliss

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition,
(spoiler follows),


















zzzzz





never being resolved whether there was an external supernatural being
or an internal delusion.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 13:20:48 +1300, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition, >(spoiler follows),

Did you watch the TV series? The first season was based on Simmons'
book and was good enough to get me to read the novel. I thought the
book was a little bloated - it seemed like the author did a ton of
research for it, and then decided he had to cram every bit of that
research into the novel whether it fit or not.

Second season of the TV show was a completely different story in no
way related to Simmons' book.

-- Bob

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Titus G wrote:

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition, (spoiler follows),

I'm enjoying it.

It wouldn't have hurt to ask someone about sea ice though. Minor nit, I confess.

William Hyde

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 03/03/2026 07:02, Bice wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 13:20:48 +1300, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition,
(spoiler follows),

Did you watch the TV series? The first season was based on Simmons'
book and was good enough to get me to read the novel. I thought the
book was a little bloated - it seemed like the author did a ton of
research for it, and then decided he had to cram every bit of that
research into the novel whether it fit or not.

No. I haven't seen the TV series. I enjoyed the detail of the ship, its provisions, well, all of it.

Second season of the TV show was a completely different story in no
way related to Simmons' book.

-- Bob

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 03/03/2026 12:44, William Hyde wrote:

Titus G wrote:

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition,
(spoiler follows),

I'm enjoying it.

It wouldn't have hurt to ask someone about sea ice though.ÿ Minor nit, I confess.

William Hyde

Everything was new for me and I know nothing about sea ice so I was
mesmerised by both the adventure and the education with little
background. What was the issue with sea ice?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Titus G wrote:

On 03/03/2026 12:44, William Hyde wrote:

Titus G wrote:

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition,
(spoiler follows),

I'm enjoying it.

It wouldn't have hurt to ask someone about sea ice though.ÿ Minor nit, I
confess.

William Hyde

Everything was new for me and I know nothing about sea ice so I was mesmerised by both the adventure and the education with little
background. What was the issue with sea ice?

It's a minor point, but the deeper you go in sea ice the warmer it gets.
As you might expect given that the ambient air temperature is around -40
while the water temperature under the ice is about -1. Sea ice is a
fairly good insulator, but heat does diffuse upwards from he ocean.

But in the book, the deepest parts of the ships are always the coldest.
That will be true when the ships are heated, as hot air rises, but not
once the heating is off.

Minor, but he says it often.


William Hyde

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 04/03/2026 09:43, William Hyde wrote:

Titus G wrote:

On 03/03/2026 12:44, William Hyde wrote:

Titus G wrote:

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition, >>>> (spoiler follows),

I'm enjoying it.

It wouldn't have hurt to ask someone about sea ice though.ÿ Minor nit, I >>> confess.

William Hyde

Everything was new for me and I know nothing about sea ice so I was
mesmerised by both the adventure and the education with little
background. What was the issue with sea ice?

It's a minor point, but the deeper you go in sea ice the warmer it gets.
As you might expect given that the ambient air temperature is around -40 while theÿ waterÿ temperature under the ice is about -1. Sea ice is a
fairly good insulator, but heat does diffuse upwards from he ocean.

But in the book, the deepest parts of the ships are always the coldest.
That will be true when the ships are heated, as hot air rises, but not
once the heating is off.

Minor, but he says it often.

That is the type of interesting fact about something of which I know
nothing, that I appreciated from reading The Terror. It seems obvious
when explained but I would never have noticed. Thank you.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Tue, 3 Mar 2026 17:25:39 +1300, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:

On 03/03/2026 07:02, Bice wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 13:20:48 +1300, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition,
(spoiler follows),

Did you watch the TV series?

No. I haven't seen the TV series.

The first season (the one based on Simmons' book) is definitely worth
watching. It's on various streaming services and was released on DVD.

I should have mentioned that I did enjoy the book, but to me it seemed
like it could have been trimmed down from 750 pages to like four or
five hundred without losing anything important.

-- Bob

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 09/03/2026 08:25, Bice wrote:

On Tue, 3 Mar 2026 17:25:39 +1300, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:

On 03/03/2026 07:02, Bice wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 13:20:48 +1300, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:

The Terror. Was: Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 -- February 21, 2026)

This was brilliant, fascinating from start to finish, with repeated
plausible real life cliff hangers with great detail of the expedition, >>>> (spoiler follows),

Did you watch the TV series?

No. I haven't seen the TV series.

The first season (the one based on Simmons' book) is definitely worth watching. It's on various streaming services and was released on DVD.

I should have mentioned that I did enjoy the book, but to me it seemed
like it could have been trimmed down from 750 pages to like four or
five hundred without losing anything important.

-- Bob

A common technique in the horror genre is endless repetition of angst
delaying an actual result and this is what he did. Although occasionally annoyed, I think that the importance of that padding technique is to
allow the reader to wallow in fear and apprehension.
I don't read much horror but Stephen King's IT is a great big fat book
that could have been a short story. In The Terror, I was enthralled by everything from the provisioning of the ship to the death defying
expedition ending in the trek across the ice where there was a lot of repetition which increased anxiety and delayed any discovery of the
cause of the suspected unnecessary deaths. But I sort of agree with you
as I was occasionally annoyed with the verbosity but suspect it wouldn't
have been such a page turner without it.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)