Sandi's comments

Sandi's comments from the Horror Aficionados group.

Note: Sandi is no longer a member of this group.

I stayed up late last night to finish it. I'll try to get a review posted tonight. I do agree with you Chris, it gets high marks overall. The ending was just weak.

Not only is the monster not necessary, but I'm now getting into a very corny mythological explanation of its origin. I really hate when an author wraps up a book by explaining things that are better off left unexplained. He really had me sucked in until the last 100 pages or so. I've only got 50 pages left, but the section I'm on doesn't really fit the rest of the book.

I was worried. From your post title, I thought you had an actual pile of 700 books that you haven't read. That was scary.

Tressa wrote: "Is The Terror based on the true story of that Arctic explorer and his men who got stranded and the captain went for help and did finally bring a rescue crew back? I saw a documentary on this and re..."

No. It's about an expedition that was completely lost. I looked up Franklin's Lost Expedition on Wikipedia pretty early on in my reading and it's really interesting how Simmons worked in what's known about the expedition along with the totally fictional stuff.

My first love is science fiction and fantasy. I've wandered a bit into horror and detective novels lately. What I'm noticing is that there is a lot of crossover between science fiction, fantasy, and horror. A really good example would be the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. It uses science to explain magic and features a rather brutal vampire. Dan Simmons writes books that are shelved in both the science fiction and the horror sections. Piers Anthony's Shade of the Tree and Terry Brooks' The Word and the Void trilogy are classified as fantasy, but they have strong horror elements to them. I've heard that The Stand by Stephen King is great post-apocalyptic fiction. (I haven't read it yet, but I have it.) Wouldn't that be science fiction?

So, what defines horror as a separate genre from science fiction and/or fantasy?

Rusty wrote: "Tressa, I read "Song of Kali", and I thought it was pretty good, but it was difficult to get through. I know that was Simmons' first novel; so are his other books any easier to wade through?"

Right now, I'm about 150 pages away from the end of The Terror. It's 90% historical fiction and 10% horror. There's a monster in it that might be the Abominable Snowman, but the monster isn't anywhere near as frightening as the parts based on historical facts. I didn't know what to expect, but it's an excellent book.

My favorite genre is science fiction. I absolutely love Simmons' Hyperion/Endymion series. It's two related duologies, if that makes any sense. The first duet is Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. The second duet is Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. For horror lovers, the series features a great monster, the Shrike. It's very scary and gruesome.

I've also read The Hollow Man by Simmons. I don't know where it would be classified--probably horror.

I think Dan Simmons is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

The thing is, there was no suspense to "Bait". I figured out what the bait was and what he was fishing for 1/4 of the way into the story. My favorites so far have been "The Teacher" and "Front Row Seats".

"Bait" was absolutely gruesome. I've found the Pseudopod stories to be sort of hit or miss. I haven't listened to many episodes, but there haven't been many that have scared me.

I also read Sheep and Wolves. Some of the stories were really good and some I just didn't get. I liked his novel, Vacation better. I don't know if bizarro is really my genre.