The Terror

by Dan Simmons

But not today. Crozier reached to the shelf under the pulpit and pulled out a heavy leather-bound book. He set it down with a reassuring thud of authority. “Today,” he intoned, “I shall read from the Book of Leviathan, Part One, Chapter Twelve.” There was a murmuring in the crowd of seamen. Crozier heard a toothless Erebus in the third row mutter, “I know the fucking Bible, and there ain’t no fucking Book of Leviathan.” Crozier waited for silence and began. “ ‘And for that part of Religion, which consisteth in opinions concerning the nature of Powers Invisible,…” Crozier’s voice and Old Testament cadence left no doubt as to which words were celebrated with capital letters.