Historical Horror Novels by Dan Simmons

I just stumbled upon Drood: A Novel by Dan Simmons, which is labeled as historical fiction. Looking a little further I also found The Terror: A Novel, a similarly labeled book.

Does anybody have an opinion on horror flavored historical fiction?

I thought The Terror was quite good, and have Drood on my wishlist. If you haven't tried The Terror, I highly recommend it. But I'm not so sure that it should be labeled historical fiction, that's for sure.

There have been a few "crossovers" on my list here lately that are labeled as historical fiction or historical mysteries that I thought should have more properly been labeled horror. One of the advantages of living in an area with a pretty good library system is that I can get daily updates by RSS feed on the new items purchased, so it's easier for me to find those out-of-category items.

I've put The Terror on my wishlist... Just curious. What would those other "crossovers" be?

Besides The Terror, there was Kingdom of Bones which started out as a Victorian mystery and turned out to have some supernatural elements that were key to the story, yet this was categorized as historical fiction. And at least two of the Barker/Llewellyn series, The Limehouse Text and The Hellfire Club were on the horror side. The first involves looking for a mystical text that supposedly holds an ancient martial arts secret, the second a secret club for Satanists. These were labeled historical mysteries.

I have not been disappointed with any of the books that I have read by Dan Simmons yet. Although not a historical novel, give SUMMER OF NIGHT a shot and followed it up with A WINTER HAUNTING by Simmons. You will want to read everything by him after you have finished both of those novels.

Love Dan Simmons and I can't wait to read Terror. Even Carrion Comfort had some historical stuff in it, although I certainly wouldn not call it a historical novel. I get the impression he's just a good author who does decent research before putting a story out there.

#5 and 6: Actually, I have ordered a used copy of Carrion Comfort a while ago. It has yet to be delivered, but I reckon you'd recommend that I give it priority, when it's in the mail...

The Terror the horror the horror. LOL sorry I'm amusing myself. I love Dan Simmons, but I find his books to be too long. Too long as in 'did that, been there, lost a lot of toes'. It does read like a historical novel, but has the terror element thrown in. I didn't find myself as accepting of the Terror once it was explained to me.

I like historical horror fiction very much, as long as it's not only well-done, but intricate. Caleb Carr's The Alienist comes immediately to mind. You feel like you are right there in 1890's New York! Andrei Codrescu's The Blood Countess, about Elizabeth Bathory, is another that I really enjoyed.

As for the genre-defying Simmons - he is one of the best contemporary writers out there, period. His work is often pretty serious stuff (check the forums on his website, of which he is a frequent participant, to see just how deep this guy can go on just about any subject), but the man can also entertain.

As for his "historical' works, The Terror VERY closely follows what is known about the doomed Franklin expedition of the mid-1800s, and ... extrapolates. It's fascinating enough for those who are enthralled by tales of arctic exploration, but the fact that it is dedicated to the cast and crew of the 1950's version of "The Thing" should give you a hint as to what else lurks in those pages.

Fires of Eden compellingly splits the plot between contemporary Hawaii and Mark Twain's 1866 real-life trip to the Sandwich Islands. With many angry Hawaiian deities.

Children of the Night, vividly re-creates the historical setting of a post-Ceausescu Romania. Some very scary moments.

The Crook Factory, while not a horror novel, is a rip-roaring historical adventure detailing Ernest Hemingway's adventures as a spy-smasher in 1930's Cuba. This one is a LOT of fun.

One of my very favorite Simmons historical pieces is the novella "The Great Lover", found in the Lovedeath collection. Based on the WW1 poetry of Wilfred Owen and others, this depicts the horrors of trench warfare in excruciating detail. A little masterpiece.

I, too, am looking forward to Drood, the novel based on the troubled life of Charles Dickens after he was nearly killed in an awful train wreck. It's gonna be a THICK one!

Whatever Simmons writes you can be assured that you will be immersed in a mise-en-scene so realistic that you will feel that you've actually been there!

I read The Terror earlier this year and loved it! At the time, I didn't know the Franklin expedition was something that had actually happened. Since then, I've been reading various nonfiction books about the Franklin expedition and I am astounded at how much fact Dan Simmons put into his book. Yes, he made up the "thing on the ice", but so many little things that I found terrifying in the book (such as the bit of foreshadowing in which Franklin woke up to find his wife had covered him with a Union Jack she had been sewing) were events that really happened. So I would definitely label this as historical fiction.

Glad you enjoyed The Terror, RebeccaAnn, it is an amazing piece of work. A lot of the classic non-fiction accounts of polar exploration, such as Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World can be riveting and harrowing. I enjoyed how Simmons took just such a test of human endurance and ran with it to an even more terrifying level.

I'm now about a third of the way through Drood. Simmon's depiction of a decaying, labyrinthine, dangerous Victorian London is a wonder. The man's writing might as well be a hypno-ray!

I want to read Drood very much, but first I want to read a couple works by Dickens (including The Mystery of Edwin Drood) as well as a couple works by Wilkie Collins so I get a feel for the two authors (believe it or not, I've never read anything by Dickens except for one misguided attempt in ninth grade to get through A Tale of Two Cities).

Maybe I'll even read a biography or two of the authors. That way, I can really appreciate Drood.

Researching / reading Dickens and Collins might provide some valuable insight, but it's definitely not a prerequisite for enjoying Drood. In fact, Simmons himself just might provide enough background for you here:

http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message/2007_03.htm

I do want to read the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood (I think it was even made into a movie with Claude Rains at one point), but I think I'll wait until after I'm done with the Simmons novel.

So is Drood sort of a sequel to The Terror in a way, since Dickens is affected by the discovery of cannibalism?

If so, that just makes me want to read it even more.

At about a third of the way in, I can only say that events related to The Terror are referenced at least once by Simmons in Drood.

:)

*drools*

I'll have to start my reading immediately. I really want to read Drood now!

I think that Dan Simmons has just about managed to out-Dickens the inimitable one himself with DROOD! The real mystery at the core of this novel simply cannot be revealed without spoiling things for new readers. What I can say is that I am flabbergasted and taken by surprise. It's a lot of fun. I also love the extremely dark humor, not to mention the formidable historical accuracy that I have come to expect from DS.