The Terror and Daniel Boulud

So, last weekend I went to NYC. I took the train, which was good as I got to do a lot of reading .I finished the 2nd Ash book, which was very good, especially as I have just decided to ignore the bickering academics and their feeble excuse for an alternative history. Please. Does there have to be a reason for an alternative history? In a book like this, you can just say "this is how it is" and the internal logic of the book will carry it (hopefully). If the book is predicated on an event, then the event needs to be described and then the story can move on from there. But to have these academics asking "why" via email is disruptive to an otherwise entertaining story. The train ride also gave me the chance to really dig into The Terror, the latest by Dan Simmons. Simmons is not a writer I usually read and I'm not sure why. I read a book by him awhile ago, involving the ghost of a soldier from WWI who treats some children badly...there may have been an evil schoolteacher...clearly, it didn't make much of an impression. But I really liked The Terror. It was creepy and atmospheric (be sure to read it while you're nice and warm because you'll feel the chill all the way through). The Terror tells the story of HMS Terror, on its way to look for the Northwest Passage, along with its sister ship Erebus. Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong in its trip to the Arctic. The summer thaw never comes and both ships are trapped in the ice. Half the canned food is spoiled. The men have no idea how to hunt for local game and the lime juice has lost its potency, so scurvy is taking its toll. And they refuse to try and learn anything about how to survive from the indigenous people. Part of what I like about good horror stories, is that the good are punished along with the bad, but The Terror is fairly traditional-the the one really good guy survives (and overcomes the personal humiliation meted out to him by a thoughtless and arrogant girl by finding true love) and the evil crewmen all pretty die one by one, although the most evil don't get punished quite as badly as (I thought, anyway) as they deserved. The good do die honorable deaths though, in refusing to become cannibals and the good doctor (who started off as a weakling who didn't seem to able to pull his weight) who refuses to assist the cannibals by carving up the men they killed for food, poisons himself. It's a good death, considering his alternative.There aren't too many twists in the story, but what is there is very well told.

While I was in NYC, I had dinner at db Bistro Moderne, Daniel Boulud's newish place the Theater district. I had the house specialty-the $32 hamburger. I'm generally not a fan of burgers and I rarely eat red meat but for some reason that night I was craving it. It was one of the best things EVER. Yes, I was hungry because I hadn't eaten all day but it was wonderful. Juicy and tangy, with something really delicious in it (probably that outlawed foie gras but maybe the truffle shavings). If you ever have dinner there....