The North Water

One sentence synopsis... A propulsive journey across the north water on a whaling expedition follows a disgraced Irish surgeon, a psychopathic harpooner, amongst a cast of violent, unfortunate men.

Read it if you like... ‘The Terror' or ‘Godless'.

Dream casting... unfortunately this was a case of knowing who was cast in the show before reading the book. As a result I could only picture Colin Farrell as Drax and Jack O'Connell as Sumner. That being said, I'm not mad.

Boats, Brutality and Bodily Functions. This book reminded me a lot of Terror by Dan Simmons albeit much shorter. It isn't however the same story by any means. Like Terror it is the story of a shipwreck in the Arctic. One man fights for his survival against starvation and freezing temperatures. He encounters polar bears and Inuit. What Terror doesn't have is the graphic description of gore and bodily emissions which this story has in spades. I'm not a squeamish reader but a few sentences really made me squirm. Not for the faint-hearted.