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Based on the true story of two ice ships that disappeared in the Arctic Circle during the Sir John Franklin Expedition in 1845, The Terror is a meticulously researched and fascinating account of 19th century seafaring life.
"Masterfully chilling." —Entertainment Weekly
The men on board the HMS Terror—part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage—are entering a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, they struggle to survive with poisonous rations, a dwindling coal supply, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is even more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror clawing to get in.
“The best and most unusual historical novel I have read in years.” —Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe
Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons was the Hugo Award-winning author of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and their sequels, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. He wrote the critically acclaimed suspense novels Darwin's Blade and The Crook Factory, as well as other highly respected works, including Summer of Night and its sequel A Winter Haunting, Song of Kali, Carrion Comfort, and Worlds Enough & Time. He passed away in 2026.
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