The men on board the HMS Terror—part of the ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition—are entering a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, stranded in a nightmarish landscape of ice and desolation. Endlessly cold, they struggle to survive with poisonous rations and a dwindling coal supply. 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.
“A bone- and spine-chilling novel.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“The best and most unusual historical novel I have read in years.”—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe
“A mesmerizing thriller. . . . Simmon’s epic, like the frozen sea that trapped the sailors, holds you fast.”—Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly
Winner of the Hugo Award, several Bram Stoker and Locus Awards, and a pair of World Fantasy Awards, Dan Simmons, author of 32 novels, is widely accepted as one of the giants of SFF. He passed away in 2026.
View titles by Dan Simmons
The men on board the HMS Terror—part of the ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition—are entering a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, stranded in a nightmarish landscape of ice and desolation. Endlessly cold, they struggle to survive with poisonous rations and a dwindling coal supply. 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.
“A bone- and spine-chilling novel.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“The best and most unusual historical novel I have read in years.”—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe
“A mesmerizing thriller. . . . Simmon’s epic, like the frozen sea that trapped the sailors, holds you fast.”—Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly
Author
Winner of the Hugo Award, several Bram Stoker and Locus Awards, and a pair of World Fantasy Awards, Dan Simmons, author of 32 novels, is widely accepted as one of the giants of SFF. He passed away in 2026.
View titles by Dan Simmons
