The Terror

In 1845, an expedition led by the experienced polar researcher Sir John Franklin set out on the ships “Terror” and “Erebus” to the north coast of Canada in search of the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific—and it vanished without a trace. The search stretched on for several decades; information about what happened to it was collected literally grain by grain, and even today the picture of the events is dotted with white spots.

Dan Simmons offers his version of the events: the expedition’s main threat was not the crushing embrace of ice, not the cold and blizzards, not spoiled supplies—and not even bad canned food—but an unknown gigantic creature, as if woven from snow and polar darkness. A thriller intense in atmosphere combines rich historical details with elements of mysticism: a supernatural being of immense strength and intellect, brutally killing (or abducting) the crew of the ships Erebus and Terror.