The Terror by Dan Simmons

 

The Terror by Dan Simmons-766 pages

This is an older book, but I read a review and thought it sounded interesting.  That is an understatement!

This is a book about survival.  It's 1845 and two ships set out to find the Northwest Passage.  They get stranded in the Arctic circle going on three summers without any thawing.  The ice is actually crushing the two ships.  They are running out of food and coal.  Scurvy and starvation is setting in.  If that is not enough there is something huge and terrifying trying to claw its way onto the ships.  On the HMS Terror they have also taken on an Inuit woman whose tongue has been cut out.  She may actually be the link to the terror that stalks them and yet she may be their only hope of surviving if she can teach them how to hunt seals.  Captain Crozier takes command after the predator takes out the expeditions leader, Sir John Franklin.  There are many brutal deaths at not only each others hands but also by the predator.  The story comes to a surprising twist which I will not reveal...

I liked it.  Not what I was expecting at all.  I recommend reading it.