Book description
The men on board Her Britannic Majesty's Ships Terror and
Erebus had every expectation of triumph. They were part of
Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition - as scientifically advanced an
enterprise as had ever set forth - and theirs were the first
steam-driven vessels to go in search of the fabled North-West Passage.
But the ships have now been trapped in the Arctic ice for
nearly two years. Coal and provisions are running low. Yet the real
threat isn't the constantly shifting landscape of white or the
flesh-numbing temperatures, dwindling supplies or the vessels being
slowly crushed by the unyielding grip of the frozen ocean.
No, the real threat is far more terrifying. There is something out
there that haunts the frigid darkness, which stalks the ships,
snatching one man at a time - mutilating, devouring. A nameless thing,
at once nowhere and everywhere, this terror has become the
expedition's nemesis.
When Franklin meets a terrible death, it falls to Captain Francis
Crozier of HMS Terror to take command and lead the remaining
crew on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With
them travels an Eskimo woman who cannot speak. She may be the key to
survival - or the harbinger of their deaths. And as scurvy, starvation
and madness take their toll, as the Terror on the ice become evermore
bold, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape...
DAN SIMMONS is a recipient of a Hugo Award and the author of
acclaimed suspense and science fiction novels, including
Darwin's Blade
,
Hyperion
,
Ilium
and
Olympos
. He lives in Colorado. His website is www. dansimmons. com
