The Terror

The Terror (2007) is a historical horror novel written by American science fiction and horror author Dan Simmons. It combines the real ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition with supernatural horror. It centers on the crews of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, British Royal Navy ships that set out to find the Northwest Passage through the Arctic but became trapped in ice. As the men face starvation, scurvy, mutiny, and the brutal Arctic environment, they are also stalked by something monstrous and deadly.

The novel was adapted into a television series by AMC in 2018, with the first season following the events of the book. It was also nominated for the British Fantasy Award in 2008.

This guide uses the 2007 eBook edition published by Little, Brown, and Company.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of racism, religious discrimination, gender discrimination, antigay bias, sexual violence, ableism, death by suicide, suicidal ideation and self-harm, animal cruelty and death, substance use and dependency, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, illness, death, and physical abuse.

Language Note: The Terror uses anti-Indigenous and anti-gay terms that are offensive but were historically and linguistically accurate to the time in which the novel is set. This study guide reproduces this language only in quotations. Elsewhere, it refers to Indigenous peoples by the names by which they identify themselves.

Language Note: The novel often uses the historical name for King William Island, King William Land. This guide reproduces that language.

Plot Summary

By May 1847, Sir Franklin’s expedition to find the Northwest Passage is going badly. Several men have already died, and the ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, are trapped in the ice for the second year in a row. On the way back from leaving a message in a cairn at Victory Point, a party of crewmen and officers is attacked by a massive creature on the ice after accidentally shooting an Inuit man they mistook for a bear. Though the surgeon, Dr. Goodsir, attempts to save the man, he dies. The man’s daughter is taken aboard the HMS Terror under the protection of its captain, Crozier, and given the nickname “Lady Silence” due to being non-verbal. After a string of storms and sightings of the creature, Franklin rallies the crews with a fiery sermon, promising rewards for its destruction. A trap is laid with a hunting blind, but the monster surprises them anyway and kills several men, including Franklin himself.

After Franklin’s death, Crozier is left in command, though he’s tormented by guilt over the man’s death and his dependency on alcohol, the supply of which is dwindling. The crew is fearful and superstitious about Silence, and conditions are worsening as the coal dwindles and the men begin to sicken from malnutrition. Most of the expedition’s canned provisions were spoiled due to poor canning, limiting their supplies. Crozier also discovers that the creature is starting to break into the ship from beneath. Soon after, men begin vanishing or turning up mutilated as the creature starts to hunt them on the ice. Lieutenant Irving discovers that Silence has been disappearing and has a source of fresh meat. Eventually, he tracks her to a meeting she has with the creature, who leaves her the meat. Meanwhile, the caulker’s mate, Hickey, plots to have Irving killed after the Lieutenant walked in on him having sex with one of the sailors, Manson.

On New Year’s Eve 1847, the men organize a “Carnivale” to boost morale. While Crozier has misgivings, he’s convinced by Commander Fitzjames, who now leads Erebus. The celebration spirals out of control as the creature attacks and turns the constructed festival tents into an inferno. Many men are killed or injured, including all the surgeons save Dr. Goodsir. Crozier punishes Hickey, Manson, and the steward Aylmore with public floggings due to their being primarily responsible for the event. Goodsir, now the last surviving surgeon, documents worsening scurvy among the crew, while Crozier experiences alcohol withdrawal. As he’s nursed back to health, he has strange, prophetic dreams of the doom of the expedition’s crew.

As the new year progresses, tensions grow. A sailor aboard Terror, Peglar, secretly visits his old shipmate and lover, Bridgens, aboard Erebus, who warns him of Hickey’s dangerous influence after a failed mutiny attempt against Silence. Meanwhile, Crozier convenes a council to discuss options: Remain with the ships, or march south. In March, calamity strikes Erebus when the creature breaks into the ship. A month later, after Erebus sinks, Crozier finally orders Terror abandoned, and the men begin their desperate retreat south. Along the way, they continue to be stalked by the creature.

While scouting ahead, Irving makes contact with a group of Inuit, trading his telescope for food and receiving a cautious welcome. However, after going back to regroup with the rest of his team, Hickey ambushes and murders him. Irving’s mutilated body is returned to the main camp, and Lieutenant Hodgson, goaded by Hickey’s lies, leads several men to kill most of the Inuit in retaliation. As the men prepare to continue the march south, Crozier and Fitzjames return to the cairn to update the record there with news of Franklin’s death, the ships’ abandonment, and their dwindling numbers.

The trip south is plagued by the men’s worsening conditions. By June, the survivors halt long enough for Fitzjames to die in relative peace, though Crozier wonders if he had been poisoned. The hopes of finding open water nearby are dashed when the ice freezes over and the creature attacks again. Further losses mount as storms and collapsing ice kill more of their number. By late July, the survivors realize that what they thought was a peninsula is actually King William Island, confirming that they did find the Northwest Passage after all.

Crozier establishes “Rescue Camp” at the southeastern tip of King William Island. He plans to send the healthiest men south toward Back’s River, leaving Goodsir behind with the dying, but Hickey mutinies with Manson, Hodgson, and some of the others. They murder several men and kidnap Goodsir to take with them on their trek back toward the abandoned ships. Crozier is also shot in the process, but escapes onto the ice and is presumed dead. Leadership of the remaining men falls to Second Mate Des Voeux, who prepares those men left to push south by boat, leaving the dying behind.

Within Hickey’s faction, discipline collapses as he declares himself “king,” executes his rivals, and forces the survivors into cannibalism. Goodsir, suffering from mutilation and abuse at Hickey’s hands, eventually poisons himself, warning in a final note that his corpse is unsafe to eat. By mid-October, only Hickey remains, enthroned on his frozen boat. Deluded that he has become a god, Hickey is killed at last by the creature.

Crozier, meanwhile, survives his injuries after being saved by Silence. When he awakens, she continues to tend to him and eventually takes him north across the ice. Eventually, they grow closer and begin an intimate relationship. Through recurring visions, Crozier learns that the Tuunbaq, the creature that had stalked them, was created to destroy other spirits but became uncontrollable, feeding on human souls until the sixam ieua, a group of clairvoyant shamans, struck a bargain to appease it. Silence is revealed as one of those charged with maintaining that balance. Crozier begins to live by her ways as he begins to understand that he can never go back to his former life. Eventually, they set out across the ice together, and he ritualistically offers his body and soul to the Tuunbaq to become one of the sixam ieua as well.

By 1851, Crozier is now known as Taliriktug and living with Silence and their two children. They follow reports of the Franklin Expedition to find HMS Terror still locked in the ice. Inside, Crozier finds evidence of corruption and horror. To keep its darkness from being uncovered by later explorers, he sets the ship ablaze, watching it burn and sink beneath the ice. With his old life buried, Taliriktug turns away from England forever, walking east with his family.