This is a fictionalized account of Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 arctic exploration in search of the Northwest Passage. It was engrossing from beginning to end. The writing is sparse, beautiful and poetic. The characters are extremely well-developed. The ice itself becomes a character, malevolent and unforgiving:

"Erebus was filled with the sound of creaking and scraping where the ice continued to assault her, probing and fingering as it came, searching out her weaknesses as meticulously and as relentlessly as it had sought out and then exploited those of the Terror." (Erebus and Terror were the names of the two vessels on the expedition).

One of the complaints I've read about this novel is that it is not entirely factually correct. (The example given was that the men did not die in the order presented in this novel). I'm not an arctic exploration scholar, but if you are, I hope that you will not let some factual errors deter you from reading this book, particularly given the fact that much of what is known about the exploration is speculation anyway. This is a novel well worth reading. Beyond being beautifully written, it has inspired me to seek out other literature on the subject. ( )