The Terror by Dan Simmons
Based on actual events with some fantasy thrown in. 1845 expedition trying to find the North West Passage near the North Pole. Enjoyed this quite a bit, although felt like the ending was a let down somehow. No idea though what other ending could have been done. It was ultimately moored to reality. Loved the bit about Sophia Cracroft. Had some social norms nuance. Had a ton of technical knowledge. Simmons in fact cites 30 or so books, etc he read for research in writing this. The mystery surrounding the monster had to finally be revealed in some way. Didn't like the way in which it was done. I guess more of a telling than a showing.

At parts fell into formula a bit much. Hickey seemed slapped in there somehow... As if more than halfway into the book Simmons realized he needed more than extremely cold weather as an adversity. Then it seemed like he threw in a good gay man rather late exactly to counter Hickey being so evil along with being up to that point the only character that was gay.

No heroes with aces here. Liked how depressed Crozier was. Life is nasty, brutish, and short.

Checked out a sample of Simmons' Hyperion series. I suppose I liked that the character was playing Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp minor to start (was my favorite to play back when I had a piano.) But so quickly the plot seems extremely contrived and also space fiction just doesn't work for me so well (unless it's Jack Vance.) Immediately get mired in so many technical things that are all invented and irrelevant, perhaps.