Listen free for 30 days
-
The Terror
- Narrated by: Tom Sellwood
- Length: 28 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £25.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Erebus: The Story of a Ship
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his major new work, Michael Palin - former Monty Python stalwart and much-loved television globe-trotter - brings to life the world and voyages of HMS Erebus, from its construction in the naval dockyards of Pembroke, to the part it played in Ross’s Antarctic expedition of 1839-43, to its abandonment during Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic expedition, and to its final rediscovery on the seabed in Queen Maud Gulf in 2014.
-
-
Epic tale, written and narrated by Michael Palin.
- By Heisenberg on 24-09-18
-
The North Water
- By: Ian McGuire
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behold the man: Stinking, drunk, brutal and bloodthirsty, Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaling ship bound for the hunting waters of the Arctic Circle. Also aboard is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to embark as ship's medic on this ill-fated voyage.
-
-
A glorious and disturbing assault on the senses
- By Kaggy on 21-02-17
-
Carrion Comfort
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Mel Foster, Laural Merlington
- Length: 39 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazis themselves. Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events.
-
-
Long, long, log... but good!
- By Kindle Customer on 02-11-11
-
Summer of Night
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys’ days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic childhood. But amid the sun-drenched cornfields, their loyalty will be pitilessly tested.
-
-
Decent story slightly let down a bit by narration.
- By Raph on 28-11-17
-
Wake of the Perdido Star
- By: Gene Hackman, Daniel Lenihan
- Narrated by: James Daniels
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack O' Reilly is a 17-year-old New Englander who in 1805, sails with his parents on the Perdido Star to Cuba, his mother's birthplace, to claim the land she inherited. But for Jack, the trip that began with high hopes and the excitement of a new life, becomes a descent into violence and revenge.
-
-
Adventure in the true sense
- By Pauline on 31-05-15
-
North to the Night
- A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic
- By: Alvah Simon
- Narrated by: Robert Brown
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June 1994, Alvah Simon and his wife, Diana, set off in their 36-foot sailboat to explore the hauntingly beautiful world of icebergs, tundra, and fjords lying high above the Arctic Circle. Four months later, unexpected events would trap Simon alone on his boat, frozen in ice 100 miles from the nearest settlement, with the long polar night stretching into darkness for months to come.
-
-
Superb odessy
- By Nigel Frith on 31-12-20
-
Erebus: The Story of a Ship
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his major new work, Michael Palin - former Monty Python stalwart and much-loved television globe-trotter - brings to life the world and voyages of HMS Erebus, from its construction in the naval dockyards of Pembroke, to the part it played in Ross’s Antarctic expedition of 1839-43, to its abandonment during Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic expedition, and to its final rediscovery on the seabed in Queen Maud Gulf in 2014.
-
-
Epic tale, written and narrated by Michael Palin.
- By Heisenberg on 24-09-18
-
The North Water
- By: Ian McGuire
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behold the man: Stinking, drunk, brutal and bloodthirsty, Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaling ship bound for the hunting waters of the Arctic Circle. Also aboard is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to embark as ship's medic on this ill-fated voyage.
-
-
A glorious and disturbing assault on the senses
- By Kaggy on 21-02-17
-
Carrion Comfort
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Mel Foster, Laural Merlington
- Length: 39 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazis themselves. Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events.
-
-
Long, long, log... but good!
- By Kindle Customer on 02-11-11
-
Summer of Night
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys’ days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic childhood. But amid the sun-drenched cornfields, their loyalty will be pitilessly tested.
-
-
Decent story slightly let down a bit by narration.
- By Raph on 28-11-17
-
Wake of the Perdido Star
- By: Gene Hackman, Daniel Lenihan
- Narrated by: James Daniels
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack O' Reilly is a 17-year-old New Englander who in 1805, sails with his parents on the Perdido Star to Cuba, his mother's birthplace, to claim the land she inherited. But for Jack, the trip that began with high hopes and the excitement of a new life, becomes a descent into violence and revenge.
-
-
Adventure in the true sense
- By Pauline on 31-05-15
-
North to the Night
- A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic
- By: Alvah Simon
- Narrated by: Robert Brown
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June 1994, Alvah Simon and his wife, Diana, set off in their 36-foot sailboat to explore the hauntingly beautiful world of icebergs, tundra, and fjords lying high above the Arctic Circle. Four months later, unexpected events would trap Simon alone on his boat, frozen in ice 100 miles from the nearest settlement, with the long polar night stretching into darkness for months to come.
-
-
Superb odessy
- By Nigel Frith on 31-12-20
-
Dark Matter
- By: Michelle Paver
- Narrated by: Jeremy Northam
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
January 1937. Jack Miller has just about run out of options. His shoes have worn through, he can't afford to heat his rented room in Tooting, and he longs to use his training as an specialist wireless operator instead of working in his dead-end job. When he is given the chance to join an arctic expedition, as communications expert, by a group of elite Oxbridge graduates, he brushes off his apprehensions and convinces himself to join them.
-
-
So haunting and atmosphere - a gem of a story
- By Helen on 09-03-15
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
Inspired Sci-fi
- By Peter on 02-12-09
-
Son of a Wanted Man (Dramatized)
- By: Louis L'Amour
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a remote corner of Utah lies the secret outlaw kingdom of Ben Curry. For 15 years Curry has ruled supreme, as his men have pulled jobs from Canada to Mexico. But the king is getting old...he wants to turn his legacy over to someone younger, tougher. Mike Bastian is Ben's adopted son, a young man who can handle a knife, a gun, his fists, but a man who's never broken the law. Now, as treachery explodes among Ben's riders, and two honest lawmen - Tyrel Sackett and Borden Chantry - begin to zero in on the gang, Mike must choose....
-
-
Great western story with impressive dramatisation
- By MikeC on 30-12-20
-
Ice Ghosts
- The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition
- By: Paul Watson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ice Ghosts weaves together the epic story of the Lost Franklin Expedition of 1845 - whose two ships and crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice - with the modern tale of the scientists, divers, and local Inuit behind the incredible discovery of the flagship's wreck in 2014. Paul Watson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was on the icebreaker that led the discovery expedition, tells a fast-paced historical adventure story: Sir John Franklin and the crew of the HMS Erebus and Terror setting off in search of the fabled Northwest Passage.
-
-
Really very good indeed
- By Amazon Customer on 18-08-21
-
Into the Drowning Deep
- By: Mira Grant
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seven years ago the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a mockumentary bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a tragedy. Now a new crew has been assembled. But this time they're not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life's work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart, this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.
-
-
Amazing Aquatic Horror
- By Anonymous User on 13-01-21
-
Emperors of the Ice
- A True Story of Disaster and Survival in the Antarctic, 1910-13
- By: Richard Farr
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rife with captivating details of survival in an icy wilderness, this reimagining of the famous 1910 expedition to the South Pole, told in Cherry's voice, is an unforgettable tale of courage and camaraderie.
-
Unsinkable
- Titanic, Book 1
- By: Gordon Korman
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Titanic is meant to be unsinkable, but as it begins its maiden voyage, there’s plenty of danger waiting for four of its young passengers. Paddy is a stowaway, escaping a deadly past. Sophie’s mother is delivered to the ship by police - after she and Sophie have been arrested. Juliana’s father is an eccentric whose riches can barely hide his madness. And Alfie is hiding a secret that could get him kicked off the ship immediately.
-
-
ADORABLE TALE SET ON THE TITANIC
- By Highlight on 11-07-16
-
The Solitude of Thomas Cave
- By: Georgina Harding
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is August 1616. The whaling ship Heartsease has ventured high into the Arctic, and the crew must return home before the ice closes in. All, that is, save Thomas Cave. He makes a wager that he will remain there alone until next season, though no man has yet been known to have survived a winter this far north. So he is left with provisions, shelter, and a journal - should he not live to tell the tale.
-
Endurance
- Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
- By: Alfred Lansing
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.
-
-
Enthralling
- By penobscott on 10-07-17
-
Harvest Home
- By: Thomas Tryon
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After watching his asthmatic daughter suffer in the foul city air, Theodore Constantine decides to get back to the land. When he and his wife search New England for the perfect nineteenth-century home, they find no township more charming, no countryside more idyllic than the farming village of Cornwall Coombe. Here they begin a new life: simple, pure, close to nature - and ultimately more terrifying than Manhattan’s darkest alley.
-
-
Pastoral horror...
- By Mrs Maureen Cate on 02-12-18
-
Madhouse at the End of the Earth
- The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night
- By: Julian Sancton
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
August 1897: the Belgica set sail, eager to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the South Pole. But the ship soon became stuck fast in the ice of the Bellinghausen sea, condemning the ship's crew to overwintering in Antarctica and months of endless polar night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, their minds ravaged by the sound of dozens of rats teeming in the hold, they descended into madness.
-
-
awful awful narration
- By Jennifer Colgan on 26-01-22
-
Soldier, Sail North
- By: James Pattinson
- Narrated by: Michael Tudor Barnes
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The gunners on the Golden Ray were a strangely assorted bunch. There was the professional, Sergeant Willis, in love with his job, Vernon the intellectual, and Miller the tragic communistic misfit who found his Russian Mecca not quite what he expected.
Summary
Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Terror by Dan Simmons, read by Tom Sellwood.
Stephen King hailed Dan Simmons' best-selling novel as 'a brilliant, massive combination of history and supernatural horror', and it's now a chilling 10 part AMC Original TV series from Ridley Scott.
The most advanced scientific enterprise ever mounted, Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition in search of the fabled Northwest Passage had every expectation of triumph.
But for almost two years his ships, HMS Terror and Erebus, have been trapped in the Arctic ice. Supplies of fuel and food are running low. Scurvy, starvation and even madness are beginning to take their toll. And yet the real threat isn’t from the constantly shifting, alien landscape, the flesh-numbing temperatures or being crushed by the unyielding, frozen ocean. No, the real threat is far more terrifying.
There is something out there in the frigid darkness. It stalks the ships and snatches men. It is a nameless thing. At once nowhere and everywhere, this terror has become the expedition’s nemesis....
Critic reviews
"Simmons has created a chilling supernatural novel...the horrific trials of their impending icy deaths are vividly brought to life." (Daily Express)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Terror
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Caroline Pearson
- 02-05-18
Fantastic read
I loved this book, the story, the characters and the narration. I’ve never been more interested in finding out about the Northwest passage, about the Arctic, the Inuit, the lands, the discoveries and the people. I knew these characters. I cared about these characters. I felt the bitter cold, the darkness, the great weight, the horror. I’m so sorry this book ended, I could listen to it all over again.
42 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 08-11-19
Endless
Out of sheer pigheadedness I persisted with finishing this audio book. The storyline itself is interesting and even more so because it has a basis in fact. However 67 chapters and 28 hours seems a bit much and it also got quite strange towards the end.
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Swords and Spectres
- 13-01-19
Great slow-burn horror
Terror is based on the true events of two ships (The HMS Erebus and The HMS Terror) as they tried to search for a route through the Northwest Passage in 1845. The expedition, led by Sir John Franklin, quickly found themselves blocked in by ice. The story begins with our crews having been locked in the ice for two years. Their supplies, patience and sanity are fast running out. When you add in the fact that some unknown horror stalks the ice, hunting the men of the naval ships, it makes quite an enjoyable prospect to get stuck into.
Obviously, the ordeals these men went through were very real so I feel bad taking pleasure in thinking of how the dire circumstances make for a great bit of horror entertainment. But the story also prompted me to do a fair bit of research on the two ships and, indeed, the men in question, so I feel it’s also serving to keep the memories of all involved alive to this day, over a hundred and fifty years after the expedition was launched. I’d be thrilled to think that people were thinking of me a hundred and fifty years from now.
I am a fan of historical fiction and love the language of times gone by. To my ears it sounds intellectual, elegant and just makes me feel at home (that’s a strange thing to say given that I was born in 1988 and not 1888). That being said, the language in this can be a bit heavy at times if you aren’t used to historical fiction.
I thought the author did a good job of fleshing out his characters and he wrote the escalating conflicts between the various shipmates incredibly well. You really develop a hatred for certain characters, especially when you know they are going to do something but they draw the doing of it out and you just sit there, feeling powerless to stop it. The characters were also brought to life superbly well by the narrator. Very well read and gave a good, clear voice to the different characters. I felt, and this could be because I was listening to this during winter, that I was suffering alongside them. Whenever I was cold at work, I would think of the men and how the icy cold was their constant companion. In that way, the author has done a damn good job of keeping their plight with me.
One downside with ‘The Terror’ that I found was that, at times, it felt a bit slow and ponderous. I feel it could have been less lengthy than it was if certain parts weren’t drawn out. Other than that, I didn’t really have any real complaints about it. It was a good slow-burn horror story that achieved the difficult task of keeping an ever-present feeling of dread coming from not only the creature they were trying to avoid, but the general atmosphere they were living in. That and their own comrades. What more could you want? An unknown creature, a frozen landscape that’s trying to kill you and unrest across the ships. Chaos!
19 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ellie
- 07-08-19
The Terror
Usually I can easily listen to anything as an audiobook but this was pretty bad. The style was ok but the characters were poorly written. Generally, all characters were one dimensional - the weaselly scouser, drunk Irishman etc. Women had few if any opinions or thoughts of their own - mostly they just had their breasts out.
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Wexler
- 09-08-19
Just one technical issue
Outstanding writing, detail and performance. My issue? Volume. The voice acting was excellent except for the readers hushed volume, at times, in an attempt to portray tension. When driving down a road, or when there is background noise, the narrative becomes inaudible. You turn up the volume and with a normal voice volume, it blares. Drama, while necessary, is secondary to audibility.
This was an outstanding book.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- hgwells 1899
- 24-06-18
Left me cold
Perhaps some books are best read, rather than read aloud. Perhaps this is just such a book. Maybe I'll reach the end of it some day; but I may be some time
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam Delderfield
- 24-04-18
A classic
I really enjoyed this book. it's a great old yarn with real suspense and horror. A future classic I'm sure. Does not disappoint. well worth a listen.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- IrishGaijin
- 28-06-18
Runs out of steam
Interesting premise and initially enjoyed the incorporation of the fascinating historical story with the fictional creations of the author. However, as noted by many others, this is an overly long book and requires the reader to undertake a gruelling journey of their own to reach the conclusion.
Some parts of the book felt like unnecessary indulgences of the author, such as strained dialogue between characters to explain factual historical events (obviously garnered by the authors as part of his research - which was obviously rigourous to be fair to Dan) that ultimately proved to be wholly tangential to the core story in the book.
Can't fault the performance of the narrator, Tom Sellwood puts in an energetic performance throughout the 28+ hours, but this is an audiobook I felt I'd endured rather than enjoyed at the end of it.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Barbara
- 06-06-18
The Golden Age of Benny Hill
If you enjoy books where the female characters' clothing keeps coming off in the most improbable circumstances, this is the book for you. I downloaded this, hoping for a combination of horror and history. There was a bit of both, but really, what I noticed was the author repeatedly and predictably arranging situations where women were naked while for the most part, the men around them were not. This was combined with what felt like endless dull descriptions of women's secondary sexual characteristics and a total absence of any description of the interior life for any of the women involved. Not once anywhere in the novel were we told what a woman was thinking - well I got more than half way through and there was no description of what a woman thought at any point, though there were many descriptions of what men were thinking.
A woman in India removes all of her clothing and we are told about her breasts. A woman in the polar region goes to bed naked and we are told about her breasts. A woman in New Zealand removes all of her clothing and we are told about her breasts. I wondered if the author got a bonus for every time he used the word "breasts". The book leaves you feeling impressed that any woman, anywhere in the world in the 1840s, managed to keep her kit on for more than 30 seconds at a time in the presence of a man. When it got to the point where I was laughing out loud at every ridiculous breast fest, I felt that it was time to quit. I have no problem with either sex or nudity or anyone's secondary sexual characteristics, but it's disappointing when an author introduces female characters into the plot solely for such tired old tropes.
127 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- olly
- 01-07-18
boring
I did read a review that said don't waste your time but I decided nothing can be that bad, was I wrong, It was by far the worst book I have ever endured. It was so boring I kept thinking something will happen soon, but nope it didn't the ending was so bad and rushed I felt cheated out of the hours I spent listening to this
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 13-07-18
A feel good romp in the snow.
Loved this book. Made my horrible summer seem brighter in comparison. Would recomend to anyone who enjoys crushing isolation and things that go bump in the night.