Books like “The Terror”

What to read after “The Terror” by Dan Simmons: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Arctic Fury
Greer Macallister · 2020
Similar setting: “Arctic”
Virginia Reeve is hired to lead a dozen women into the Arctic in search of a lost expedition. When only some of them come back, she is tried for murder in Boston. The courtroom testimony and the journey north slowly reveal what happened out on the ice.
2
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing · 1959
Similar setting: “Arctic” and “Nautical Adventure”
In 1914 Ernest Shackleton sets out to cross Antarctica; in 1915 his ship is crushed by the ice and the crew is left stranded. This account follows their months on drifting floes and the desperate open-boat journey he makes to seek rescue.
3
The Long Ships
Frans G. Bengtsson · 1941
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
The Viking Red Orm sails from his Scandinavian home in the late tenth century and is carried through raids, courts and distant seas, from Andalusia to the Byzantine guard. A picaresque saga of raids, treasure and shifting faith, told with dry humour and a wide view of the Viking world.
4
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian · 1969
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
In 1800, Royal Navy captain Jack Aubrey takes command of a small brig and meets the ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin, a naturalist and secret intelligence agent. Their friendship grows as the crew pursues a Spanish frigate across the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
5
Salt to the Sea
Ruta Sepetys · 2016
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
Four young refugees cross a frozen East Prussia in the winter of 1945, each hiding a secret and hoping to reach a ship that will carry them west. Their paths merge among the crowds fleeing the advancing Soviet army, bound for a vessel whose fate none of them suspect.
6
Bird Box
Josh Malerman · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
- Survival
Something outside drives anyone who sees it to violence, so the survivors live blindfolded. Malorie has kept two children safe for years. Now she must row them downriver without looking, toward a refuge that may or may not exist.
7
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin · 1969
Similar setting: “Arctic”
An envoy from a galactic federation lands on the frozen world of Gethen to invite its nations into an alliance. Its people have no fixed gender, and as he crosses the ice with a disgraced politician, he learns how much of his own culture he took for granted.
8
The Wager
David Grann · 2023
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
In 1740 a British warship hunting a Spanish treasure galleon is wrecked off Patagonia. Months later two groups of survivors reach South America with opposing stories, and a court martial must decide which men were heroes and which were mutineers.
9
Between Two Fires
Christopher Buehlman · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
- Quest
In 1348, as the Black Death empties France, a disgraced knight finds an orphan girl in a dead village. She says the plague is only part of a larger war between heaven and hell, and persuades him to carry her across a ruined land toward Avignon.
10
A Head Full of Ghosts
Paul Tremblay · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Fourteen-year-old Marjorie Barrett begins to act strangely, and her family turns first to a priest and then to a reality-television crew. Years later her younger sister tells the story of what happened in the house, though her memory is not entirely trustworthy.
11
Heart-Shaped Box
Joe Hill · 2007
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Aging rock star Judas Coyne collects macabre curiosities. When he buys a haunted suit online, the dead man tied to it begins to stalk him and the women in his life. To survive, Jude must confront the violence in his own past. A supernatural horror about guilt and revenge.
12
The Ballad of Black Tom
Victor LaValle · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
New York, 1924. Tommy Tester runs small errands and plays guitar for money, one of the few Black men willing to do business with a sorcerer. Hired by a strange wealthy man in Flatbush, he is drawn toward the Sleeping King and the Great Old Ones, and chooses what kind of power he is willing to serve.