I want to give this book 2.5 stars. I actually liked it, so I'll give it three, rather than two. I listened to the 22 hour audio book and the narrator was amazing.

This book is so long. It makes the long dredge of Frodo and Gollum seem like a summer stroll. It's also strange. Jumping between the soul crushing slog of being frozen in the ice, long and detailed flashbacks, super natural monster fights and graphic sex scenes. It's Dan Simmons though. All of his books feel like they're written by a super intelligent high school boy.

This is my first book with some detail on the themes Arctic exploration and the British navy. I enjoyed a lot of that. I really liked the Inuit mythology and how they survived on the ice. I loved Dr Goodsir and Crozier.

I think I'm glad I read it.