The Terror
Brilliant historical fiction with a supernatural edge.
Moody, atmospheric, and dark, this would have been an excellent telling of the doomed Royal Navy voyage to the Arctic during the 1840s without any enticing extras.
The supernatural edge takes it a notch higher, it is done in a tactful and original way, juxtapositioning Innuit culture with the hardwired hubristic nature of the Victorian mindset. Highlighting its racist and classist pitfalls along the way.
This element does not fully come out until the end of a fairly long novel, though at no point did the read feel like a chore. The staggered timeline, while not to everybody's taste, helps with this as did the vividly dramatic action scenes.
I read this work based on the authors outstanding Hyperion sci-fi series, this is of course very different but again shows his top notch writing ability. I thought several times it would make a fine film, full of tension and paranoia, like 'The Thing' in the 19th century, and it turns out it has already been made into a well regarded series.