“Unintelligible.” This book is huge—for more reasons than just its length. I believe Dan Simmons to be an incredible writer, but he and I just don't connect, as Ilium exhaustively proved long before I found out about Drood or my obsession with anything Drood-related, (which I find very appropriate—those who have read Simmons's Drood will understand) manifested itself. I felt this novel to be too long, and not even because of the long biographical passages abut both Dickens and Collins, which

It's been some years since I read this book, but it's still one of those that I remember quite well because I liked the story so much. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens was never finished and this book tells about how Charles Dickens become obsessed with the mysterious being called Drood. It's a thick book, but well-written and fascinating to read. Simmons capture the atmosphere of the late 1900-centery very well. The story is dark and mysterious and keeps you captivated.

This was one massive doorstop of a novel. Dan Simmons seems to thrive in this long-as-fuck format. His work should bore me to tears and for whatever reason it doesn’t. It’s too slow. Too little action. Too looong.And I dig it. The only thing I can figure is the dude obviously has some serious writing/storytelling skills because I didn’t get disengaged once while reading this one despite long periods of pretty much nothing happening. Possible Mildly Spoilery Content: (view spoiler)[Wilkie Collins...

A galloping, epic saga of the mysterious friendship between Wilike Collins and Charles Dickens. Part literary history and party fantastic imagination, it was a joy to read. I savored it for a while--it's not one to read in a night or a week. But enjoyed every moment I spent with it. Stick with this one and you will be glad you did.

If ever there was a book that's impossible to review (at least without major spoilers) it's this one. So instead of reviewing it, let me say a few things to anyone who might be thinking of reading it.First off, don't approach this like a horror novel. It's not in the sense that Carrion Comfort, Summer of Night or even The Terror were horror novels. There are elements of horror in it but if you are expecting an intense fright fest you'll probably be disappointed. This is a novel about obsession,

GAH.This book is almost 800 pages long. I knew after the first fifty, definitely after the first hundred, that I wasn’t enjoying it, but I kept reading because 1) I’m a stubborn bitch, 2) Dan Simmons has written good books in the past, and 3) I just felt like it had to get better, right? RIGHT?Not so much. If you want to read a book about an unlikeable narrator—in this case, supposedly Wilkie Collins—bitch about his likewise unlikeable friend/rival/whatever—supposedly Charles Dickens—for 800 pag...

Hello, Dear Readers. Wilkie Collins here. In case you’re unfamiliar with me, I was a best selling English novelist during the mid-1800s, and a friend and frequent collaborator with Charles Dickens. I’m also the narrator of this new novel Drood despite the fact that this Dan Simmons fellow is trying to claim the credit when it clearly states that I left this manuscript to be published one-hundred and twenty-five years after my death.Something I should confess immediately is that I use laudanum an...

Two years ago I read Dan Simmons's The Terror in pretty much one go, it was that good and gripping. It expertly combined several areas in which I'm interested and knowledgeable - Victorian Arctic exploration, the Franklin expedition, and supernatural fiction - and I was thrilled when I found out that his next book, Drood, promised more of the same: a doorstopper of a book modeled after the Victorian melodramas I enjoy, featuring two real-life authors whose life and works I know a lot about (Char...

This is one hell of an excellent book! I had low expectations going into it and they were blown so far out of the water that they ended up in space. That’s how good this book is. It is a big monster of a book but trust me, every single page is worth it! Simmons tells such a captivating story here, I was completely drawn in right from the very first page. This book sunk it’s claws into me and didn’t let go until I was done. When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about reading it. Dickens fans a...

By some quirk of fate, or just the same people growing up with the same influences, there were three books concerning the last years of Charles Dickens' life published in 2009, Drood was Dan Simmons' contribution. If you've read Simmons' peerless The Terror, you know just how good he is at mixing historical fiction and gothic horror.Drood is narrated by famous writer and friend of Dickens Wilkie Collins, and follows their relationship, their lives and the repercussions of coming across the myste...

I hesitate to recommend this book because there are bound to be people who buy this doorstop, read it, hate it, and blame me for their life choices. But I also want people to read it. So, let's try this...You, Dear Reader, will likely hate this fucking book. It has piss poor human beings being piss poor human beings. Charles Dickens was an asshat who banished the mother of his ten children. Wilkie Collins was a womanizing prick who was no doubt syphilitic (rheumatic gout my flabby ass). Women ar...

I would have imagined that a seasoned novelist of big books steeped in historical context might have avoided the beginner's error of forgoing actual narrative for HUNDREDS OF PAGES OF EXPOSITION, but I would have been wrong.Apparently, Mr. Simmons could not forgo even one of the trifling matters of Dickensiana he picked up in the course of his research, and furthermore, he clearly couldn't be bothered to find ways to include these details dramatically.This is a big, baggy mess of a thing, slack

”When the last autumn of Dickens’s life was over, he continued to work through his final winter and into spring. This is how all of us writers give away the days and years and decades of our lives in exchange for stacks of paper with scratches and squiggles on them. And when Death calls, how many of us would trade all those pages, all that squandered lifetime-worth of painfully achieved scratches and squiggles, for just one more day, one more fully lived and experienced day? And what price wo

This was the only Dan Simmons book that I've read that I didn't care for all that much. I really like how DROOD starts out, and I also like the interplay of both Dicken's story, as well as that of Wilkie Collins. What did not work for me was that book seemed overly long and the ending was confusing. I wish more attention had been given to the actual character of Edwin Drood. 2.5 stars

In the same way that Stephen King began to branch out of the horror genre, so it appears is Dan Simmons branching out of the sci-fi and fantasy nook. Two years ago, he blended a historic novel with elements of horror and sci-fi for "The Terror." Now he blends together historical elements with the dark trappings of a turn of the century horror novel in "Drood."Five years before his death, author Charles Dickens was involved in a train wreck. "Drood" begins the story with that wreck and introduces...

Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my GIFTS AND GUILTY list.Regardless of how many books are already queued patiently on my reading list, unexpected gifts and guilt-trips will always see unplanned additions muscling their way in at the front.Dan Simmons is a man of many styles. His most accl

Dan Simmons is an author who will remembered in nearly every genre he has written in. He changed the horror genre with his 1989 epic ‘Carrion Comfort’. He brilliantly portrayed the coming of age concept with his 1991 small town tale ‘Summer of Night’. He immortalized himself in the science-fiction genre with his mind-bending 1989 novel ‘Hyperion’. In 2007, he entered historical-fiction with his novel ‘The Terror’, now a hit show on AMC. He wrote the ultra-violent Joe Kurtz series, officially ent...

This is an ambitious book, even by Simmons' standard - indeed, probably by anyone's standard. Like most books that try to acheive so much, it is flawed, but by setting the sights to such a long range Simmons fires his book so far ahead of the majority of perfectly realised but narrowly circumscribed books that he can be forgiven for not quite hitting the target. So what was he aiming for and how close did he get?Drood is written as if it is a memoir written by Wilkie Collins and then sealed unti...

Maybe I'm just not cut out for Dan Simmons' particular brand of mysticism. I didn't like the supernatural bent of The Terror and didn't like the supernatural bent of this book. What appears to be a suspenseful Dickensian supernatural mystery is actually, beneath the surface, an incredibly long and dull tour of Victorian London and opium dreams.The jacket copy of this edition misconstrues the book's nature, at least in my opinion. When I borrowed this book, I thought I was getting a supernatural

Give the Dickens His Due!In the end, Wilkie Collins grudgingly has to do this when, leafing through his late friend Dickens’s Bleak House, he is struck with the superior genius that lies in Dickens’s use of language. “The book was the style and the style was the man. And the man was – had been – Charles Dickens.” With these words not only Collins, but seemingly also Dan Simmons, author of the novel Drood, himself offers homage to the novelist Charles Dickens.And yet it is a strange tribute that