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'Drood' by Dan Simmons

StoryofE

Gone But Not Forgotten
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May 1, 2003
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Anyone read this one yet, I'm about 200 pages in. I loved Simmons' last one, The Terror. From the book description:

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.
Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?
Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.

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Looks good. I've read a lot of stuff by Simmons but not The Terror.
 
The Terror was awesome. One of those books that you know is not going to end happily :) I don't know how Simmons managed to sustain arctic suspense for so long. i was reading it during my first Canadian winter in a few years which meant I ended up feeling comparatively warm.
 
Dan Simmonds was talking to Mariella Frostrup on the Book Programme on Radio 4 yesterday, you may be able to find it on Listen Again.
 
The Terror sounds interesting. I've still not finished Hyperion, though, finding it a real slog despite some really interesting ideas.
 
I tried reading Hyperion but I just couldn't get into it. I've never read any of his crime-noir books either. I think his best 2 are Carrion Comfort and The Terror. I don't think Drood is as compelling as The Terror, which I found I couldn't put down once I started it, but I love his use of Wilkie Collins as an unreliable narrator.
 
Carrion Comfort was a terrific book, it would make a great TV serial.
 
gncxx said:
Carrion Comfort was a terrific book, it would make a great TV serial.

It certainly would. Psychic vampires manipulating the powers that be.
 
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