I'm in the middle of "Drood." By Dan Simmons.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

What I like about Dan Simmons is that no matter what genre he's writing in (and the man's prolific- science fiction, historical fiction, mystery, horror) he always expresses a clear and heart-felt interest in academic subjects, particularly English literature- Chaucer, Edgar Allen Poe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Beowulf, John Keats, and now in his latest book: Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

He writes these little critical essays and weaves them into the narrative of his stories. They're like chapters plucked from somebody's PhD dissertations. Maybe they're the ones he never got a chance to write in grad school. And the research the man does for his work is amazing. I could imagine him employeeing a team of librarians to work on this stuff. And I'm glad for wikipedia, a lot of this material is so obscure, unbelievable, and just plain fun that I never would have thought it actually happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Place_Riot

I can't complete a review of "Drood" of course, but I can give you my thoughts so far. This is a horror novel narrated by Wilkie Collins and it concerns a mysterious boogeyman who troubles Charles Dickens in the last years of his life. There have only been a few edge-of-your-seat scary bits so far, seperated by long, meandering pieces of the type I've described above, particularly interesting is a glowing review of Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" by Dan Simmons nee Wilkie Collins. More impatient readers might consider that fluff or filler, I enjoy it like a long river punctuated by a series of rapids.

Simmons is one of those writers that started off his career very good and gets better the more he writes. If he can keep up this pace, I'd expect people to still talk about him in 150 years too.

[truedelphi]

1. Wow! Sounds good. K & R for later perusing. n/t

[fadedrose]

3. I looked him up, and have added him to my must read list..

He's listed on http:

//www.stopyourekillingme.com/B_Authors/Bond_Larry.html

and I intend to do the 3 Joe Kurtz books first...I love series books!!!

[CrispyQ]

2. I will never forget

the shrike tree or the buildings that moved backward through time.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Alright, I finished the book.

The ending wasn't what I was hoping for. Or what I was expecting. And I was barely able to see it coming.

I couldn't have imagined a better ending. Why? Because it made me want to read the whole thing over again. Hell, even Simmons' acknowledgments of some of his research material was a fascinating and enlightening read.

[azmouse]

5. I'll admit you've got me interested in reading this book.

Not only is Simmons one of my fav authors but Dickens and Collins are also.

[YankeyMCC]

6. I had similar feelings about the how he concluded the Hyperion cantos

he's a good story teller.

[Forkboy]

7. Never read him before, but I will now.

Just the concept of that book sounds fascinating.

As for meandering parts, I like them. My favorite author, Kim Stanley Robinson, has many parts like that. It turns off some, but I love it. Good writers make even the slows parts fascinating.

Thanks for the heads on Simmons. I'll check some of his stuff out.

[azmouse]

8. My fav by Simmons is 'Summer of Night'.

But just about everything he's written is good.

[canis_lupus]

9. I read Drood a few weeks ago.

It was an interesting read even if it dragged in more than a few places.

I didn't like it quite as much as his last historical/gothic novel The Terror. That was about a British expedition to find a Northwest passage that got stuck in the ice ... and a strange creature that seems to be stalking them across the ice. Ironically, there are a number of references to the incident in Drood.