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 More...

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 More...

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, More...

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 More...

I finished this several weeks ago, and it's stuck with me so much that I feel compelled to review even if it will be a brief one. Simmons takes is back to the Victorian age, and he does so with such great detail that I felt that I traveled back in time a bit. The first half is a bit slow, and yet I eagerly returned to it in what free time I had. Simmons is developing the characters until they are full dimensional. The narrator, Wilkie Collins, froths and rages about the injustices cast on him by More...

Drood is the epic story of the friendship and rivalry of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins as told from the point of view of Collins. More than that it is either the story of an encounter with the Most successful and least known serial murderer in London's history or of Collins' opium fueled decent into madness.

This book is written from the 1st person POV of Wilkie Collins, a friend of "The Inimitable" Charles Dickens and a fellow novelist. I don't know all that much about Collins, but Dickens More...

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.

Overall, Drood is well paced, well researched, and a very enjoyable book. The opening lines instantly became some of my favorites. Buying the novel purely on the recommendation of on of my favorite bookstores, I hadn't read the jacket cover, so I didn't realize that Wilkie Collins is the narrator. I admit, I gave a rather embarrassing squeal of delight when I saw his name.

But even if the names Collins, Dickens, or Simmons are completely unknown to you, the book still holds up on its own. The ope More...

This is the first book I've read by Dan Simmons but it certainly won't be the last. I was drawn to this particular book because of my love for the works of Charles Dickens, but I knew I had to read it after attending a book signing where Mr. Simmons talked about the book and its "unreliable" narrator, Wilkie Collins. I was not disappointed!

The richness and depth of Mr. Simmons research and prose is exquisite. It is the sort of book one must immerse one's self into. I nearly felt the stays of my More...

Although I have a lot of criticism about Dan Simmons’ new book, “Drood,” I have to say, first and foremost, that I enjoyed this book and I commend the author for his boldness and for his artistry. “Drood” is a well-researched book that boldly re-imagines and fictionalizes the final years in the lives of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, who are being preyed upon by an otherworldly creature that goes by the name of Drood. Simmons mixes history, biography, and fantasy to tell a fascinating and g More...

i'm aware of a mixed bag on this one...but that can be said for ALL stories and so it goes.


finished.

...reading through, there are times when I want the storyline to continue, instead of ignoring what i'd just read in the previous chapter...a hundred, two-hundred men down below and no report? that is hardly fair and balanced. or the scene on the stairway...or The Other Wilkie for that matter....almost sounds like the wall street nitwits...ows....tow boom chakka-lakka-lakka! boom!

sure, there is a More...

I will preface this review with the admission that I am not a large Dickens or Wilkie Collins fan. I have read A Tale of Two Cities and know of many other Dickens works (including, of course, A Christmas Carol), but do not have much exposure beyond that. I suggest that readers first be familiar with Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend and The Pickwick Papers by Dickens and The Woman In White and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins in order to follow the story in a more in-depth way, as these works are co More...

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 More...

Having been very fortunate to have an arc pass through my hands many months before publication, I want to say that Drood is a literary masterpiece that may enshrine Mr. Simmons as one of the top US writers of the present.

The last 5 years of Charles Dickens' life as told in a secret journal by younger disciple, friend and secret rival Wilkie Collins after the tragic train accident that turned Dickens life upside down.

Obsession, artistic creation, addiction and the dark recesses of the human mi More...

Dan Simmons' latest work of historical fiction, "Drood", is nothing short of a sheer masterpiece. To put it simply, it is everything that a gothic/horror novel should strive to be.

The novel is structured as a manuscript of the late novelist Wilkie Collins. Collins' narrative documents his friendship(and secret rivalry) with Charles Dickens in the final years of the latter authors' life. It revolves around the real-life event of Dickens surviving a horrific train wreck five years prior to his dea More...

I just finished Drood, and it’s so good I had to say something about it. If you haven’t discovered Dan Simmons, he’s one of the most versatile writers of our day. Of the Simmons books I’ve read, this one reminds me most of The Terror. Both book’s plots cram you into a suffocating crevice of history that naturally lends itself to horror. Both stories teem with all levels of society, and make loose-and-creative use of historical personages to drive the narrative. If a novel could be compared to an More...

When I finished this book I looked around on the web for reviews. I read those of the professional reviewers and the bloggers and some from non-bloggers as well and I can tell you there’s quite a range of opinions. Some thought it too long and could use a strong editorial hand. Others said that the author fell victim to the habit of giving too much detail about the particular time period (in Drood’s case, Victorian England) as though every detail the author discovered during his research needed More...

this book is, above all else, weird. i love simmons' Hyperion to death, and i could still see his style throughout the book... however, however. i will out myself as a bad english major by saying i am not a fan of mr. dickens at all. i find him ponderous; ironically, the narrator of 'drood' says at one point that dickens' failing as a writer is that he has excellent characters but no skill with plot, and i can't help but agree.

i started 'drood' hoping that simmons' take on dickens would make me More...

as an author that writes well, i believe simmons fails in this novel because he was too in love with his research and couldn't resist cramming it in at all occasions. the characters are well-drawn but they are based on real-life people, like dickens and wilkie collins but i don't buy the characterizations. they seemed like people wearing famous literary masks. i was led to believe that this book would shed some light on the mystery of edwin drood, the unfinished dickens novel that it was inspire More...

This book was a great read. I could hardly put the book down and it is a big book — 784 pages! Don't let that stop you from reading Drood though.

Dan Simmons takes the novel from Charles Dickens' last, uncompleted novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. In the course of just barely escaping death in an train wreck, Dickens encounters a supernatural figure named Drood, who seems to have been traveling in a coffin.

The book is narrated by Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens' friend, collaborator, and sometim More...

Drood est un récit excellemment construit, complexe et envoûtant. C’est avant tout un roman sur la psychologie d’un homme, Wilkie Collins. C’est cet auteur du milieu du XIXe siècle, comme Charles Dickens, qui est le narrateur. C’est donc son regard qui est porté sur le récit et sur le personnage de Dickens, son ami. Car en effet, Collins et Dickens sont amis mais il s’agit d’une amitié particulière. Dickens est plus âgé et a pris Collins sous son aile. Dickens est très populaire et Collins pour More...

It's hard to get historic fiction right, keep it believable, and be entertaining. Dan Simmons gets it right in his latest novel, Drood, while also bringing in an element of the fantastic. What I love about London is its magic - around every corner you think there might be some sort of wizardry happening. Call it the Harry Potter effect. Simmons uses that sense of magic to finish the tale of Charles Dickens and his last piece, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a book he never completed.

Not knowing a go More...

As he was returning from France, taking the train back home, Charles Dickens was involved in a railway accident in which his train derailed near Staplehurst. There were many deaths, many injuries, but Dickens and party came through pretty much unscathed. And thus this book begins, narrated by a friend and colleague of Dickens, Wilkie Collins, author of such famous works as The Woman in White and The Moonstone. The book begins in 1865 and ends in 1870.

I am not going to go over the plot, because e More...

This was a pretty brilliant book in two ways. First the combination of fact and fiction told from the point of view of a very real writer from the nineteenth century through his supposedly real experiences and life with Charles Dickens interspersed with his opium induced fantasies. You don't really know which is which until the end of the book. Telling the story of the last five years of Charles Dickens' life and the bizarre circumstances of the train accident that killed everyone but Dickens an More...

Drood is Dan Simmons' follow up to his incredibly strong novel The Terror. Narrated by Wilkie Collins it tells of his and Dickens encounters with the ghastly, and perhaps supernatural Drood, a criminal mastermind with far reaching plans for world domination. It also provides an interesting window into the friendship/rivalry that existed between two of the most popular writers of their day (only one of whom was destined for immortal status). Mesmerism, opium use, the return of Egyptian deities, d More...

I should start off by saying that I loved The Terror. I had no issues with the length of the novel; the story was completely compelling. If Drood had any of the dramatic tension present in Simmons' previous book, I would have finished it with aplomb; sadly, for me it had NO dramatic tension. My friend Jeff noted in his review that a good chunk of this book could have been excised at the editorial level and I now have to agree. I made it through 350 pages and what little Simmons would toss me in More...

I expected that Simmons's book would be rather more in the vein of Dickens and Wilkie Collins (this novel's narrator) than it is, and so I was disappointed. Even so, this is a very well-done novel of its sort--which is to some extent horror--as well as a detailed portrait of Collins and a paean to Dickens. For most of the book's length, however, both of them are rather unpleasant characters--indeed Simmons's Collins is thorougly unlikable--and the book would have been more powerful, I believe, i More...

I finished this book several days ago and am still not sure what I think of it. The novel is narrated by Wilkie Collins (author of the Woman in White and the Moonstone - both of which are better books than this one) and is the story of his friendship with Charles Dickens. Like Dan Simmons' previous novel, Drood becomes surreal towards the end, making much of the novel's action ambiguous. Is the elaborate horror story of Drood true or is it a opium induced hallucination (Collins partakes of this More...

Simmons, Dan. DROOD. (2009). **. If you need practice for the reader’s olympics, this would be a good place to start. This massive doorstop of a novel runs close to 800 pages, but I admit I didn’t get that far. It is the story of Charles Dickens’ encounter with “Drood,” the subsequent hero of his last, but uncompleted novel. The use of the word hero is incorrect. Drood is a spectre, an incarnation of evil. The story, as told through the medium of Dickens’ friend Wilkie Collins, starts with Dicke More...

Well, this baby partly explains why I haven't been keeping up with Nikki in number of titles, since it weighs in at just shy of 800 pages. I'm a great fan of Charles Dickens and have read several biographies, so I'm able to say that this novelization of his last five years is expert at accurately incorporating every detail of what is known about his life. It is also a quite plausible portrayal of Dickens himself. It purports to have been written by Wilkie Collins, Dickens' protege, partner, riva More...