false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1253942563m/3222979.jpg 3222979 12 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. <BR><BR>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?<BR><BR>Just as he did in <I>The Terror</I>, 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: <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best. 3257056 book 9 2 2009 Drood total:917|5:158|4:314|3:272|2:123|1:50| 917 3158 2866 361 3 16 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 10:20:26 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 11:04:05 -0800 2009 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 tha...more...]]> 5 15 false false Wed Feb 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 10:27:36 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 15:25:25 -0800 2009
First off, don't approach this like a horror novel. It's not in the sense that Carrion C...more...]]> 4 6 false false Wed Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 06:18:32 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 02 07:15:29 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 7 false false Sat Dec 27 06:13:20 -0800 2008 Fri Oct 03 07:14:36 -0700 2008 Sat Dec 27 06:13:20 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 4 false false Sun Mar 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 14:42:57 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 12:16:46 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 4 6 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Feb 09 17:22:16 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 01 11:12:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 4 false false Wed Dec 17 07:50:38 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 11 22:02:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 7 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 20:42:11 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 09:35:53 -0800 2009
Apparently, Mr. Simmons could not forgo even one of the trifling...more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 13 17:21:13 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 22:32:00 -0700 2008 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 secr...more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Feb 19 07:32:34 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 07:41:18 -0800 2009
The novel is structured as a manuscript of the late novelist Wilkie Collins. Collins' narrative do...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Feb 02 19:29:59 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 21 18:06:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jan 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 08:41:04 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 07:26:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Apr 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 01 17:03:28 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 07:09:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Mar 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 12:41:45 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 14:58:06 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 5 false false Wed Mar 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 15 15:36:15 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 15:40:36 -0800 2009 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 frie...more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Feb 24 16:11:48 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 16:15:00 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 17:19:17 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 17:19:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Mar 23 17:43:53 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 20:47:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Nov 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 16:54:54 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 16:55:13 -0800 2009
The best thing about this book IS its cover.

I'm no stranger to Dan Simmons, having read seven of his novels, all of which are significantly better than this horrendous misfire. For those with a keen eye for science fiction, I strongly recommend the Hyperion ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 11 07:00:49 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 07:13:14 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=3222979