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What are readers saying about Drood: A Novel?
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-14 08:29:58.
(Language: English)
  
I am going to say, thank God I am finished with this book. Okay so that doesn't sound like a convincing opening for a satisfied reader, does it? I looked forward to reading Drood a great deal. It is a well written novel and it was interesting, but it was LONG! Not that I haven't read long books before, (this from the girl who read all of LOTR in the course of four days). This one just feels as long as its 770+ pages. It's not a quick or easy read, and seems to take too long to get to the point. Not to mention it's a historical fiction in which real live people are doing things that you can't help but feel is utterly ridiculous. It makes Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins look like hugh a$$#@!#s. Then the ending (I promise I won't spoil it) tries to be a twist but feels more like "saw that coming, but hope they weren't going there" moment. Alright so that being said, it was a good book, and maybe with more space between finishing it and thinking about it I'll appreciate it more, but again... glad to be finished with this book!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-28 04:48:12.
(Language: English)
Neverovatno delo prozeto stravom i nezamislivim scenama putovanja kroz London i njegove najzabacenije delove 19-og veka. Samo majstor, kao sto je Den Simons, mogao je tako da uskladi pricu i pretvori je u jedan istorijski roman sa elementima horora, strave i uzasa. Odusevljen sam. Drud je stravican lik...ali ne i jedini koji izaziva jezu. Drugi Vilki, cudoviste sa stepenista, zenturaca zelene koze sa kljovama umesto zuba...pa i "siroti" kamenorezac Drejdls...Delo je fantasticno-stalno na granici jave i opijumsko-hipnotickog sna. Toplo ga preporucujem!
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Charles posted a review at 2009-08-10 09:04:52.
(Language: English)
An interesting novel which blends historical facts with supernatural elements. Charles Dickens is Mozart, to narrator Wilkie Collins' Salieri, as the two confront an unspeakable evil preying on the London underworld. I guessed the twist of the plot well in advance of the reveal, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of the story, and the skill of the author had me second-guessing myself. Collins is not a particularly sympathetic narrator, but again this does not detract significantly from the storytelling. All in all, a good - if somewhat long - historical novel.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-25 10:40:31.
(Language: English)
"Drood" didn't have me riveted like "The Terror" but because I have slightly more than a passing interest in Charles Dickens I kept on reading. It drags occasionally into tangents that don't serve the story, but another fine effort from Simmons. I read Dan Simmons' "The Terror" and I have to say it was one of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time. His new one "Drood" has one of my all-time favorite writers as a character, Charles Dickens...I'm thinking I can't go wrong with this one even if it is a beast at some 775 pages long.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-20 09:27:12.
(Language: English)
As a huge Dickens fan, I was thrilled to come across this work. However, as someone who bailed out of Simmons’s lengthy The Terror out of sheer literary exhaustion, I was also a little nervous about the 775 pages. Turns out that my nervousness was well founded. At least 300 pages of this book could have been left out without any real damage to the story. That being said, I still enjoyed the book due to its inside look into Dickens’s life. The rest of the story was a sort of “paying the price of admission” to walk along with the final few years of the author’s life. Collins, the main character, summed up his future readers’ attitude by saying, “It is Drood and Dickens you want. Dickens and Drood”– a great summary of my attitude toward the book. Once Dickens died (not really a spoiler, since I’m assuming most people know that he’s dead), I found myself skimming through to the end. In summary, I would recommend the book to fans of Dickens; everyone else may struggle making past the first half-a-thousand pages.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-23 02:36:43.
(Language: English)
Unusual story, as you would expect from Dan Simmons. Told from the viewpoint of Wilkie Collins (Moonstone, Woman in White) it posits that Charles Dickens was influenced / terrorized by a character called Drood in the last 5 years of his life. The story also supposes that Collins is so consumed with jealousy of Dickens that he wants to murder him. Much of the book gives the feeling of being in the 19th century successfully, though 21st century expressions slip through ("pratfall"). In the end, too convoluted for me, too long, and in the end the story is too unlikely.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-11 06:58:32.
(Language: English)
It's relentlessly over the top, and goes on for quite a bit too long, but Dan Simmons's _Drood_ is a bravura performance. Wilkie Collins, self-dramatizing laudanum addict and the very definition of the unreliable narrator, becomes convinced that his best friend, Charles Dickens, has entered into some sort of unholy communion with a terrifying creature called Drood, and the two authors spent years chasing this phantom, and one another, through the sewers, opium dens, slums, and literary salons of 1860s London. Simmons has clearly done a huge amount of research but wears it lightly, and his evocation of suffocating dread is unbeatable. A great choice for a long flight or train ride--there are a lot of pages, but for the most part they fly by.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-06 07:05:11.
(Language: English)
I've been a fan of Simmons since "The Terror". It's my first journey into Dickens' world, and I'm ashamed to say I haven't read any Dickens, but Simmons does a great job of pulling the reader in. I couldn't put it down and found myself actually interested in Charles Dickens. Howling fun read... I'm a huge fan of Simmons' last novel, "The Terror". This is a great book. I can't put it down. It's terrifying in its simplicity, in that Simmons doesn't have to weave huge, complex horror scenes like King has been known to do. He's a great enough writer who has me interested in the life of an author whose fiction I never much cared for, Charles Dickins.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-05 03:04:55.
(Language: English)
Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870 leaving his book "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" incomplete. This book tell the story, albeit fictional, of who Drood really was. Dan Simmons weaves a tale of Egyptian mesmerism and near-insane jealously of Wilkie Collins, another author, toward Charles Dickens. Reading this novel, it makes you actually think that all of this could of, and has, happened. For my full reviews, check out my website: www.tauycreek.com.
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Ritchie posted a review at 2009-12-29 10:19:44.
(Language: English)
I would read Dan Simmons' grocery shopping list if I could. The man writes everything well, crossing genres like they don't exist. I'm not well read on Dickens or Wilkie Collins but Simmons obviously did his research. How accurate he is with the facts doesn't concern me as I read the book for enjoyment, not as a historical document. It's such a long book, typical of Simmons, but I was never bored. It was a chore at times, due to its size, but, typical of Simmons' previous works, it picks up as it goes along until I feel like I'm running full speed downhill as I approach the finish. The actual ending was a bit anticlimactic, leaving one to make their own decision as to whether Collins was really experiencing the things in the book or simply going insane. I eagerly await the publication of Simmons' next novel, Black hills, in 2010.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-23 06:00:17.
(Language: English)
Charles Dickens, along with his mistress and her mother, were on board a train in the 1800's when there was a major accident. The car carrying Dickens' and his company was the only first class car not to derail. Dickens climbed out and went down below to help the dead and dying. As he was headed down he met another man going to help. This man's name was Drood. He was hideously deformed and as Dickens went around trying to help where he could, he noticed that everyone Drood went to help immediately died. He becomes obsessed with this creature named Drood, and drags his good friend and fellow author Wilkie Collins, to abandoned graveyards, the slums of London and into crypts themselves in search of the truth. Well, I am still not too sure what I think about this one. It was interesting enough, the character of Drood was fascinating, but I really wish he would have made more appearances. His lisping, hissing speech gave me the creeps. Even though the story is about Dickens and Collins search for the truth surrounding Drood, it is more about their friendship, their rivalry, and their jealousy of one another, which drives one (or both?) to murder. I was hoping for a huge climax, but by the time I was about 30 pages from the end, I started skimming because I just didn't care anymore. Simmons definitely has a way with words, but it is too wordy at times. I would skip entire pages with long descriptions of things that made no difference to the story whatsoever. I am a big fan of historical fiction and historical mysteries, but I think all in all this fell very short for me. I wanted more Drood, more nights in the tombs; not ridiculous jealousy to the point of being adolescent, detailed descriptions of opium addiction, and pointless side stories like the marriage of Dickens daughter Kate to Collins brother Charlie. It was good, but if you are looking for an amazing historical fiction mystery, look elsewhere.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-01 10:27:49.
(Language: English)
I haven't actually finished this one. And I probably won't. The constant historical digressions interrupt the flow of the narrative, breaking up the carefully built tension time and again. Part of the pleasure of a historical novel is looking at another time and place. But if that drowns out the story itself, you may as well be reading a history or a biography. I'm disappointed. I generally don't leave books unfinished, particularly not if they're penned by my favorite authors. As much as I love Dan Simmons, this one is off to gather dust - at least for now. I haven't finished this one yet. I doubt I will any time soon, as much as I love Dan Simmons. Why? I am running out of patience with the narrator's constant asides. I feel like I'm reading a biography of Charles Dickens as told by Wilkie Collins, mixed up with a little English literary history. Oh, and a mildly intriguing plot thrown in and occasionally advanced. It feels like Simmons had a bunch of research on Collins, Dickens, and 19th-century England and wanted to make a novel of it. Yes, part of the pleasure of a historical novel is a look at another time and place - but if that drowns out the story, constantly undercutting any tension developed in the narrative, then you may just as well read a history book. I rarely put a book aside and refuse to finish it. I hate to do so with a novel written by one of my favorite authors, but I think I'm going to this time.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-06 11:12:31.
(Language: English)
I loved this novel, yet it annoyed the heck out of me. I give it three and a half stars. It was certainly mysterious and somewhat creepy at times. Unfortunately it was also annoyingly repetitive (how MANY times did we have to hear about Wilkie's laudanum doses and that darn beetle???) The writing was also sluggish and erratic. I just wanted to shout "Shut up and get to the point!!" Rather than sticking to the storyline, the creature/murderer Drood, who Collins believes is in cahoots with Charles Dickens, the narrator constantly pauses in the novel to discuss his gout, other ailments, and his bizarre love triangle with his two paramours. He also bombards the readers with many long and detailed descriptions of his novels. I have never read any Wilkie Collins novels, but after reading this book, I feel like I have read all of them. However, I have to give credit where credit is due. Although the book was not what I expected, and it was over 800 pages long, I never considered giving up on it. Wilkie managed to keep me hooked until the very end, and what an ending it was! The whole book is like being under the influence of some type of mind-altering drug. You just don't know what is real and what isn't. Drood is my first Dan Simmons book. Usually, when I've even slightly disappointed with a book, I avoid any of the author's other books like the plague. But in the case, I am intrigued. I loved the mystery surrounding Drood and Wilkie's constant paranoia about Dickens and Drood's minions, but Wilkie's deviation from the storyline and constant mention of laudanum and that freaking beetle just made me want to scream. If you are thinking of buying this book soley for Drood, you might find yourself wanting to "tell off" the narrator once you buy it. Ironically, the narrator knows you feel this way and tells YOU off at the end of the novel. That was hilarious, to me anyway! This book isn't really about Drood. It is fictional memoir of Dickens and Collins friendship/rivalry, with an emphasis on Collins. Mixed reviews for Drood.
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Jenny posted a review at 2009-05-08 02:16:53.
(Language: English)
Drood, Dan Simmons I scored this from LibraryThing Early Reviewers and the publisher was awesome enough to send me a finished book! Yes, it could double as a doorstop, but that's never stopped me reading a book before. Drood is a shadowy figure met by Charles Dickens after a train accident at Staplehurst in which many people died. Dickens tells our narrator, Wilkie Collins, that it almost seemed Drood was stealing the souls of the dying. Drood was kind enough to tell Dickens where he lives, setting Dickens and Collins on a trip to London's undertown in search of the creature. And so begins Collins's odyssey. His search for Drood as well as his attempts to supersede Dickens in the hearts of the reading public. While reading, I was constantly seized by the urge to reread The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which I haven't read in decades as well as the urge to learn more about Collins and read more of his work, especially The Moonstone. Which means, I think, the book succeeded in many ways. I had one issue with it, which I'm not spelling out because while not a specific spoiler, it could be considered one. All in all, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-15 07:46:02.
(Language: English)
There are good authors, and then there's Dan Simmons. He's not afraid to defy genre classification in telling a good story. In this book he takes us to Victorian London to follow the mysterious circumstances of the latter part of Charles Dickens's life from the viewpoint of friend and fellow author Wilkie Collins. The latter's heavy drug use leaves the reader wondering just how much is real and how much comes from an overactive imagination coupled with a fair bit of professional jealousy. Drood is Dan Simmons at his best.
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Terry posted a review at 2009-08-31 09:03:53.
(Language: English)
This book really intrigued me as I've always been a Dickens' fan, plus I thought it was neat how "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" was brought to the stage back in the 80's, with the audience deciding who the murderer was. I have never read anything by Dan Simmons before, and most likely won't ever again. While the novel is written in the style of Dickens and other others of the time, and therefore it took 700 pages to tell the story, this one really didn't add anything to what's already been said on the topic. It was interesting. There are some good scenes. Just not enough to hold the whole thing together. For the most part, I enjoyed the book; it just wasn't worth the time invested.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-27 06:59:59.
(Language: English)
For anyone familiar with the Dan Simmons catalog, I need not extol his virtues. He is a confident, eloquent storyteller, a masterful researcher, and I firmly subscribe to the theory that if he writes something, it's well worth reading. Many of us undoubtedly came to appreciate Simmons for his Children of Night-era works. He progressed to Sci-Fi oblivion, a genre certainly not for all of us, and has lately taken a turn for the history-driven novel. Regardless of his myriad efforts, one cannot argue that Simmons rarely does less than satisfy. Drood is a beast of a novel, like The Terror in that a series of historical anecdotes have drawn the boundaries for an often-fantastical tale. Deftly weaving together British literary history, myth, and fantasy, Drood is a novel that explores the final five years of Charles Dickens's life through the perspective of fellow novelist Wilkie Collins. Sound droll? It is. But one cannot argue that Simmons has done his homework - no surprise - nor that he has carefully and expertly immersed himself and the reader in the second half of the 19th Century. Many readers will not have the patience to see this novel through, and I will admit that it does not make for very good beach reading, but once again I am in awe of the raw storytelling power of Dan Simmons.
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Jennifer posted a review at 2009-05-25 09:53:42.
(Language: English)
The least reliable narrator since McEwan's Atonement regales readers with what's nominally a Collins-esque horror story of mesmerism and Egyptian death cults. In truth, Simmons' underedited opus is more a skewed portrait of Charles Dickens' (and the wobbly Wilkie's) last few years of life. Proving yet again that Simmons never met a piece of research he didn't like, this massive tome chronicles intimately the minutae of its stars' lives, but only flirts with the truly terrifying "plot." Pity. I could have stood more brain-eating scarabs and fewer look-see-Dickens-was-interested-in-failed-Arctic-explorations-too! moments.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-11 04:12:22.
(Language: English)
I love Dan Simmons, and much of this book was beautifully written, so part of me wanted to give it a higher rating. However, when it comes right down to it, it was a singularly unpleasant read, which I didn't enjoy at all. For a while at the beginning, it seemed like it was going to be good. But it just went on and on...about nothing. It was repetitive and went nowhere. Not one of the characters had any redeeming value whatsoever, so why would I want to read about them? And Simmons's obsession with primitive, malevolent brands of mysticism has started getting very old indeed. It seemed like he might be heading in a different direction at the end of Olympos, but after The Terror and now Drood it seems that Olympos may have been a fluke. To sum up, Drood is long and pointless. Or to further condense this review into a single word: Tiresome.
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-02-22 02:38:24.
(Language: English)
Great book, superbly well written (as usual for Dan Simmons) with just enough supernatural sprinkled in to keep it really interesting (what did Wilkie Collins board up in his servants' quarters...?!). Wilkie Collins - opium addict - gets just paranoid enough to start hallucinating and wondering whether to murder his friend Charles Dickens... But is it all a trick of the mind..? Can't vouch for the historical accuracy myself but I certainly had my disbelief suspended all the way through. Very long (~800 pages) but so well written the pages just flew by.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-20 12:57:53.
(Language: English)
Dan Simmons did it again! Imagine a book about the darker side of Charles Dickens, told by one of his protege´s , author Wilkie Collins,a jealous, opium addict.How can this thick book be interesting? Well it was, and the tale is so intriguing, that I now want to read some Dickens, and Collins. The story is about Drood, who shows up at a train accident that Dickens is in.Dickens and Collins set out to find Drood, thus leading the two authors through the bad parts of London.It ends up straining their relationship, and sanity.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-12 07:59:42.
(Language: English)
What is Drood about? Many things – the power of creativity, imagination, the haunting specter of death, jealousy, addiction, the written word, story, delusion, artistry, and many more things. What Dan Simmons has done in Drood is nothing short of breathtaking and captivating, in evoking such a genuine feel for these people and the world in which they inhabit, but by also creating a narrator/character who is both something of a prick, but also a vastly compelling storyteller. I can’t recommend this staggering and immersive novel highly enough.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-15 05:23:14.
(Language: English)
I had heard of this book over the radio, and only after I picked it up did I realize the author was the same Dan Simmons who had written several science fiction books I'd read in the past. This book is a macabre tale of two well-known 19th-century authors and a fantastic criminal mastermind who may or may not exist. While there are some horrifying episodes that may be opium-induced hallucinations, some of the worst appear to be all-too-human actions driven by jealousy and addiction.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-17 08:57:09.
(Language: English)
I enjoyed this book, but unlike Simmons' previous novel The Terror (also a blend of historical fiction and horror/fantasy), I'm not sure I would recommend this to many people. Meandering, character driven (read: action deprived) and loooooong ("what do you have there, a Bible?" my husband quipped as I brought it home from library), Drood is a fictional retelling of the last five years of Charles Dicken's life, ostensibly narrated by his friend (and fellow novelist), Wilkie Collins. Dickens tells Collins of his encounter with a Reaper-like figure at a horrific train accident, and henceforth Collins is haunted and terrorized by this mysterious man/monster. (As it comes to light that Collins is an opium addict and possibly a schizophrenic, we begin to uh, doubt his account of events.) Honestly, I didn't find the horror elements half as compelling as the Salieri vs Mozart dynamic of Collins' relationship with Dickens (and the character of Collins himself--he isn't a likeable man by any means, but he's well developed and interesting.) Simmons' wonderfully vivid descriptions of Victorian Era London are also a highlight.
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Linda posted a review at 2009-11-16 01:58:12.
(Language: English)
Six months after starting this book I am finally finished. I’m not a stranger to big chunky books,I’ve read quite a few and in much shorter time. This book just seemed to drag on and on without actually getting anywhere. A good editor was desperately needed to make this a faster paced and more enjoyable read. This book is ostensibly a story about Charles Dickens and the character of Drood, which haunted Dickens for the last 5 years of his life, after his near fatal train accident. I thought it would be a fictional look at Drood and what influenced Dickens to write this mystery, something he hadn’t really attempted before. Unfortunately this book was really about Wilkie Collins and his love/hate relationship with Charles Dickens; his friend, competitor and perceived enemy. It is really difficult to enjoy a book where you dislike the main protagonist so much. Wilkie Collins as depicted here is a completely unreliable narrator. He is an abuser of both morphine and opium and beyond that a man so eaten alive by his jealousy of Dickens that you cannot believe any of his retelling of events This book is told entirely from Collins point of view and there are literally hundreds of pages taken up with his life with two women, the meals he ate, the long walks and talks he had with Dickens about projects they were working on, ad infinitum; my eyes glazed over more than once. For a story entitled Drood, although his presence permeates the book, I don’t think the character was actually in 50 pages of the book. There were some parts of this book that were really creepy and scary, but these scenes were interrupted by other scenes so tedious I couldn’t wait for them to be done. Half the time you are reading this book you are questioning Collins’ sanity or wondering if what you are reading is one of his drug induced hallucination. In point of fact the final answer to this question comes in about the last 50 pages or so and is a complete let-down. Mr. Charles Dickens does not fare too well in this tale either, making me wonder what the whole point of this book was, in the end I think it was really about the destruction that jealousy can cause in a person’s psyche. Another aspect of the book that I found annoying were the very many plot lines that were left unanswered, what really happened to Agnes and Joseph Clow? What occurred during Wilkie’s many excursions and conversations with a myriad of people – were they all hallucinations? There were just too many plot lines left dangling. There were so many glimmers of excellent writing in the story that I rated it a bit higher than I normally would. I do have Simmons’ The Terror in my reading stacks, another large book, but after this it maybe a while before I have the strength or desire to read it.
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