I just finished “Drood” by Dan Simmons. I’ve read half a dozen other books by Simmons. My all time favorites are still “Illium” and “Olympos”….so entertaining and informative. Simmons likes to tie in other great literature with his stories. My favorite runs you through the Trojan War of “The Iliad” in a science fiction treatment that dazzles and delights.

Mr. Simmons is a gifted author who obviously loves to read, and he likes trying his hand at varying styles. In “Drood” he weaves his tale around the last few years of Charles Dickens’ life and presents “Wilkie” Collins, a Dickens friend and fellow writer as his narrator-villain.
He pretty much proves he can out-Dickens Dickens himself, as Wilkie Collins wanted to do. Unfortunately for me, I am not a Dickens fan, nor do I care for Victorian horror-melodrama. So this effort fell flat for me. But I’m not giving up on Mr. Simmons—”Black Hills” is my next fiction!

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