What I'm Reading: Drood by Dan Simmons
I just finished Drood by Dan Simmons, best known for his Hyperion Cantos cycle of four books, which begins with the Hugo award winning Hyperion and concludes with The Rise of Endymion. Drood presents a fictionalized account of the last 5 years of Charles Dickens life. The story is told in the first person of William "Wilkie" Collins, friend, protege, collaborator and rival of Dickens, as well as being an extreme opium addict. The story begins the day Charles Dickens is involved in a near fatal railway accident and follow through to the day he dies, exactly 5 years later. On the fateful day of the railway accident, Dickens encounters a ghoul of man named simply "Drood", who becomes and ongoing obsession for the author, who drags his friend Wilkie into the mystery. In the ensuing years, the mystery grows darker and deeper, taking a toll on the health and perhaps even the sanity of both men.
Inspired by the intriguing events surrounding Charles Dickens last years (dying 5 years to the day after escaping death in a railway accident) and the fact the Dickens left behind an mystery novel, Simmons draws engrossing biographical sketches of both Dickens and Collins. And using them as both eyes and tour guides, takes the readers into the awful underbelly of 19th century London that are only hinted at in the romanticized novels of Dickens.
This is definitely a "door stop" book, topping nearly 800 pages, as are most of Simmons books. But like his other novels, the destination is worth the journey and the journey is the thing. Simmons is a highly literate author, who frequently uses classical sources for both structure, theme and even characters of his novels. These are not light weight pulp, but neither is Simmons a pretentious writer who insists on using an obscure 5 syllable word when a common 3 syllable word will do.
Drood isn't my favorite Simmons book; I'd have to reserve that honor for the Ilium & Olympos duology. But it is fine thriller, which gives insight into a London much darker than we could have imagined it, as it struggled to become a modern city.
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