First Monday Book Day

First Monday Book Day: A Dickens of a Time

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Drood: A Novel
I have been a big fan of Dan Simmons's work since I first ran across his Hyperion. The Hyperion Cantos, as the four-volume set is known, is a big-canvas space opera work, but one that is particularly literate, drawing liberally on the spirit of Keats as well as the structure and feel of the Canterbury Tales.

The first book in that group, Hyperion deservedly won both the Hugo and the Locus for best sci-fi novel in 1990.

I likewise devoured his Ilium and Olympos cycle, big on Homer, but also drawing on Shakespeare and Proust, of all people.

Simmons also is a renowned horror author. I thought it time to delve into that side of his work when I picked up a copy of this book some months ago.

Well, I'm not sure that "horror" is quite the right word for this book. But, wow, it has been engaging. Simmons has fictionalized the backstory to Dickens' last, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, telling the tale through the perspective of Dickens' longtime friend and frequent collaborator, the now-mostly forgotten Wilkie Collins.

The book is a fascinating study in upper(ish)-class Victorian England. Simmons appears to have thoroughly researched Dickens and Collins (although I admit that I know little of either, so mebbe not?), such that he weaves an intimate portrait of Dickens as seen through a close collaborator's eyes. That collaborator happens to be a laudanum addict and, by mid-book, an opium addict, which adds its own mysterious fog to the veracity of the narrator's perspective. The detail -- of London, of daily life, of the lives and careers of Dickens and Collins -- is rich and believable.

I'm "only" 400+ pages in to this dense, twisting, 775-page tale. But I'm thoroughly entertained and engaged. (and, sorry, but even though I know that knowing the ending won't ruin a good story, I haven't peeked ahead).

What are you reading?

60 thoughts on “First Monday Book Day: A Dickens of a Time”

  1. It must be a month for long novels. I just finished Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn (600 pages), which is in the very short list conversation for greatest novel about the Vietnam War. It gets so much about the war so very right. Here's a link to my short review on Goodreads. I can't recommend this book highly enough, and I'm really looking forward to Marlantes' visit to my classroom.

    I also read Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, by documentary filmmaker Jamie Doran and sci-fi author Piers Bizony. It was a very engaging read, and the research includes post-glasnost/perestroika interviews of many of the principal people in Gagarin's personal and professional lives. The major knock against it is that the book could easily have gone another 200 pages, and probably should have, because several of the principal people interviewed for the book have passed on.

  2. Franzen's The Corrections. I enjoyed it a lot, I thought Freedom was the better of the two. Both recommended.

    2. I remember reading The Corrections and loving it. Loved it. Then, I read Freedom and felt the same way. I still feel like Freedom was one of the best reads of last year, but after finishing the novel I went back to The Corrections and noticed a marked improvement in Franzen's style and organization. After re-reading The Corrections, Patty reads like a more fleshed out Denise, and I wouldn't be surprised if his next novel features a more developed look at Joey from Freedom.

  3. Very much disliked Drood. I could tell that Simmons is a fine writer, but, to me, he got lost in the details of Dickensian London. The "horror" aspects were the best parts of the book to me, and they were too few and too far between.

    I debated adding a spoiler here, but I'll just be vague and say that the ending was not what I had hoped for either.

    I keep meaning to try out something else of Simmons' work, but haven't got to that part of my reading list yet. I'd probably do "Hyperion" although maybe "Muse of Fire" or "The Terror".

        1. I don't have any Keats knowledge, so those parts were merely not notable as opposed to annoying.

    2. Simmons is a fine writer, but, to me, he got lost in the details

      That's Dan Simmons in a nutshell, to me. I can tell there's some really good writing in his books, but all the "stuff" layered on top of it really damps down my interest.

    3. to be fair, DG is quite accurate about the "lost in the details of Dickensian London" part. But that's what I think I like about it. The book is pretending to be a memoir, and it meanders just like a memoir. Rich in texture, but the story is pretty slow in moving forward. There might be a really tight, fast-paced, 350-page novel hidden in this book.

      1. I read my Goodreads review of Drood and was reminded of my main issue with the book. I found Wilkie Collins unlikeable (yes that was kind of the point, but it rubbed me the wrong way) and didn't end up caring what happened to him.

  5. I read A Dance with Dragons. The first half of it was seemed surprisingly sluggish, although that may be because a lot of it was events already detailed from a different perspective. Although Arya and Tyrion were quite enjoyable, as ever. Once events got caught up to A Feast for Crows, things got interesting. Hopefully the next book has a reasonable turn around.

    Well, back to the Wheel of Time series.

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    2. cheap @ss (as opposed to cheapy toy) that I am, I'm waiting for the next paperback installment of Wheel to come out. Likewise with Dance. Either that, or I will have to investigate the liberry.

      1. I just started Winter's Heart, the 9th book in the Wheel of Time series. This is my 3rd full re-read and I am still picking up plot details I missed in the past. A wonderous thing happened to me on my birthday in May. The family bought be a Barnes and Noble nook. It is sooooo much easier for me to read with this device. At a golf tourney a few weeks back I won an Amazon Kindle, which I gave to my wife. She much prefers the digital reading as well. Once the initial cost is out of the way, the books can be purchased quite a bit cheaper than in print.

        1. i have a nook, but i dislike buying books in any form. if my library doesn't have it, i just wait until it does. very rarely do i purchase a book in any form.

          (one book i am planning on digitally purchasing though is infinite jest. has anyone read that digitally? how did it work with the footnotes?)

          1. That's the way Mrs. Runner rolls, too. She brings home a ton of trashy romance crap books each library trip, but she loves reading on her Nook when they have it available in e-form.

          2. I'm working on the sample on my Kindle of IJ. I acutally haven't hit any footnotes yet. However, the footnotes have been fine in other works I've read on the Kindle.

  6. I mostly enjoyed Simmon's Hyperion cantos, but write-ups on his other books don't catch my interest.

    Since last month, I read several of Philip K. Dick's short stories that were inspiration for movies (The Adjustment Bureau, Paycheck, The Minority Report, Blade Runner, Total Recall). I think I said it last month, but Dick is much better at coming up with the ideas than fleshing them out, although the stories were entertaining enough. I now understand the fascination with animals in Blade Runner (the owl, the snake, various mentions in the android testing).

    I had a longing for O'Brien again, so I picked up one of his early works, The Golden Ocean. The opening was a bit tedious, but once they got onto the water, it was brought back fond memories of his Aubrey/Maturin series. I'm just starting the other novel that goes with this book, The Unknown Shore. I can already see the makings of Maturin in one of his young characters.

    1. My wife picked up Master and Commander for me and I read it and Post Captain in about 2 days. Then I left for my first deployment (limited reading options) and haven't been back since...another series for The List!

  7. I read Stephenson's Snow Crash and really liked it. Also Eric Nylund's Mortal Coils, think Gaiman's American Gods with teenage protagonists and less well written. Re-read Game of Thrones, going to go through all of the books in that series again before reading Dance with Dragons. Read a handful of other titles, but nothing worth recommending to anyone else.

        1. I liked Cryptonomicon, but Snow Crash was even more my style. I'll be watching for more of his stuff when I'm hunting books.

        2. The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon are awesome, while Snow Crash is a really fun read. Not saying it's mediocre or worse, but since I coincidentally read his books in chronological order, there's a clear maturation as a writer from Snow Crash to Anathem.

          1. Anathem is sitting on my night stand, waiting for me to finish Drood. So, that will be next month's entry (or the following month's, at the rate I'm going).

            1. Dr. Chop and I have been listening to Anathem on long car trips, and we've quite enjoyed it so far.

          2. I noticed the development in style between Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon- I enjoyed the simpler, less technical story more, 'cause it was a fun read. Cryptonomicon was more smoothly put together, and definitely had more programmer-type stuff in it, and I had to pay a lot more attention to who was doing what in what timeline. And now I have to go find Anathem so I can read it before next month's first Monday.

  8. I'm about 1/5th of the way through Drew Magary's "The Postmortal". I wouldn't say it's a fantastic read, at least so far, but so far I feel it has promise so I'll keep at it.

    1. Got a quick summary of the plot of that for me? I was over at Deadspin earlier and saw he'd written it, but I didn't get any info on what exactly it was supposed to be.

      1. Aging is cured, but death still exists. You can get hit by a car, shot, whatever, but you can get cured of aging and never grow old. The ramifications of such a cure is the rest of the book I'm just getting in to.

        1. Gotcha, that's the quick blurb I was looking for. Semi-interesting premise, I'll probably read it at some point.

  9. I read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Leaving aside why I decided to start another epic fantasy series that is years away from completion, I liked it quite a bit. I could tell that Sanderson had spent a lot of time putting together this world and the systems of magic within it, and a lot of that stuff was very cool. If I had a criticism, it would be that the book wasn't really self-contained, it was clearly setting up story lines for the remainder of the series. Unavoidable, but understandable.

    This month I'm reading The Way Through Doors and The Curfew by Jesse Ball. I liked his debut novel, and "Doors" has been delightfully bizarre so far. I also have The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno and The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell on the nightstand.

    1. I read The Way of Kings a while back. I really like Sanderson's work. I also felt a little trepidation starting an epic fantasy knowing I had a lot of waiting a head of me. Sanderson has so much work backlogged, that we may be waiting 10 years for the series to complete.

      1. i read assassination vacation awhile back. i remember enjoying it. i should look into more of her work.

          1. I liked WS but cannot read it without hearing Vowell's voice and that bothers me a little. I don't know why.

      2. Yeah, I'm not sure what to think of Vowell after seeing/hearing a few interviews. This is very much a testing of the waters to see if I like her style or not.

  10. I finished Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke and Patrick Dewitt's The Sisters Brothers this month. I enjoyed Tree of Smoke, and I have thought about the plot and characters since finishing the novel. The Sisters Brothers was also a good read, but not something that I'll spend much time pondering in the future.

    I started reading Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union and have enjoyed the first few chapters. I also started reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, and while I'll be finishing the book it really wasn't light beach reading.

    1. I've started Guns, Germs, and Steel at least 3 times. I wish there was a program to turn in your physical copy for a Kindle edition, because while I'd like to read it, there's no way I'm lugging that all the way to Prague.

    2. i definitely enjoyed the yiddish policeman's union (was it 6 that recommended it?), though i felt it ended a little too abruptly. definitely an interesting premise to base a book upon. there's still word the coens are going to do the adaptation. that should be interesting as well.

      i want to check out kavalier & clay sometime soon.

      1. I can't recommend Kavalier and Clay enough. I was totally impressed with Chabon's aesthetic, and the structure fit extremely well with the narrative.

        1. Well I'm a little ambigious on TAAOK&C. It sure is well written and the first third had me enthralled. Then it just went a direction that didn't move me. I wanted to love it but in the end, the story just didn't go where I wanted it to. I realize I'm probably a minority opinion on this.

        2. I reviewed Kavalier & Clay at the old basement, and Mak did at his blog too. My recollection: great story, but a little too precious at times. Chabon really revels in being a writer and likes to show off his vocabulary juuust a bit too much. Still, I found it to be a page-turner.

          1. I think my take was on the old WGOM. As I recall, the final conclusion was that it was something I was glad to have read, but not something I was going to remember a few months/years down the line.

    3. I've enjoyed the work of both Denis Johnson and Michael Chabon.

      Chabon really revels in being a writer and likes to show off his vocabulary juuust a bit too much.

      I disagree. That sort of virtuoso flourish is often what separates the good from the great.

  11. hollywood: bukowski’s book about the writing and filming of barfly (cinegeeks: any good?). it was all right. ol’ hank was settling down by that time, so it’s not nearly as vile and sleazy as some of his other works, so it was a bit more boring too. interesting take on hollywood and getting a movie made, though i can’t be sure how objective it is. all the characters are very thinly veiled pseudonyms of actually personalities. all right read, but nothing special.

    to kill a mockingbird: somehow, this book never came up in any of my classes. while it didn’t blow my mind (i can see it being a bit more scandalous when it was first released), i can see how it’s come to be an american classic.

    a game of thrones: with everyone oohing and ahhing, i had to jump on the bandwagon, and i’m glad i did. while the writing isn't anything earth shattering, it’s still a well developed and engaging story. lots of moving parts which keeps things interesting. in my progress so far, tyrion lannister is by far the best written character, though the rest of the characters are start to flesh themselves out better as things go on (only about halfway through book 2 so far). looking forward to continuing the series.

    1. Barfly is awesome. really. Watch it. Mickey Rourke is totally believable; Faye Dunaway is great. Plus, Stallone is in it!!!111one111!! (uh, Frank)

  12. I made my way through Ken Follett's World Without End this month (quite long at 1000+ pages, but well worth the effort). Engrossing history lesson about life in England during the late Middle Ages. The author combines an exploration of the society of the time with its buildings, trades, and customs to create an interesting story. He does so by introducing a cross-section of the various "characters" of the time: builders, carpenters, priests, monks, nuns, farmers, serfs, tenants, lords, soldiers, knights, and weavers...basically, the world of the 14th Century.

    Loon: A Marine Story by Jack McLean. The memoir covers the author's experiences from his enlistment in the Marine Corps in 1966 through boot camp, Vietnam, and finally his discharge in ‘68. I can't adequately describe how moving this read was. All I can say is that I wish he'd written more - it was finished too quickly and I would have loved to hear more.

    Also read a lot of "how-to" baby books...for obvious reasons.

  13. Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerrillas, American Hostages, and Buried Treasure - John Robert Otis. Stranger than fiction true story of 3 American military contractors and their 5 year ordeal as hostages in the jungles of Columbia. It reads like a thriller, with plenty of wit thrown in to lighten what was a harrowing tale for the Americans. Failed rescue attempts, malaria, US government indifference to the hostages plight and a rag-tag Colombian troop's discovery of about 20 million dollars of drug money make up just part of a rich quilt of a story. I would have enjoyed this book even if it hadn't been written by a good friend of mine from Mankato (and the center on my HS hoops squad.) Oats is a 20 year veteran reporter who has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the drug wars in Central America for Time magazine and the Houston Chronicle. He has lived with his wfe and young children in Bogata for the past decade. Not surprisingly, both his parents were longtime English professors at Mankato State U.

    The Partly Cloudy Patriot     - Sarah Vowell. The strange and wonderful mind of Ms Vowell tackles Presidential libraries, the Gettysburg Address and the cafeteria at Carlsbad Caverns. Dry as hell, in the best possible sense. (Walt, I didn't mind the fact that I heard her kewpie-doll voice in my head while I was reading. But I will say, I didn't hear David Sedaris speak until after I'd read his first two books. It was not what I had in mind.)

    The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway. Can't believe I hadn't read these titles before, but I sure enjoyed them both. Papa is justly revered as a writer.

    Eating the Dinosaur - Chuck Klosterman. SBGville's own... His latest collection of essays doesn't reach the comic peaks of Fargo Rock City or Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs. I found my mind drifting off at times, never a good sign for an author.

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