Drood - Dan Simmons

I was not intending to include this book in any challenges but as I have just finished the 775 page chunkster I think it is only appropriate (and fair to me!) that I list it as my first completed book for The Chunkster Challenge - because it certainly fits into this category!
Drood by American author Dan Simmons was a book that was recommended to me (I am so sorry but I can't remember who by!) after I started to get into a bit of a Dickens phase after reading Wanting and Girl in a Blue Dress earlier this year. I must admit I was a little put off after I collected the book from my library and saw it's size but all of that doubt disappeared after reading the first few pages - I was hooked.

The narrator of Drood is the author Wilkie Collins - I have to be honest and say that I have never read any of Collin's work before and (if I am being completely honest) I had not even really heard of him before joining the blogging world and hearing so many of you praise his novels. This was all quite funny for me as I started reading this book as the narrator Collins seems to feel he will not be remembered by many in the years following his death;

Some say that I am a gambling man and those that say so are correct, so my wager with you, Dear Reader, would be that you have neither read nor heard of any of my books or plays"(page 3).

The context of the book is that Collins has written a memoir (the book we are reading) about his friendship with Charles Dickens and the events following a serious train accident at Staplehurst involving the author in June 1865 in which many people are killed and injured. Dickens himself is uninjured physically but the emotional and psychological impact of the accident means that he never returns to his prolific writing career afterwards. When speaking to Collins after the accident Dickens talks about a strange character named Drood whom he met while attending to the dead and injured - the exact nature of who (or what) is Drood become the focus for this novel as well as the actual novel Dickens was writing at the time of his death in 1870, just 5 years after the Staplehurst accident.

Collins is an extremely unreliable narrator - he is addicted to opium and takes it in ever increasing doses as the book goes on. His love-hate relationship with Dickens also makes us wonder at his real motivation behind the writing of this "memoir". But these are techniques that really only add to the effect and impact of the book - you want to see if the real motivations ever become clear - and even if they don't, you are really enjoying the story too much to care! There are many mysteries buried within the narration - Who is Drood? What role does he play in the lives and writings of Collins and Dickens? Is Drood real? Is Dickens a murderer?

This book is quite frightening in places - I rarely become scared when reading a book but it was a testament to Simmons writing that this book certainly evoked that reaction in me many times - it probably took me a lot longer than it should have to finish this because there were times when I couldn't read it before going to sleep!

As I said, this book hooked me in from the very beginning and easily kept my interest for all of its 700 plus pages. A great character novel, a great mystery and a really, really great read.