I see it was January 25th when I last finished a book. That's when I started "Drood" by Dan Simmons. I finished it this morning. I also broke my reading glasses. (The two events are unrelated.) At 941 pages, this is nearly the size of all the other books I read so far in 2021 (Making a Literary Life at 255 pages, Writing Down the Bones at 195, The Girl with All the Gifts at 403, and the workbook at 103 = 956 pages.)
How was it? I thought it was enjoyable. A baseline drawn from the life of Charles Dickens, with an overlay of mystery, suspense, even horror. I wouldn't consider it a page-turner, but it was a steady story throughout.
Here's a great interview with the author including some coverage of Drood.
