Two from amazon.com to add to the reading pile:

Drood – Dan Simmons – 775 pages
I bought these two books from US Amazon because the UK editions aren’t as pretty. Usually it’s the opposite, UK has passable covers, while US has bad ones. In the case of this book the UK edition is passable, but the US one is just too good. And still not as good as the inaccessible limited edition. The one I have is the hefty hardcover. Quite a big book with rather thick pages. On the internet there are already plenty of reviews, the book came out less than a month ago so it’s “hot”. In general I read very positive comments. The story is like historical fiction. It’s about the last mysterious years of Charles Dickens and his obsession with someone named “Drood”. Story told from the point of view of his literate friend who actually existed and wrote at the time. Dan Simmons researched all this extensively so that it could be as plausible as possible, but at the end it’s a psychological horror/ thriller, made to grip the reader, and quite successful at that if you believe the reviews. Starting in typical fashion:

My name is Wilkie Collins, and my guess, since I plan to delay the publication of this document for at least a century and a quarter beyond the date of my demise, is that you do not recognize my name.
[…]
So this true story shall be about my friend (or at least about the man who was once my friend) Charles Dickens and about the Staplehurst accident that took away his peace of mind, his health, and, some might whisper, his sanity.

Viriconium – John M. Harrison – 462 pages
This was a suggestion to be intended somewhat like a challenge after I said on a forum that I liked Steven Erikson because of the way he experiments with the writing. This book is OLD, the bulk of it written 25 years ago. It’s a collection of shorter novels and novellas set around or about the same mythical weird city (Viriconium). Foreword filled with praises written by Neil Gaiman. It is known especially because it is supposed to have a very good prose and because it’s quite unconventional. In fact for a book this old and still so praised by everyone, it’s weird that it’s almost unknown to the largest public. I’ve read it as also an attempt to overthrow the way in Tolkien’s world everything is precisely determined and charted to the smallest detail. Viriconium is like a dream city, that changes and transforms, where character reappears by being someone else, and where plot makes more sense on a symbolic level than plain one. I only read 10-20 pages so I don’t know how much the book fulfills the premise, but it’s quite intriguing. The setting is about the “other kind” of fantasy. Instead of old medieval world we are here projected in the future after the fall of an advanced empire. Technology exists but considered alike magic as the new populations forgot how to make things and only know how to operate whatever is left. I guess the closer comparison is style and intent is Gene Wolfe. This edition of the book is very good, from the embossed cover to the irregular edge of the pages (exactly like the beautiful edition of the Fountainhead). One of those books I like to own as it may be another gem.

The next order is going to be slightly weirder than usual :) In the meantime I should try to review Godkind’s Wizard’s First Rule, since I’ve finished it a while ago, and already about 150 pages from the end of The Colour in the Steel. Still undecided about what to read next. I should go with Martin or Abercrombie, but I’m always more intrigued to read stuff from a completely (to me) new writer. So I start all these series and then leave them behind even if I loved them, while losing the timing and some of the enjoyment.

There’s also the fourth book of Steven Erikson that calls me. In about (or within) a month we should have the prologue of the beginning of the end (Dust of Dreams, as the prologue is usually included in the mass market edition of the previous volume, coming out in April). I can’t really read it to avoid spoilers, but I’ll chase all kind of feedback from other readers. Expectations are high.