Finally, done, done, done. Turned the last pages just a couple of hours ago and I have to say I loved it.

The pleasure ebbed. By halfway through it was dragging, and the end just kind of petered out. Not as marvelous as The Terror. Perhaps there just wasn't enough room in the lives of Dicens and Collins to keep up the fiction?

Wow, baggy as a pair of gangsta pants. But fun.

Very dark and brooding. I enjoyed it, but I might have enjoyed it more if it were a little shorter. Still, I find it hard to resist fiction about Dickens.

It's a huge book, and it's taking me forever, and it is sheer pleasure, every minute.

I'm really thinking that I should read the Mystery of Edwin Drood though.

I don't know much about Collins, but the biographical detail of Dickens is excellent, and pleasurable reading.

SO creepy.

Delicious!!!!

So far, so creepy.

I'm up to Chapter 6 and am quite enjoying it. Decide to pick up a Collins book and read that too.

Enormous but goes down easily -- kind of like eating a giant Aero bar as opposed to a 70% Valrhona dark chocolate. Talk about baggy! Anyway, I'm liking it a lot, and suspect I might end up breaking my "no bringing books over three pounds to work" rule as I get further into it.

Finally finished up with, ummm, that other book. Now for something completely different. It's large, but seems thoroughly accessible. And after only 25 pages, I know this is a book that I won't dread 'having' to pick-up again.

I've at least opened it up and read the first chapter. I'm hoping to get some weekend reading time in.

Perhaps overly long, but I still enjoyed the take on 19th century Collins/Dickens novels (particularly in how parts seemed to be about the verging rise of the detective novel, with Poe and Doyle references).

DG's right -- it's much lighter than its general heft would suggest. Which still doesn't mean it's coming on the subway with me -- we'll see how sucked in I get. The jacket flap copy cracked me up, though. (No, I'm not very far along in this yet.)

Such a wonderful,immersive, omnipresent glimpse into the lives Charles Dickens and his wouldbe Salieri Wilkie Collins's professional and private lives. It's a huge book, but so worth the time it takes to read this remarkable tale.

I'm taking my time with this 700 pg. doorstop... been reading some other things in between... but Simmons' reimaginative powers are at full peak in this book. Wilkie Collins is the book's narrator, and his "inside" look at Dickens is a revelation. Most readers know Dickens wasn't the warm, fuzzy image he worked hard to promote. I find myself very curious about the research for this book. How much is based on fact re: Dickens and the disconnect between his private/public persona? It's fascinating stuff. The whole Staplehurst Accident is pretty amazing (which really happened), but it's just the tip of the iceberg in this story.

This is great!

Wondering what the chances are of snagging an interview with Simmons for Readerville when this comes out?

The ARC arrived on Saturday. I've been hotly anticipating this one for a while. I loved Simmons' "The Terror." Guillermo del Torro snagged the film rights, and he wrote a blurb for the book.

Excellent cover art, too.