The New Dan Simmons Novel May Make Your Hat Explode

Last year, I interviewed illustrator John Picacio about his work on the first volume in a new edition of Michael Moorcock’s Elric series—and a collection of Moorcock’s Seaton Begg stories called The Metatemporal Detective. It’s the Victorian-askew look of the latter that came to mind this morning when I got a look at Picacio’s artwork for a limited edition of Drood, the new Dan Simmons novel that asks the question, “Did the famous and loveable and honourable Charles Dickens plot to murder an innocent person and dissolve away his flesh in a pit of caustic lime and secretly inter what was left of him, mere bones and a skull, in the crypt of an ancient cathedral that was an important part of Dicken’s own childhood?”

Well, now that the question’s been put on the table, we’ve got to know, right?

Subterranean Press will be publishing 500 signed, numbered copies of Drood for $80; for $500, you can get one of just 26 copies that comes in a custom traycase. If those options seem too steep, there’s always the regular trade edition from Little, Brown coming in a few weeks. Although the cover art to that edition, while suitably atmospheric, isn’t quite as… arresting, shall we say, as Picacio’s take on the story.

8 January 2009 | uncategorized |