Links:

    -AUTHOR SITE: DanSimmons.com
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Dan Simmons (IMDB)
    -WIKIPEDIA: Dan Simmons
    -AUTHOR PAGE: Dan Simmons (Harper Collins)
    -EXCERPT: First Chapter of The Terror by Dan Simmons
    -GOOGLE BOOK: Hyperion by Dan Simmons
    -INTERVIEW: Q&A: Dan Simmons, author of "Drood" (Mary Ann Gwinn, 2/15/09, Seattle Times)
    -INTERVIEW: Interview: Dan Simmons: A chilling local author heats up the Victorian Era (Cat Rambo, February 15, 2009, Denver Decider)
    -INTERVIEW: A Conversation with Dan Simmons (Interview by Steven H Silver, July 2003, SF Site)
    -INTERVIEW: World-class maker of worlds: A talk with Dan Simmons: "What interests me is that human beings are almost always corrupted by the control they wield over other human beings." (Interview by Michael Alec Rose, August 1997, BookPage)
    -INTERVIEW: A Conversation With Dan Simmons (Claire E. White, September 2001, Writers Write)
    -REVIEW ARCHIVES: for Drood by Dan Simmons (Reviews of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Drood by Dan Simmons (Marjorie Kehe, CS Monitor)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Veronique de Turenne B&N Review)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (John Sutherland, Financial Times)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (John J. Miller, WSJ)

In the postscript to his novel "Our Mutual Friend," Charles Dickens briefly described a railway accident that almost killed him: "I can never be much nearer parting company with my readers for ever, than I was then, until there shall be written against my life, the two words with which I have this day closed this book: THE END."

Dickens, in fact, never again put those two words at the close of a book. He died in 1870, exactly five years after the Staplehurst crash -- and when he was only halfway through "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

For authors, passing away while writing books is an occupational hazard. Generations of students are probably grateful that Geoffrey Chaucer didn't get around to composing all of the stories he had planned for "The Canterbury Tales." Virgil's "Aeneid" is another classic case of incompleteness.

Other unfinished works aren't as well known, such as "Sanditon," "Weir of Hermiston" and "The Last Tycoon." If Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson and F. Scott Fitzgerald had lived a little longer, these fragments of their imaginations might have become as familiar as "Pride and Prejudice," "Treasure Island" and "The Great Gatsby."

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood," however, stands apart. It's no "Bleak House" or "Great Expectations," but it nevertheless has held a curious grip on certain readers. Ever since "Drood" was published shortly after Dickens's death, people have puzzled over how it might have ended -- and specifically whether the character of Edwin Drood was murdered and who might have killed him. Critics have clashed over the clues. Scholars have scoured archives for hints. Novelists have tried to knock off the manuscript on their own.

    -REVIEW: of Drood (Nick Owchar, LA Times)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Independent)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Michael Berry, SF Chronicle)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Diane Juravich, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (James Reese, St. Petersburg Times)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Christopher Guerin, PopMatters)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (DJ Taylor, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Louis Bayard, Washington Post)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Ray Palen, Bookreporter)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Dorman T. Shindler, The Denver Post)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (ROBERT CREMINS, The Dallas Morning News )
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Michael Alec Rose, Book Page)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Curt Holman, Creative Loafing)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Ellen Kanner, Miami Herald)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (The New Yorker)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Maureen Corrigan, NPR)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Steve Giegerich, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Mark Graham, Rocky Mountain News)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Dean Haigh, The Scotsman)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (SCOTT EYMAN, Palm Beach Post)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Paul Constant, The Stranger)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph)
    -REVIEW: of Drood (Bob Hussey, Rain Taxi)
    -REVIEW: of Ilium by Dan Simmons (Gerald Jonas, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Worlds Enoiugh & Time by Dan Simmons (Gerald Jonas, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons (Gerald Jonas, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Endymion by Dan Simmons (Gerald Jonas, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons (Gerald Jonas, NY Times Book Review)

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons make up a single thousand-page novel about the last days of a vibrant yet self-destructive galactic civilization called the Hegemony. If the Hegemony is doomed, it is because, in exchange for the knowledge needed to conquer the stars, the human species has sold its soul to a hive of machine-based intelligences known as the Technocore. If there is any hope for human redemption, it is to be found on the planet Hyperion.

This Earth-like world is the home of the Time Tombs, monumental artifacts of indeterminate origin that are somehow linked to the enigma of the Shrike, a half-organic, half-mechanical creature also known (for good reason) as the Lord of Pain. Where the Shrike comes from, why it inspires both terror and devotion and what it does with its victims are only some of the mysteries that Mr. Simmons lays bare in his generously conceived and stylistically sure-handed books.

At the heart of the story is a pilgrimage to Hyperion by seven people who have suffered greatly and who seek different kinds of fulfillment in a face-to-face confrontation with the Shrike. The moment is hardly auspicious for personal salvation. The Hegemony is at war with the Ousters, descendants of space-faring humans who make their home in idiosyncratic constructions between the stars. The computer-born A.I.'s (artificial intelligences) of the Technocore, having slipped humanity's rein, pursue their own obscure ends while ostensibly supporting the Hegemony.

Mr. Simmons shuttles his characters through space and time with the enviable freedom that modern science fiction accords the untimid storyteller.

    -REVIEW: of Hyperion Cantos (Sandstorm Reviews)
    -REVIEW: of Hyperion Cantos (Gary Couzzens, InfinityPlus)
    -REVIEW: of
    -REVIEW ARCHIVES: The Terror by Dan Simmons (Reviews of Books)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror by Dan Simmons (Terrence Rafferty, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (Gilbert Cruz, Entertainment Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (David Maisel, Washington Post)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (John Clute, SciFi Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (Matt Crenson, The Associated Press)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (Michael Lee, BookPage)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror ()
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (Sandy Amazeen, Monsters & Critics)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (Adam Roberts, Strange Horizons)
    -REVIEW: of The Terror (Nisi Shawl, The Seattle Times)