More on Drood...(MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW IN THIS POST)

I have just finished listening to Drood by Dan Simmons. Narrator Simon Prebble has made this a fantastic production. It was so good that I got the book. I am only a chapter in, but I suspect that one might be better off listening to Drood. Although it is abridged, Drood is so dark and disturbing that my nerves were probably better off. If it had been any longer than the 10.5 hours, I might have had to resort to a few glasses of laudanum just like Wilkie Collins. I could go on and on so I’ll just leave you with a few of discussion points:

1.Simon Prebble sounds just like Paddington Bear. I can’t figure out what is more disturbing: Dan’s ability to create such a tortured character as Wilkie, or the thought of Paddington Bear carrying out Wilkie’s malicious deeds?
2.I have had nightmares about the fate of poor-pitiful Agnes. Was anyone disturbed by this as much as me?
3.Charles Dickens is the heart of Drood and after finishing Drood I’m inspired to do some research on his life as well as reread some of his works. Are you?
4.I’m still confused about this Drood. Help Megan!
5.Wilkie is clearly out of his mind. What do you think is wrong with him? Too much time in the opium dens? Schizophrenia? Gout? Obsessive jealousy of his frenemy Charles Dickens? Droooooood?

DROOD

Amber and I both listened to Dan Simmons' DROOD this week. She'll be updating the blog soon with some thoughts on the nightmares it gave her, but I just wanted to check in, too, to praise both the gorgeous (and at times horrific) detail in the language and voyages into undertown that Simmons creates and the absolutely wonderful narration of Simon Prebble, who really made Wilkie Collins come alive for me. At times, they made me dislike poor Wilkie so much that I felt that he really deserved anything that was coming to him (and throughout the story, the listener is really kept guessing at the depths of what that would be)! The locales and characters were such great company that I am sorry to have to move on now that I've reached the final chapter, but I look forward to loading a new book onto my ipod!

A Sad Day at Hachette Audio

Surprise!

So, as it turns out, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won our Grammy. Don't get me wrong, I like Al Gore, but he's won enough prizes for that piece of work, and I selfishly would have loved to see the prize go to one of our writers. Our odds seemed pretty good with two out of the five nominees!

Both Sedaris and Colbert had wonderful entries, but I'm thinking now that the humor vote must have been very split, with Steve Martin competing in our category as well. Looking on the bright side, I'm thinking that at least continued publicity for An Inconvenient Truth might help the world, right? Right!

I didn't travel to LA for the Grammys this year, but it hardly mattered as far as keeping up with what was happening there. While in years previous, you might have to wait for a call from LA late at night, or read the results in the paper the next day, this year there was access granted to all, through technology and social media tools. I was on Twitter all afternoon following fellow Hachette Audioers in LA as well as TheGrammys official tweets, and was sad to get the bad news in real time, but really liked the immediacy of knowing what was going on at the award ceremony even though I was out with friends in Brooklyn. The Recording Academy also streamed the non-televised portion of the ceremony, which I'm not sure they've done before. What a wonderful idea! They might even find that certain awards that passed without mention in the media before getting picked up for stories now that there's more universal access.

For those of you who are still sad about our loss, as a consolation prize, here's a link to a segment (presciently) called “Who’s NOT Honoring Me Now” from an episode of last week's The Colbert Report (Grammy nominations featured from 2:34 on). I can't wait to tune in tonight and see if Stephen addresses the victory of his nemesis, GORE!

In happier news, I continue to listen to DROOD and am loving Simon Prebble's voice and accent.


Oh, and I almost forgot! Congratulations to our friends at Simon & Schuster Audio!