I'm still working away on Drood - about halfway done now. It is slow going for me - while I can see the obvious brilliance of Simmons's writing, and his playing with alternate mental realities (the mesmerism and drugs) there is still only so much I can take of the Wilkie Collins POV at a time. He is such an unpleasant person, and such a completely unreliable narrator...wonderfully well written, even though I feel like I am walking through a sewer when I spend time in his mind and voice.
So I will read a hundred pages or so, take a break for a couple of days, then go back for another round. 
