So dug in a little more into Dan Simmons's catalog by getting into some of his stand alone works. And the book I decided to read was his debut horror novel from 1985, "Song Of Kali".
"Song Of Kali" is about an American literary mag editor and his family travelling to the city of Calcutta, where he searches for a manuscript by a poet who has been missing for several years. But he is unaware of the horror that is waiting for him in the city itself.
This first novel is pretty dark and brutal, not really long, but not that short either with his particularly literary style, with some heavy themes, particularly man's proclivity to violence and cruelty and also grief too. It's a decently good debut, but not great or even the pinnacle of perfection in any sense.
And of course since this was from the eighties, this one has not aged very well since it's original publication. There are times when some of the melancholic moments, and horror sequences too, can often times go to very outrageous extremes, among other flaws. But flaws or no, it's still pretty good.
There are still some other solo books that I have yet to try as of yet, and some of them range from SF to thrillers, like "Carrion Comfort" and "Drood". There's even a horror series called Seasons of Horror that is also worth checking when I get chance to getting copies of those. And there's also his three short story collections that might be worth looking into. I really do like his writing, even if it's not at all perfect, and I have also the last two books of his Hyperion Cantos still waiting to be read also. But now that I've gotten my fill of horror at this moment it's time to read some SF again!
by i-the-muso-1968