[Ilium] [by: Dan Simmons]

This is a space opera with a difference! It is a page turning and exciting epic that I read so rapidly that I now realise that I have failed to understand all the subtleties! It is set on a future earth, on orbiting earth space facilities, on the ancient earth of Homer's Iliad and on Mars; however, it is not the mars as we know it but a version that has been terraformed and has an earth gravity. I suspect that it is from a different universe.There are several groups of characters. First, the population of future earth (post humans) that only numbers about 300,000; they have lost all knowledge - they cannot even read, and are looked after by the voynix - robot-like constructs - and servitors that are not of earth. They are able to move instantaneously (fax) between faxnode pads that are scattered over the earth. Second, the scientifically advanced moravecs; these are part organic part mechanical and occupy and study the outer solar system. In their spare time, one has become an expert on Shakespeare, especially his sonnets, and another on Proust. They were created by humans and seeded in the solar system during the "Lost Age". Third, there are the Gods who inhabit Olympos Mons on Mars; they possess all the powers of the ancient Greek Gods, and more. They come from the far future but I am unclear whether they were originally human or have arrived from a parallel universe. Fourth, there are the Greeks (Acheans) and the defenders of Ilium, the Trojans that have been fighting for 10 years; they are based on Homer's Iliad but unfortunately the Gods have their favorites and keep on interfering with and hence prolonging the fighting. A fifth important character is the scholar Hockenberry; he was an academic on the current earth who was an expert on Homer's Iliad and other contemporary Greek literature and who was "resurrected" by the Gods who use him for their own nefarious dealing with the Greeks and Trojans. He has the fortune to become the lover of Helen of Troy! Finally, there is a group of other characters that play more important roles in the sequence to Ilium - Olympos - but a few of whom are to be found on the rings orbiting earth and who play a critical role in the story.I am not going to attempt to describe the plot as it is too complex but it contains sex, violence, love, horror and erudition - I am now planning to read the Iliad! The author cleverly intertwines Greek legend with hard SF in an epic that covers centuries and entails creatures that are sub-human, human and post-human. Although over 600 pages long the story has pace and verve. Initially, each group of characters is dealt with individually but as the story progresses their tales all gradually converge to produce an exciting climax. A list of the Dramatis Personae provided at the end of the book is extremely useful in helping the reader follow the various characters and the twists and turns of the story.I have only given 4 stars to this novel as I feel it is not up to the standard of Hyperion - it is a little too complex and contrived; nevertheless, a compulsive read and it is thoroughly recommended.

Confusing start as there are three complex narratives taking place in one chapter after another. Once you get attached to the protagonist in each story it becomes very gripping read.

Ilium/Olympos by Dan SimmonsThere's no point reviewing these two books as anything other than one, long (1400+ page) story.I've read many (though not all) of Simmons's books - and The Hyperion Cantos (four books telling two linked stories) is one of my favourite books - but this was frustratingly disappointing.Frustrating because Simmons is a good writer and he's clearly a well-read, clever, erudite chap, but disappointing because this could have been so much better.This is literary space opera: literary because of vast swathes of literary allusion (references to Shakespeare and Proust, with nearly everything based on classical Greek mythology); and space `opera' because it's SF on a grand scale, with cartoon-like characters, and the `science' is never explained.Forgive me if I've not completely grasped every nuance of the plot but it seemed to me there were two strands.The story takes place a couple of thousand years in the future, long after the humans (as we would know them) have been reduced (after a cataclysmic event) to a few hundred thousand souls, but also after the `post-humans' have buggered off (mainly) to pastures new.Simmons also plays around with alternate universes. I might have misunderstood but I think he's proposing that `genius' level humans - eg Shakespeare, Homer - can, just because of their immense intellects, cause new universes to pop into existence.As you might imagine, there are several strands to the tale, though they only come together, after a fashion, in the last 50 pages, and then somewhat half-heartedly.Simmons clearly has a fantastic imagination and, as with most of the best SF stories, there were many moments when I paused and tried to imagine for myself what it would be like if his fictional ideas were real, or might one day be real.Sadly, for me, there were just too many disappointing features.I really felt he got bogged down in the Greek mythology. Unless your knowledge of the various characters is already fairly exhaustive, you're going to struggle, to some extent. He does tell us who's who on a regular basis but there was just too much of it.Despite the length of the book, too much remains unexplained. Setebos is the villain of the piece (paralleling, fairly directly, The Tempest) and as Olympos progresses `he' is painted as a hugely powerful being. By the end of the book, though, I was left thinking "Eh? What happened to that many-handed, massive, brain-shaped thing?" And this was just, to my mind, the biggest plot `black hole'. There were many others.Then there were other, minor, plot points which Simmons sprinkles around, for no obvious good reason. There a Jew/Arab plot line that seems rather unnecessary. There are some homophobic paragraphs, and a weird thread of misogyny running through the whole story. One would hope that after another two thousand years we would have moved beyond judging men by their actions and women by their appearance.Possibly the worst chapter for me was near the end when we find out what became of the greek hero Achilles and the Amazonian warrior queen Penthesilea. As in Greek mythology, Achilles kills her in battle but is the besotted with her. Simmons then runs with this ball and Achilles is consumed with the task of bringing her back to life. In the last few pages of the book, we meet the happy couple. Penthelisea is a whining harpy and Achilles is the downtrodden, hen-pecked husband. Perhaps Simmons did this thinking it would be humorous but it just comes across as clunky and misogynistic, like a scene from a low budget, 1970s, TV sitcom.Not all books have to be about `the big picture' but, arguably, the best books at least examine the question "What's it all about?" even if the author can't give us the answer. If you're going to write a (very) long story on such a huge canvass you've surely got to at least hint at where the answer might lie. Simmons had a go at this at the end of The Hyperion Cantos. Here he seems content to run with: "With a big punch the baddies were killed (or just disappeared) and the goodies all lived happily ever after."4/10

There's three books in here. It's very long and the three stories are intertwined and partially merge at the end. There's clearly more to come. It's very readable but could be shorter without loss. The exotic characters are fun, and the human characters rather dull. A basic understanding of Greek Mythology and Quantum Mechanics is useful.

I read the Hyperion series a very long time ago, probably in the 1990s, and then somehow missed the authors other books, and was amazed to find this came out in 2003.I read this book (and the sequel Olympos) and really enjoyed both; I thought they were excellent sci-fi with a very different twist to generic space opera we get a lot of. Though it's probably poor manners to mention it, previously I had read Gareth Powel Embers of War series, and while that was fine, these books are in a different league.I felt that there were a few loose ends left over, though maybe I'm just not clever enough to get it all (ie, without spoiling it, just what was the purpose in having a main character find an object in the Atlantic, only for other characters to then find it independently later?).