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Ilium (Ilium #1)

by Dan Simmons

3.96 · rating details · 5,138 ratings · 353 reviews

The Trojan War rages at the foot of Olympos Mons on Mars— observed and influenced from on high by Zeus and his immortal family—and twenty-first-century professor Thomas Hockenberry is there to play a role in the insidious private wars of vengeful gods and goddesses. On Earth, a small band of the few remaining humans pursues a lost past and devastating truth—as four sentien

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Paperback, 752 pages

Published June 28th 2005 by HarperTorch (first published 2003)

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Sep 07, 2011

Jonathan Cullen rated it

"Literary science fiction". One of the words in this phrase struggles and strains against the other two like an 18-month old who doesn't want to be picked up. It doesn't want to be associated with a genre that often is long on ideas and short on quality prose and sharp and distinct style. It often succeeds in escaping the pull of science fiction's weak gravity. Occassionaly, an author creates a story that is so dense that the word is held in place in an unstable orbit. Ultimately many...more"Literary science fiction". One of the words in this phrase struggles and strains against the other two like an 18-month old who doesn't want to be picked up. It doesn't want to be associated with a genre that often is long on ideas and short on quality prose and sharp and distinct style. It often succeeds in escaping the pull of science fiction's weak gravity. Occassionaly, an author creates a story that is so dense that the word is held in place in an unstable orbit. Ultimately many of those fail under their own weight and implode into the speculative fiction black hole. Rarely, very rarely, O Muse, an author has the incredible imagination, literary style and guts to weave together a story with just the right mix of literary competence, adventure, science and kickassedness to balance needed to sustain the phrase. Dan Simmons did it with Hyperion with inhuman aplomb.

And yes, he does it again with Ilium. It's freaking awesome.

While Hyperion gave us a structure loosely based on the classic Chauceresque frame story, Ilium is straight up Homeric Trojan War. On Mars. With robots from Jupiter obsessed with Shakespeare and Proust. With the Greek gods and quantum teleportation. On Mars. Oh and dinosaurs. We take in a lot of the action from the point of view of a formelly dead scholar. Oh yes, Simmons has taken his favourite weapon of intertextuality and speared himself doosy.

I have yet to read how Sai Simmons came up with this idea but I would not be shocked if it involved a bet and a half-empty bottle of whiskey. I can just imagine him waking up on the bathroom floor in the morning with some indecpherable napkin notes ending with the phrase "good luck with that". Stack on top of this Achillian challenge three seemingly unrelated plot lines that span the solar system and you have what I like to call, the unpossible.

But that's what makes this book so good. Simmons takes the unpossible and shapes it with Zeus like vision into something that I read in a little over a week, smiling the entire time. The pace will have you gasping in the thin air of Olympus Mons.

There is absolutely no way I can give this less than 5 stars considering the pure effort it must have required to conjure up this opus and for the resulting amusement park for your brain. However, if I had any critique, it might be the same as I had for the Fall of Hyperion and it's only in (an unfair) comparison to their predecessor: many characters in Hyperion are so unique and familiar that it's difficult if not impossible to reproduce that feeling in subsequent works. I did identify with Hockenberry fairly well though and even with the damn robots.
To continue my theme from my review of Carrion Comfort, five Dan Simmons books into it and I can say he remains at the top of my list.(less)

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Sep 15, 2007

James Williams rated it

Recommends it for: people who think that the Trojan war with nanites sounds like fun

According to the cover for Ilium, it was nominated for the Hugo Novel of the Year in 2004. It absolutely deserved it. It also didn't win, and it deserved that as well.

Don't get me wrong. It's a great book and I loved reading it (indeed, this was the second time I read it and I think I enjoyed it more the second time). It's really three stories all happening in different places in the solar system at the same time, inevitably approaching one another. It's rare to find a book tries th...more

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Jul 22, 2007

Mark rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: sci-fi fans, literature fans

The Iliad serves as the starting point here ("Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles..."), and from there Dan Simmons proceeds to amaze you with some of the most literate science fiction you'll ever read. The story unfolds in three parts, which are skillfully woven together to increase dramatic tension as the plot lines spiral closer to each other. The end of Ilium is a soft stop, there is some closure but it leaves much open for the next book Olympos.

The science fiction is...more

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Jun 12, 2007

Matt rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: not just sci-fi readers

The plot of this book is to complex to even attempt to go into but it has a dead historian recording events of the Trojan war for the gods, strange humans on a seemingly distant future earth, a machine race of explorers living on the outskirts of the solar system, and Shakespeare. Believe it or not they all go together in not such a surreal way as you might think. The characters are well rounded and evolve with the story. I don't know that it has important moral implications in the world but ...more

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Jul 28, 2007

MacGregor rated it

Loved it. Dan Simmons has a way of writing page-turners that don't feel dumbed down (or smart books that stay exciting?). The concept is great fun for people with a background in classical history; it made me want to go back and re-read the Iliad. However, he's up to his old tricks again with regards to setting his hooks in deep and then leaving you hanging for the sequel, just like Hyperion, even though I loved that book too. I bought Olympos anyway, and am planning to read it soon.

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Mar 13, 2011

Peter added it · review of another edition

Intricate plot, excellent book. How does Simmons think this stuff up?: Mr. Simmons is arguably one of the best genre-hopping authors around, having pulled down awards for SciFi, Horror, Fantasy, etc. But this massive book (700+ pages in the paperback) makes me wonder exactly how does he think this excellent stuff up?

Ilium mixes the Trojan War (is it the real Trojan War, or a setup re-creation?), future humans (who are so pampered that they have forgotten or have been forced to forget their his...more

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Dec 15, 2008

Jayaprakash Satyamurthy rated it

Shelves: science-fiction

Most excellent.

I like SF, and I like much of what gets lumped under the rather stuffy title 'classic literature'. Clearly, so does Dan Simmons. Set in a very distant future, long after both AI and posthumans have merged, this novel contains three main storylines, all of which ventually intersect.

First, there's a group of languid, pleasure-seeking old-style humans living on old earth, all their needs taken care of by mechanical servitors left for them, presumably, by the...moreMost excellent.

I like SF, and I like much of what gets lumped under the rather stuffy title 'classic literature'. Clearly, so does Dan Simmons. Set in a very distant future, long after both AI and posthumans have merged, this novel contains three main storylines, all of which ventually intersect.

First, there's a group of languid, pleasure-seeking old-style humans living on old earth, all their needs taken care of by mechanical servitors left for them, presumably, by the posthumans. Upon completing a century of life, they are supposed to ascend to the orbital rings where the posthumans reside, and join them. A small group of old-style humans decides to find out what's really going on in those orbital rings. Which, as it turns out, involves Prospero and Caliban from Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

Simultaneously, a group of AI robots left to pursue their own ends in the Jupiter moon system note anomalous amounts of quantum acitivity on Mars, and launch a mission to find out what is going on. Among them are Mahnmut, who is obsessed with Shakespeare's sonnets, and his friend Orphu, who prefers Proust.

Oh, and there's the Olympian gods too, who have all the powers ascribed to them in Greek myth. Only, it seems they can't see the future, so they've brough back a bunch of scholars from the future to confirm if the events taking place as they observe and interfere in the Trojan war correspond with Homer's account.

Simmons has pulled off quite a coup here. His novel bristles with the up-to-the-minute hard sf concerns about posthumanism, quantum science, AI and so on. At the same time, he's found a way to bring in heroes from antiquity and great works of literature from our past and use them illuminate what our future might be like.

ILIUM is the first part of a duology. The second is OLYMPOS, which I'm currently reading. There is so much left over to be tied up in the first book that I think the two would best be considered as one long story split into two books.
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Dec 20, 2011

Ben rated it

4 stars in the sub-cateogry of entertaining science fiction.

Ilium is a fun read if you're looking for entertaining science fiction. It is quality writing, yet at the same time doesn't burden itself with too much of an attempt at an overarching theme, message, and/or deep philsophical life lessons.

The story is quite interesting as (and this is hardly a spoiler) it's a new tale interleaved with characters, plot lines, and ideas from the Homer, Shakespeare, and other literary w...more4 stars in the sub-cateogry of entertaining science fiction.

Ilium is a fun read if you're looking for entertaining science fiction. It is quality writing, yet at the same time doesn't burden itself with too much of an attempt at an overarching theme, message, and/or deep philsophical life lessons.

The story is quite interesting as (and this is hardly a spoiler) it's a new tale interleaved with characters, plot lines, and ideas from the Homer, Shakespeare, and other literary works. I imagine it's hard to pull off what Dan Simmons did: the borrowed characters and references do in fact have a good balance of feeling like they are "from" the original works but also fit into their place in Ilium. The subtle references to little details in the borrowed works can also be quite entertaining.

The characters unique to Ilium do remind me of other books by Simmons. There's a wide variety of characters with different personalities: some are quite intriguing, others feel too much like characters with behavior cut from a template - making them a bit irritating after a while (e.g. Mahnmut: great, unique character; Daeman: irritatingly predictable). Likewise, the book introduces multiple plots lines, jumping from one to the other between chapters (without exception) and eventually merging: a quite common format, but it does make the book feel formulaic rather than as if the story is telling what needs to be told next. I mention this mostly because, at its best parts, Ilium is unique and written in a way that seems nothing like formula, but at its worst, the generic structure is hard to ignore.

Admittedly, the novel can be predictable at times. At others, it seems like Simmons is afraid of the story taking itself too seriously and drifts into a mode of (what seemed to me) light-hearted, but unnecessary vulgarity. As a whole though, it's a pretty darned good science fiction novel: not a classic piece of literature, but a great read for fans of the genre.

And unfortunately for myself, I didn't realize this book did not stand alone but was the first in a series! I guess I have three more books to read if I want to know what really happens...
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Nov 23, 2011

Robotbee rated it

Shelves: amazing

A friend lent me this book (the same one who gave me Guns, Germs, and Steel and Year of Rice and Salt). The truth is, I would never have chosen it on my own; however, I am very glad he did (and that I have a compulsion to read whatever a person gives me) because I LOVED it!

I am not the hugest fan of the Iliad/Odyssey, having been forced to read most of it in English for various classes throughout high school and college, and translate parts of it from Latin in college. Nor am I the h...more

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Sep 24, 2011

Христо Блажев rated it

Величавото двутомие “Илион” и “Олимп” е фантастика от друго измерение!: http://www.knigolandia.info/2009/11/blog...

След изумителната “Фондацията” на Азимов в ръцете ми попадна и едно друго фантастично произведение, което изтрива границите между класическа литература и научната фантастика. Това е двутомието “Илион” и “Олимп” на неповторимия Дан Симънс, познат основно с невероятната тетралогия “Хиперион”.

Двете книги са наситени с безкрайно въображение. В тях са ...more

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Aug 26, 2011

Lewis rated it

An alternate future earth where humans have forgotten how to read. Living robots who share a love of classic literature. An ancient Greek battle where iconic heroes do battle with the gods of Olympus. Mix these all up in a space opera novel (or two) and you get the novels Ilium by Dan Simmons. This complex, lengthy tome is quite the journey, spanning two books (the second is Olympos, but I’m just writing one review for both novels).
The plot lines are so complicated and detailed (ind...moreAn alternate future earth where humans have forgotten how to read. Living robots who share a love of classic literature. An ancient Greek battle where iconic heroes do battle with the gods of Olympus. Mix these all up in a space opera novel (or two) and you get the novels Ilium by Dan Simmons. This complex, lengthy tome is quite the journey, spanning two books (the second is Olympos, but I’m just writing one review for both novels).
The plot lines are so complicated and detailed (indeed, each book is over 700 pages long!) that I’m surprised he used a two-book format rather than the usual trilogy series. Set in the far future, with three disparate plots, seemingly unconnected to each other, one wonders what they’re doing in the same book. One storyline includes man-made robots “living” throughout the solar system. They actually have organic parts in their bodies, and have been programmed to have human curiosity, and a fascination with the arts. Two robots in particular, a small biped named Mahnmut and a large, horseshoe crab-like moravec called Orphu, are from moons of Jupiter, and are fascinated with human culture and feelings. They develop a strong bond as they are recruited to investigate an astonishingly rapid terraforming of Mars.
Another story involves humans living an idyllic life, their entire existence focused on superficial, meaningless activities, casual sex, shallow parties, etc. In fact, they’ve lost a basic curiosity of life and science, and don’t care about anything beyond the current fashion or trends. However, a few of them develop a fascination with ancient skills and trades, and start learning how to melt and pour metal, actually read from books, travel without the use of fax nodes or being pulled along by servitors. Their amusing hobby soon turns into necessary skills of survival.
Also, there is a story involving the siege of Troy, or Ilium, as the author puts it. A scholar (scholic) who was re-assembled after his natural death on earth is covertly asked by the goddess Aphrodite to use magical (actually, advanced technological) devices to kill Athena. The scholic, Hockenberry, is an expert on the Trojan War, and knows how it’s supposed to play out. However, with this wrench (or should I say, ‘knife’?) thrown into the battle plans, how will the war between the Greeks and Trojans conclude?
Again, three seemingly different and independent plotlines that gradually (at a snail’s pace!) come together and form a larger picture of an epic story that transcends time and space, literally. There are some bizarre characters that play the same roles as their namesakes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Not being familiar with that story, I Googled it just to get a better understanding of Caliban, Prospero, Sycorax, et al. I found Simmon’s use of these Shakespearean characters in his extraordinary setting interesting, but absurd. A lizard-like humanoid named Caliban? Really? I found these Shakespearean references somewhat jarring and abruptly removed me from the depths of the story. However, experiencing the ancient Greek gods and goddesses plotting against each other and playing their games with the lives of men (just as in the classic myths) was refreshing and satisfying.
There is some heavy science in this fiction. Quantum teleportation, string theory, nanotechnology, and other technological ideas are used plainly and easily by the characters. Though a bit confusing initially, the context of the story allows the reader to gain a workable grasp of the more complex physics that are mentioned in the books. Ilium and Olympus are actually two acts of one story. The books are dense and in need of further editing, but the story is engaging for the most part, despite its daunting length. If you’re adventurous enough to give it a try, be prepared to spend more time on these books than your usual literary fare. Be warned, however: the journey is much more enjoyable than the final destination.
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Dec 02, 2010

Jasmine Giacomo rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 23, 2010

Mitch Stricker rated it

Shelves: science-fiction

In spite of the violent content, I really like Dan Simmons' Hyperion and its sequel.

This book looked like it had potential. For reasons unknown, the Greek gods are kicking it on Mars and the Trojan War is being fought with a lot of their participation.

Now the book starts throwing in all sorts of sci-fi wonders...nice, but not enough to save this.

First- it's far too detailed and has too many repeated references to the Iliad. Second, some seriously unbeliev...more

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Aug 09, 2011

procrastin8or rated it

· review of another edition

Occasionally heavy going, Ilium is mostly a pleasurable read. Unfortunately it doesn't grab the attention easily and you will often find your attention wandering away.

That said, it has an intriguing premise. In some far future time, the events of Homer's Iliad is playing out for real with the Gods, the characters and kingdoms recreated. Thrust into the centre of this is Thomas Hockenberry, a 20th century scholar of Homer's work who is brought to the future to advise on events. While there, Aphr...more

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Oct 20, 2008

Frederick rated it

2 of the 3 story-lines in this book are great as the story of the Illiad is re-told with a sci-fi/futurist/mythological bent - I couldn't stop reading these parts. Unfortunately, the third story-line is an odd and slightly boring robo-fest. However, my biggest problem is that I cannot imagine that the next installment of this book could possibly tie this all together. Accordingly, I don't know that I can recommend this book, even though I enjoyed it quite a bit.

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Nov 07, 2011

George Berkeley rated it

Genre
Travel Literature, Adventure Novel

Price
4,49€

Expectations
I enjoyed german audio plays of Verne before and loved the Phileas Fogg / Passepartout combination. I appreciate all of Verne's travel literature.
Read this while returning from the Netherlands.

Narration Techniques
3rd. person narration

Main Characters
Phileas Fogg - wealthy british gentleman; pedantic and exact
Passepartout - Mr. Fogg's servant and a...more

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Dec 05, 2009

Arun Divakar rated it

Imagine the Trojan war, imagine Mount Olympos with the entire pantheon of Greek gods, imagine a couple of sentient robots on a mission to do recon in Mars, imagine a post apocalyptic world where human beings are nothing but insensitive drones and to top it all off imagine a human trying to take Achilles and Hector to war against Zeus...this is what Ilium is about.

Dan Simmons creates a mind boggling tale of Sci Fi, Myth and Fantasy merged into one. The tale starts off as seen from thr...moreImagine the Trojan war, imagine Mount Olympos with the entire pantheon of Greek gods, imagine a couple of sentient robots on a mission to do recon in Mars, imagine a post apocalyptic world where human beings are nothing but insensitive drones and to top it all off imagine a human trying to take Achilles and Hector to war against Zeus...this is what Ilium is about.

Dan Simmons creates a mind boggling tale of Sci Fi, Myth and Fantasy merged into one. The tale starts off as seen from three perspectives and barring one that initially has too much scientific jargon, the others are crack reads. What amazed and attracted me to the tale was the presence of literary persona as wide ranged as Shakespeare,Proust and Homer. The heroes of the greek drama are as alive in these pages as they were in the Iliad. The private ego clashes of the gods atop Olympos was a fresh perspective in the tale and so were the desperate efforts of the human race to understand and fight to overcome their miserable plight.

My pick of characters from the tale are Odysseus & the little robot named Mahnmut. Needless to say the most intelligent and tactical of all heroes in the tale Odysseus is also the one with a vision beyond the obvious even though it is to serve his own ends. Mahnmut is the most humane of all characters in the tale even though he is not related to a human in any way and we are almost in the final quarter of the book when he finally gets to see a human. The passion for literature and the ability in comprehending emotions set the little robot and his pal Orphu apart. Hector and Achilles always the proud,noble and fierce warriors they are are almost jumping out of the pages in their battles to kills or be killed.

Very rarely do i come across tales that fires up my imagination just as Ilium did and I am glad i found this book in a shelf in the library. As always with a book that I know has a sequel,I now await Olympos sans the literal baited breath...

Recommended for those of who with a interest in the mythological and the fantastic..(less)

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Apr 16, 2010

Nikki rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009, sci-fi

I got into it after a while. Not as quickly as I thought since I figured I would love it as it is sort of about Troy. But it was also Sci-fi which was never a strong love for me. But I still really enjoyed it after I got past how ridiculous some of the ‘sci-fi’ things were. Also after I stopped trying to imagine some of the sci-fi devices and settings. I don’t know if I’m just not used to it or he doesn’t do a good job painting a picture with words, but at the end I couldn’t even really ima...more

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Jan 03, 2011

Ryan McCormack rated it

Dan Simmons knows how to write a good yarn, one that pulls threads from many different directions. Sometimes they come together to form a beautiful, mind-blowing, shimmering suit of armor, like the Hyperion tetralogy. Other times, you get something that feels warm and fuzzy, but is more like a patchwork sweater that Grandma gave you and you can only wear inside the house. Ilium is somewhere in between: not quite the masterpiece of Hyperion, but something that keeps your interest.

I real...more

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Mar 09, 2010

Kat Hagedorn rated it

Shelves: reviewed, sci-fi

http://tinyurl.com/3f74j3

How very unfortunate that Simmons' duologies fail with the second book as much as they succeed in the first book. I was really looking forward to reading Olympos, the second book of this duology, until I read the abysmal reviews.

But apparently, Simmons plays even more havoc with his created world-- that of a re-imagined Trojan War, set on Mars no less, and the Earth that can no longer house true humans except those who live exactly 100 years and h...more

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Jun 30, 2010

Pikachu rated it

Shelves: _if-we-build-it-they-will-come, _reviewed, _gods, _ahh-were-all-gonna-die, 2003s, _twice-upon-a-time, _greetings-earthlings

i have strange relationships with chunky books like these in the sense that i almost always end up liking them. a lot. i think it's because of a strange sort of cognitive dissonance: that if i managed to get through 500+ pages then i must have really, really liked what i read. there is no other explanation.

so far, though, this liking seems warranted. like a lot of others, i took mythology in college. we read excerpts from the iliad and ilium manages to capture the flavor of the origi...more

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Oct 26, 2009

Nick rated it

I am currently reading the sequel, "Olympos", and I cannot aggree enuogh with everyone here who gave it 5 stars. When you pick it up you don't realize there are 3 story lines, and when I realized this my first reaction was apprehension, because this gets some authers into trouble. But it actually worked quite well. the moravec story is probably the least interesting of the three, but that being said, it was still a far better story than most Sci-Fi out today. All 3 of the plotlines ...more

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Oct 18, 2011

Cristi Wilcox DiGenova rated it

3.5 ish stars.

A bit different from your normal scifi and my normal fantasy. I'd call it "very smart scifi / philosophy mashup"

Imagine this: epic Iliad-type action takes place on Mars, where very advanced technology is nigh indistinguishable from magic, while on Earth, post-human society threatens to slide precipitously back into more primitive times. The story is told from the point of view of some relatively normal people, as well as characters from Homer, Shakes...more

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Nov 25, 2008

Rhonda rated it

Recommended to Rhonda by: an online friend

Shelves: science-fiction

I have never been a huge science fiction fan, oh sure I like it occasionally to watch on TV or in movies but to read it? Eh, forget about it. Obviously when a friend of mine suggested I read the book, I was very iffy about it but the fact that it had to do with the Trojan war (in an odd way) reeled me in and I gave it a shot.

I've always been fascinated with Greek and Roman mythology so to see that weaved into a futuristic story hooked me in and kept me reading but the thing that ha...more

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Jun 16, 2007

Josh Olsen rated it

I liked it, but it didn't blow my socks off or anything. The story definately took directions I would not have expected, and I did like the fact that one of my least fav chas in the book actually developed into something much better, I just wish we'd been a part of his development.

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Nov 16, 2011

Keith Vai rated it

I picked up this book and the sequel at a Border's book sale for half price. What the heck, I thought. Im not a real Simmons fan. I couldn't read the horror book about India; I read Hyperion but dont remember liking it. Simmon's thing is taking historical works of serious fiction and retelling them in a science fiction format. Seems like something I would like in principle but turns out not always in practice.

When I started this book, I immediately thought I had made a big mistake.
...more

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Jun 14, 2010

Nicholas Armstrong rated it

A book should not be hard to read. To pick up a book, and to read the words and enjoy them should not be hard, it should just be. Reading this book was hard. Every moment I normally would pick up a book to read a little I would pick up this, and every time I did not look forward to it.

It baffles me; I could have sworn that I enjoyed Hyperion and that it was well-written, could I have been so wrong? This was not enjoyable, it was not well-written, and it was so hugely disappointing. ...moreA book should not be hard to read. To pick up a book, and to read the words and enjoy them should not be hard, it should just be. Reading this book was hard. Every moment I normally would pick up a book to read a little I would pick up this, and every time I did not look forward to it.

It baffles me; I could have sworn that I enjoyed Hyperion and that it was well-written, could I have been so wrong? This was not enjoyable, it was not well-written, and it was so hugely disappointing.

700 pages is a lot to ask of a person, especially when the story is divided into what could be three books and each book filled with characters who are not in the slightest interesting or fleshed out. What bothers me most is the gods and the heroes of the Iliad. This was my chance to see some characterization of all my favorite mythological badasses and it failed so astoundingly. Diomedes, my favorite character from the Iliad, is nothing more than a spear or a weapon, and the only descriptions of him are as a bumbling greedy oaf. Odysseus is a bulky, bear of a man who seems neither cunning nor clever, and most of the characters seem rather monstrous. At least in the Homeric versions there is no authorial opinion given for actions, just statements of fact. If Jason (who was a total douche) wanted to love and leave women then he could damn well do it without the writer telling us what a dick he was, all of the characters here are colored by perspectives I don't care about and find rather frustrating.

Ultimately, it felt as if Simmons wanted to show off what he had studied, not a story or characters or any of the things that I tend to like in a book. 350 loooong pages into the book nearly nothing has happened. There is lots of posturing and pondering but very, very, little has progressed the story forward. It is as if most of the novel is filler, Simmons just plugging away to fill some page quota. Additionally, and more irritatingly, the prose is awful, really just awful. Adverbs are awesome, but I don't need them for something that is obvious, dammit. Typing DO NOT DISOBEY ME in caps and bold makes me believe Zeus is angry, you don't have to follow it with, 'Zeus bellowed angrily'. Seriously, it is like a high school paper. Every event is reiterated and things pointed out earlier are reiterated again, as if I couldn't just look it up if I forgot something.

This is a jumbled mess of showboating and condescension (or at least underestimation) of the audience and I can no more tolerate it from an author I thought I liked than by one I know I do not.(less)

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Apr 06, 2010

Noah M. rated it

· review of another edition

I've read about 75% of The Iliad. I've seen the movie Troy. I've now read Ilium, which was a delightful science-fictiony retelling of the trojan war.

First, Fuck you Dan Simmons. You write long-ass books, that are good, and then you write long-ass sequels to them. With Hyperion, the sequels tended to not be even half the book the original was. Should I read the sequel here? I have no idea.

This book was solid. Good stuff. The only problem is, it sounds completely re...more

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Sep 19, 2011

Jay Rubenstein rated it

Over the top fun. Three concurrent story lines concerning the fall of Troy (complete with gods), an Android mission to Mars to check out unexplained Quantum activity, and a decadent society of human beings of whom a few take an interest in rediscovering lost knowledge. By the end of the book, the three plots have barely intersected, and everything is made more confusing by the fact that Simmons provides minimal guidance about what's going on. You're pretty much on your own to figure out what a ...more

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Aug 07, 2011

Neil Pearson rated it

What a breath of fresh air! The blending of sci-fi with the tale of the iliad works surprisingly well, as does the discussions on Shakespeare and Proust by the androids. There are three threads to the story; one follows a resurrected iliad scolar watching the recreation of the trojan war with post humans acting as greek gods, on mars. The second story follows the adventure of Mahnmut, member of an android scout team investigating the post-humans on mars. The final story follows a group of "...more

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About Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in...moreDan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.

Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years -- 2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York -- one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher -- and 14 years in Colorado.

ABOUT DAN
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His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.

Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."

Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado -- in the same town where he taught for 14 years -- with his wife, Karen, his daughter, Jane, (when she's home from Hamilton College) and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Fergie. He does much of his writing at Windwalker -- their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike -- a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels -- was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.(less)

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Trivia About Ilium

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Quotes from Ilium

“Want to talk about Shakespeare's sonnets?" asked Orphu of Io.

Are you shitting me?" The moravecs loved the ancient human colloquial phrases, the more scatological the better.

Yes," said Orphu. "I am most definitely shitting you, my friend.” — 16 people liked it

“Rage.

Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles, of Peleus’ son, murderous, man-killer, fated to die, sing of the rage that cost the Achaeans so many good men and sent so many vital, hearty souls down to the dreary House of Death. And while you’re at it, Muse, sing of the rage of the gods themselves, so petulant and so powerful here on their new Olympos, and of the rage of the post-humans, dead and gone though they might be, and of the rage of those few true humans left, self-absorbed and useless though they have become. While you are singing, O Muse, sing also of the rage of those thoughtful, sentient, serious but not-so-close-to-human beings out there dreaming under the ice of Europa, dying in the sulfur ash of Io, and being born in the cold folds of Ganymede.

Oh, and sing of me, O Muse, poor born-against-his-will Hockenberry, dead Thomas Hockenberry, Ph.D., Hockenbush to his friends, to friends long since turned to dust on a world long since left behind. Sing of my rage, yes, of my rage, O Muse, small and insignificant though that rage might be when measured against the anger of the immortal gods, or when compared to the wrath of the god-killer Achilles.

On second though, O Muse, sing nothing of me. I know you. I have been bound and servant to you, O Muse, you incomparable bitch. And I do not trust you, O Muse. Not one little bit.” — 7 people liked it

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