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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
This is a good beginning. It takes a bit to get into, but is quite entertaining if you like futuristic utopia/distopia stories, the trojan war stories, with a touch of space opera. Now onto Olympos!
I was quite excited to get back into Dan Simmons' science fiction. Well, ultimately I had to give up on this one about 2/3 of the way through. It was quite brilliant, but I have no knowledge of Homer's Iliad, and I think to fully appreciate the events in this novel, it's pretty beneficial to know something of this.
Sadly, the twists from Homer's tale were lost on me, and I felt short-changed. Given the opinions I've read on the sequel having the story come apart at the seams, I didn't feel that badly about giving up on the story.
Sadly, the twists from Homer's tale were lost on me, and I felt short-changed. Given the opinions I've read on the sequel having the story come apart at the seams, I didn't feel that badly about giving up on the story.
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
medium-paced
This is one of those books where you jump between multiple stories and, it being a sci-fi, for a while can't understand what's going on. I have a lot of patience for that sort of thing provided it all is explained in time and the plots eventually weave together. The premise of the main story is great: take the Illiad but add modern-age humans who mess up the flow of events. The gods are satisfyingly vain and cruel. Can they be bested by human ingenuity? Bizarrely, Shakespeare is woven through most of the plots as well. So all set for greatness, but let down by some less exciting plotlines and mild sexism (also, Helen of Troy sweet on an aging academic? Purrlease.). It's alright but I can't muster up the enthusiasm for the sequel.
While I don't read a lot of science fiction, I find Dan Simmons to be an exceptional writer. So, I gave this a read, and was again impressed by Mr. Simmons' work. I look forward to getting started on the sequel, Olympos.
What a fantastic mashup of Homer, Proust, and Shakespeare in a scifi epic! I loved Dan Simmon's Hyperion saga and was a bit surprised to see people saying this was better, but after just reading the climactic ending, I can see their point. This book goes with the whole multiple-story-lines thing and it works well. The most sympathetic and "human" characters in the whole thing are the robots, which is witty and delightful. I shall now be off to read the conclusion to this two-book series!
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes