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Slightly higher development to action than usual for Dan SImmons. I love the balance he struck in Hyperion and Carrion Comfort, but this definitely dragged in places and then felt rushed in others.
Looking forward to Olympus with a little bit of nervousness that it won't satisfy.
Looking forward to Olympus with a little bit of nervousness that it won't satisfy.
Great great modern sci-fi combining Martians with Creation Myths with Ancient Greek Myth.
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 this and does it well, and Ilium does it well.
The main hook of Ilium is that it's a science fiction book set in the Trojan war of Homer's Iliad. It also mixes in a healthy dose of Shakespeare and even Proust. And this all contributes to a fine and wonderful story, but it's also Ilium's downfall. At parts, the Iliad thing starts to feel gimmicky. It's not often, but it's enough to keep me from giving the book five stars.
On the whole, it's well-written. Every once in a while, the author tries to conjure up some convoluted imagery which is ridiculous enough that I just laughed at the poor sentence structure instead of being struck by whatever he was trying to tell me. But that was rare and for the most part I didn't notice the language at all.
So I loved the book, but it's ever-so-slighty flawed. Still, it was much better than even this review is, and I'll definitely be reading it a third time in the future.
But now, I'm looking forward to starting the sequel [b:Olympos|3972|Olympos (Ilium, #2)|Dan Simmons|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388216654s/3972.jpg|1537178]. Onward.
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 this and does it well, and Ilium does it well.
The main hook of Ilium is that it's a science fiction book set in the Trojan war of Homer's Iliad. It also mixes in a healthy dose of Shakespeare and even Proust. And this all contributes to a fine and wonderful story, but it's also Ilium's downfall. At parts, the Iliad thing starts to feel gimmicky. It's not often, but it's enough to keep me from giving the book five stars.
On the whole, it's well-written. Every once in a while, the author tries to conjure up some convoluted imagery which is ridiculous enough that I just laughed at the poor sentence structure instead of being struck by whatever he was trying to tell me. But that was rare and for the most part I didn't notice the language at all.
So I loved the book, but it's ever-so-slighty flawed. Still, it was much better than even this review is, and I'll definitely be reading it a third time in the future.
But now, I'm looking forward to starting the sequel [b:Olympos|3972|Olympos (Ilium, #2)|Dan Simmons|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388216654s/3972.jpg|1537178]. Onward.
This book is amazing! Well-crafted, fast-paced, I couldn’t put it down. I am obsessed with the epic poems and literature in general and loved the ease with which the author entwined sci-fi, the Iliad and Shakespeare all in one. On to the next one!
Why the hell are there self-proclaimed greek gods using scifi tech & ancient heroes playing Homer's Iliad to the word on terraformed Mars? If that alone sounds interesting you'll love this, Simmons doesn't disappoint. Not quite as good as Hyperion, but then again barely anything is as good as Hyperion.
A cool concept for a novel! I like that it's sci-fi but at the same time has detailed descriptions of the Iliad. As both a classics AND sci-fi/fantasy nerd, this is totally perfect!
Wow. This book was amazing. I never thought I'd say that reading a science fiction book would inspire me to read Shakespeare and Proust and brush up on my Greek mythology and reread some Homer. But for all the references that I understood, I felt like there were many more that went completely over my head. The level of detail in this book and how everything fits together is astounding. If it weren't so long, I might have turned around and started again at the beginning to catch some of the details I missed on the first go 'round. I don't think anything I could write would do it justice.
At first, sure, it was a little overwhelming going back and forth between the three, seemingly completely unrelated points of view. And the morovecs were especially confusing -- I didn't understand what they were for quite some time, they were kind of boring initially. But I had faith that it would all be explained and would be important to the story, and of course I was right. I found the world that Simmons built to be fascinating - the idea of the five twenties and the firmary and the modified humans who had apps built into the palm of their hand but had no idea about their history or the hows and whys of any of it, the morovecs out in space trying to police the "idiot savants" who were ruining the universe with their wormholes and quantum transportation, bringing back the Scholics and the motivation behind it ... how much did Zeus really know and what was he trying to prevent? So much going on here.
I of course went and immediately added the sequel to my TBR but I'm horribly disappointed because everything I've read says that it pretty much sucks in comparison (or maybe even without the comparison) and I'm going to be even more disappointed when I actually read it. Which I will, because I want to know more about the post-humans and why/how they accomplished what they have on Mars, and the history of the morovecs and how they ended up on their own out there, and what happens to the humans now they they have received enlightenment.
At first, sure, it was a little overwhelming going back and forth between the three, seemingly completely unrelated points of view. And the morovecs were especially confusing -- I didn't understand what they were for quite some time, they were kind of boring initially. But I had faith that it would all be explained and would be important to the story, and of course I was right. I found the world that Simmons built to be fascinating - the idea of the five twenties and the firmary and the modified humans who had apps built into the palm of their hand but had no idea about their history or the hows and whys of any of it, the morovecs out in space trying to police the "idiot savants" who were ruining the universe with their wormholes and quantum transportation, bringing back the Scholics and the motivation behind it ... how much did Zeus really know and what was he trying to prevent? So much going on here.
I of course went and immediately added the sequel to my TBR but I'm horribly disappointed because everything I've read says that it pretty much sucks in comparison (or maybe even without the comparison) and I'm going to be even more disappointed when I actually read it. Which I will, because I want to know more about the post-humans and why/how they accomplished what they have on Mars, and the history of the morovecs and how they ended up on their own out there, and what happens to the humans now they they have received enlightenment.
What would happen if you threw in Greek gods, robots, humans, little green men, beetle-like aliens in a story set in the distant future of Mars? Oh yeah and a dinosaur!!!No idea? Well, Simmons sure has mostly succeeded in envisioning this world populated with dozens of characters that it was tricky to figure out who was who, but once the story settles, what a wild coaster ride!
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated