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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow. Just, wow. Simmons sets up quite the mystery. He seems to resolve many questions by the end leaving others for his second volume Olympos, which I hope lives up to this book.
Update: Was it really only a year ago that I first read this? Time gets so distorted the older I get.
Update: Was it really only a year ago that I first read this? Time gets so distorted the older I get.
6/10 Stars. In a lot of ways, this novel reminds me of "Hyperion Cantos". It drops the reader in with absolutely zero context and throughout the book is fairly physics heavy. I personally find the subject of physics unspeakably dull and nearly impossible to understand, so I was less than enthused at the abundance of it. I also really dislike not being given much (if any) context about the characters, the events, or the history. Why is the Trojan war being re-enacted? What are the post humans? What happened on Earth and to the humans? Did the Rubicon virus wipe them out? Render them sterile? Why was all information from real humans lost? What are the voynix? What are Prospero, Ariel, Setebos really? What are the Zeks? Why are they doing Easter Island 2.0? I could go on. And on. I enjoyed the premise of the book and some of it truly was very good, but really the lack of context makes the reader feel like they're floundering, trying to find something to hold onto. I hope "Olympos" answers these questions, but if Dan Simmons continues in the way he did with "Hyperion Cantos", then my guess is not.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Actual rating is 4.5 stars
I honestly don't know if I can adequately describe this book. It contains Shakespeare and Proust and the robots who like to discuss and analyze them; Greek and Trojan warriors reenacting Homer's Iliad while the gods of Olympus meddle to bring about their desired outcomes; the scholic Hockenberry observing all of the action who suddenly finds himself a part of it; and band of ragtag old-style humans seeking answers to questions about their life and existence. There's quantum teleportation, chariots, cities on asteroids, the Greek legend Achilles, dinosaurs, and a wandering Jew thrown in for good measure. And yet somehow, all of this comes together - the stories converge - in what is a beautifully written epic tale of the future. I absolutely loved this book. The only reason I don't flat-out give this book 5 stars is because I honestly wanted to give up several times while reading it. The story takes so long to set up. The buildup is so slow I was still saying "What the hell is happening!?!?!" two-thirds of the way through the novel. But when the pieces do start to come together, the action moves fast, and suddenly the reality and consequences of everyone's decisions becomes clear and you realize what is about to happen to everyone and you simply cannot put it down.
I honestly don't know if I can adequately describe this book. It contains Shakespeare and Proust and the robots who like to discuss and analyze them; Greek and Trojan warriors reenacting Homer's Iliad while the gods of Olympus meddle to bring about their desired outcomes; the scholic Hockenberry observing all of the action who suddenly finds himself a part of it; and band of ragtag old-style humans seeking answers to questions about their life and existence. There's quantum teleportation, chariots, cities on asteroids, the Greek legend Achilles, dinosaurs, and a wandering Jew thrown in for good measure. And yet somehow, all of this comes together - the stories converge - in what is a beautifully written epic tale of the future. I absolutely loved this book. The only reason I don't flat-out give this book 5 stars is because I honestly wanted to give up several times while reading it. The story takes so long to set up. The buildup is so slow I was still saying "What the hell is happening!?!?!" two-thirds of the way through the novel. But when the pieces do start to come together, the action moves fast, and suddenly the reality and consequences of everyone's decisions becomes clear and you realize what is about to happen to everyone and you simply cannot put it down.
It is definitely heavy on the SciFi elements, and I didn't like the execution of those. A lot of terms get used without explanation or without enough context to understand what they're supposed to indicated, which is confusing. The bits of worldbuilding that the reader gets are more like a very confusing scavenger hunt that don't paint a bigger picture after 50 pages. I don't expect an info dump, I don't want one honestly, but I want to get a feeling for the setting and I didn't.
I also didn't like two out of three POV characters (as far as I read, there might be more).
I also didn't like two out of three POV characters (as far as I read, there might be more).
Herein the mythic hero Odysseus kills several dinosaurs with a spear and drops the phrase 'particle accelerator' once or twice. 10/10, will read again. Very imaginative, delightfully weird sci-fi with a surprisingly touching story of friendship from two very unlikely characters. This is deep-end science fiction, so probably not the right choice if you've just finished Ender's Game and want a little more.
It's fairly long, but a page-turner. There are three main story-lines, and I found the story of Hockenberry watching the Trojan war to be the most interesting. I'm a fan of Greek mythology, so it was a lot of fun seeing gods and godesses portrayed in a modern action-adventure writing style. I've never read the Iliad, but I primed myself by reading the Wikipedia summary first. Plus, the book does a good job of introducing characters and events on its own.
I've never read The Tempest, so the later events involving characters from that play were confusing and uninteresting to me. But the story-line involving Mahnmut traveling to Marse was my least-favorite part of the book. There was very little action, and a lot of talk about literature I've never read. So maybe this whole genre of "literary science fiction" doesn't work unless you have some background knowledge of the literature.
I've never read The Tempest, so the later events involving characters from that play were confusing and uninteresting to me. But the story-line involving Mahnmut traveling to Marse was my least-favorite part of the book. There was very little action, and a lot of talk about literature I've never read. So maybe this whole genre of "literary science fiction" doesn't work unless you have some background knowledge of the literature.
definitely not my cuppa tea and neither was the nasally voice of the narrator
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes