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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Amazing! It's hard to imagine a book that combines the Iliad and science fiction working, but Ilium does more than work. It makes you think. It's full of adventure and action, to the point where sometimes you just have to put the book down to let everything sink in. I needed a book to keep my mind moving after finishing one by Neal Stephensen, and this one fit the bill perfectly.
challenging
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wie kann man das Gut finden? Einfach nur bäh wie sich Daeman auf Seite 20 über Ada äußert. Und der komische Kriegsreporter ist ein langweiliger Jammerlappen. Da hilft halt auch nicht, dass ich Mahnmut eigentlich cool finde.
Content Warnings
Minor: Incest, Pedophilia, War
2.5
This book gets good around page 530 - it is 726 pages.
It took me a solid 2 & a half months to finish this book which is a little unheard of for me, but I just kept finding myself wanting to put it down/dreaming of other books on my shelves that may have been better.
If this hadn't been a buddy read with my SO, I would have 100% put this down around pg 250. There's a whole lot of cringe to be found in the book, and I hit a wall at about the millionth description of some younger woman's milky white butt.
but again, it DID get good in the last 200 pages. I'm just not sure if it's good enough for me to pick up Olympos.
This book gets good around page 530 - it is 726 pages.
It took me a solid 2 & a half months to finish this book which is a little unheard of for me, but I just kept finding myself wanting to put it down/dreaming of other books on my shelves that may have been better.
If this hadn't been a buddy read with my SO, I would have 100% put this down around pg 250. There's a whole lot of cringe to be found in the book, and I hit a wall at about the millionth description of some younger woman's milky white butt.
but again, it DID get good in the last 200 pages. I'm just not sure if it's good enough for me to pick up Olympos.
3.5 stars rounded up (down graded to 2 after reading Olympos, since they are two halves of the same book).
Re-reading for the first time since 2003 (so I guess my memories of it weren't good enough to re-read sooner).
Switches plot threads with every chapter, in a way I don't like (cliff hangers and not all threads are equally interesting to start off with). This time through I ignored the literary sections I didn't like (Shakespeare and Proust), and didn't miss them.
An interesting book with a lot of ideas, but I'd recommend Hyperion over this one 1000%. I'll see how I feel after I reread Olympos soon.
Re-reading for the first time since 2003 (so I guess my memories of it weren't good enough to re-read sooner).
Switches plot threads with every chapter, in a way I don't like (cliff hangers and not all threads are equally interesting to start off with). This time through I ignored the literary sections I didn't like (Shakespeare and Proust), and didn't miss them.
An interesting book with a lot of ideas, but I'd recommend Hyperion over this one 1000%. I'll see how I feel after I reread Olympos soon.
An imaginative melding of the legend of Troy and hard sci-fi. Dan Simmons at his best.
Not quite as good as Hyperion and Simmons should shoot his editor but still a very fun imaginative scifi story. As usual it is grounded in Dan Simmons' love for the classics.