You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
thisotherbookaccount 's review for:
Ilium
by Dan Simmons
Nowhere else in a bookstore will you find a book with William Shakespeare, Little Green Men, Marcel Proust, quantum teleportation, Homer, Artificial Intelligence, robots, hybrid humans, time/space travel and parallel universes mentioned within the SAME PARAGRAPH. Dan Simmons has a way of combining seemingly unrelated characters, stories and themes in a way that is plausible and exciting. Here, we have three distinct plots moving at the same time, converging only towards the end of the book. Yet, never for once does Simmons lets the reader's mind wander. Each character of every story is important and endlessly fascinating. Even the non-human characters ooze charm and intrigue, and I cannot lay on more praises for the relationship between the two moravecs in the story.
And because Ilium is a combination of a myriad genres, there is a little something for everybody. Fans of hard science fiction will love the science fiction elements; fans of literary fiction will love the frequent references to Proust, Homer, Shakespeare and the Bard's most iconic characters (Setebos, Caliban, Prosperos, Sycorax and Ariel all make appearances in the book); fans of Greek tragedy will love the retelling of the Trojan War in vivid details. Hell, there is even a mind-bending section towards the end that involves the Trojans, the Greeks, Zeus, a thermonuclear bomb and a robot army from outer space -- all happening at the SAME TIME. If it was by any other author, this story would've failed upon take-off. Yet, it's Simmons, and I am familiar with what he can do with genre-bending (The Terror is one of my favourites of 2013).
Absolutely stunning piece of work. Not recommended, however, for someone who's in for an easy read, or if you are not into hard science fiction. However, if you have an open mind and would like to challenge yourself to fiction on another level, give this a shot.
And because Ilium is a combination of a myriad genres, there is a little something for everybody. Fans of hard science fiction will love the science fiction elements; fans of literary fiction will love the frequent references to Proust, Homer, Shakespeare and the Bard's most iconic characters (Setebos, Caliban, Prosperos, Sycorax and Ariel all make appearances in the book); fans of Greek tragedy will love the retelling of the Trojan War in vivid details. Hell, there is even a mind-bending section towards the end that involves the Trojans, the Greeks, Zeus, a thermonuclear bomb and a robot army from outer space -- all happening at the SAME TIME. If it was by any other author, this story would've failed upon take-off. Yet, it's Simmons, and I am familiar with what he can do with genre-bending (The Terror is one of my favourites of 2013).
Absolutely stunning piece of work. Not recommended, however, for someone who's in for an easy read, or if you are not into hard science fiction. However, if you have an open mind and would like to challenge yourself to fiction on another level, give this a shot.