Fires of Eden

Rating:
Summary: An excellent horror/fantasy novel based on Hawaiian myths.
Review: "Fires of Spring" relates two stories. One, in the present day, deals with a teacher on her vacation going to a brand new resort hotel on the big island of Hawaii. The second story is contained in the notebooks she carries with her which tell of the adventures of an ancestor who visited the same part of Hawaii in the 1860s, along with Samuel Clemens. This is a very well done horror novel, but there is also a healthy leavening of humor to go with the horror and the characters are well developed.

Rating:
Summary: Dan Simmons still sparkles
Review: Dan is one of my favorite authors, and this book certainly helps maintain his position there. Not being a real feminist one of the main underlying themes didn't really catch me up in it's swirl but I still thought it was a great book. Call me slow but I really had a hard time working out how the native names were pronounced, eventually I just gave them mental shorthand names and that solved that problem. I love Dan's style that plays two stories at once his switching back and forth REALLY adds to the suspense, someone should suggest to him to write in natural breaks so that I can get stop and get some sleep! One question though, how did Cordie get off a commercial plane with a large handgun? Ahh well, I guess I'll just have to read it again to see what I missed.

Rating:
Summary: Dan Simmons still sparkles
Review: Dan is one of my favorite authors, and this book certainly helps maintain his position there. Not being a real feminist one of the main underlying themes didn't really catch me up in it's swirl but I still thought it was a great book. Call me slow but I really had a hard time working out how the native names were pronounced, eventually I just gave them mental shorthand names and that solved that problem. I love Dan's style that plays two stories at once his switching back and forth REALLY adds to the suspense, someone should suggest to him to write in natural breaks so that I can get stop and get some sleep! One question though, how did Cordie get off a commercial plane with a large handgun? Ahh well, I guess I'll just have to read it again to see what I missed.

Rating:
Summary: You will not regret reading this book!
Review: Fires of Eden gain points for sheer nerve. There's a story about awful things happening at a tropical resort, and it seems awfully familiar- although I was pleased that a goodly number of characters survive the carnage, instead of the one or two who usually live to see the dawn in stories like this. But at the heart of the novel is a journal which recounts a rousing adventure in which one of the main characters is Mr. Samuel Clemens. Ever since "Ragtime" came out in the 70's writers have felt free to have characters from history come into their novels and do their bidding. Mr. Clemens is a very believable character, and the adventures he has a century before the comtemporary action of "Fires of Eden" are, as a reviewer of his day might have said, a ripping yarn.

Rating:
Summary: A cheeky thriller that spans two centuried
Review: Fires of Eden gain points for sheer nerve. There's a story about awful things happening at a tropical resort, and it seems awfully familiar- although I was pleased that a goodly number of characters survive the carnage, instead of the one or two who usually live to see the dawn in stories like this. But at the heart of the novel is a journal which recounts a rousing adventure in which one of the main characters is Mr. Samuel Clemens. Ever since "Ragtime" came out in the 70's writers have felt free to have characters from history come into their novels and do their bidding. Mr. Clemens is a very believable character, and the adventures he has a century before the comtemporary action of "Fires of Eden" are, as a reviewer of his day might have said, a ripping yarn.

Rating:
Summary: Fast-paced, unique - a real nail-biter!
Review: Having never read Dan Simmons, I was impressed with his historical knowledge, his literary expertise and the general flow of the plot. Although I found Fires of Eden strange at times, I also found it thrilling and occasionally chilling. His ability to intertwine two stories at once attracted my attention. He combines history with the paranormal to form a story that captures and holds the reader's attention

Rating:
Summary: Best Simmons since Hyperion
Review: Having read most of Dan Simmons work (his SF being the best), I felt he was going the way of Stephen King and getting lazy in his writing, his last few books being less than stellar. So, I picked up Fires of Eden with a little trepidition. I was more than thrilled to find the book extremely engaging and actually educational! The characters are well developed and interesting, the story well structured and thought out (and engaging), and the atmosphere moody and interesting.Its a lot like Jurassic Park in that its about a large resort overcome with Hellish monsters, except that here they weren't meant to be the main attraction. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the horror genre who wants something more than simplistic monsters and a plot that will keep you reading well into the night.

Rating:
Summary: You will not regret reading this book!
Review: I found this book at a Borders just after I finished Children of the Night by Dan Simmons. The man is such a brilliant author. This book is fascinating and worth looking for. Mark Twain pops up as a main character. After reading this book, I can't help but watch a Discovery channel program about volcanoes and Pele. Simmons is mesmirizing and hypnotic. Read any of his books. This book is over 500 pages and I finished it in 3 days, I could not put it down!

Rating:
Summary: Don't tick off the goddess
Review: If Simmons wasn't such a darn good writer this probably could have been an absurdly silly book, all the warning signs are there. Giant talking god animals, people dropping like flies, nature rebelling against man's injustice to it, stuff like that. And yet Simmons pulls it all together and manages to make something good of it. The setting here is appropriately Hawaii at a hotel that billionaire Bryan Tumbo is trying to desperately sell to the Japanese, unfortunately for him, his few guests keep dying off, killed by some utterly sadistic and vaguely supernatural forces. Into this mess come our heroes and as things escalate (as you know they will) the puny humans trying to stay alive around the erupting volcanoes becomes a backdrop for the conflict of god versus god. And really it all works. Simmons has a knack for making even the patently silly (giant talking pigs with eight eyes) sincerely frightening and while the book probably isn't horror so much as old time adventure (it's pretty scary toward the beginning but once you know what's going on the fright factor goes away) with a bit of a feminist slant you're having too much of a grand old time to really care. Even better he intersperses the narrative with another narrative taken from someone's diary about similar events in 1866, featuring none other than Samuel Clemens (psst . . . Mark Twain) who Simmons writes so well that if he didn't talk like that, he should have. The diary also gives Simmons the opportunity to create twice the suspense by flashing back and forth between the two (though less so in the diary, she's obviously writing it after it's all over so you know she has to live to write it). Of course the story feels more suited for the old fashioned nineteenth century setting but Simmons' gift for description (especially of the contrast between the lush Hawaiian surroundings and the primal violence of the volcano) and his ability to immerse you in that setting. Events get so over the top after a while that you have no choice but to be swept away with it and his plotting is as deft as ever. And while I thought the climax lacked a bit in suspense it's still entertaining as all heck. Yeah it won't win him any awards but that's not the point here, he's just out to spin a good yarn and that's what we got...Track it down if you can to see an excellent author cutting loose and having some (admittedly well researched) fun with a story.

Rating:
Summary: Don't tick off the goddess
Review: If Simmons wasn't such a darn good writer this probably could have been an absurdly silly book, all the warning signs are there. Giant talking god animals, people dropping like flies, nature rebelling against man's injustice to it, stuff like that. And yet Simmons pulls it all together and manages to make something good of it. The setting here is appropriately Hawaii at a hotel that billionaire Bryan Tumbo is trying to desperately sell to the Japanese, unfortunately for him, his few guests keep dying off, killed by some utterly sadistic and vaguely supernatural forces. Into this mess come our heroes and as things escalate (as you know they will) the puny humans trying to stay alive around the erupting volcanoes becomes a backdrop for the conflict of god versus god. And really it all works. Simmons has a knack for making even the patently silly (giant talking pigs with eight eyes) sincerely frightening and while the book probably isn't horror so much as old time adventure (it's pretty scary toward the beginning but once you know what's going on the fright factor goes away) with a bit of a feminist slant you're having too much of a grand old time to really care. Even better he intersperses the narrative with another narrative taken from someone's diary about similar events in 1866, featuring none other than Samuel Clemens (psst . . . Mark Twain) who Simmons writes so well that if he didn't talk like that, he should have. The diary also gives Simmons the opportunity to create twice the suspense by flashing back and forth between the two (though less so in the diary, she's obviously writing it after it's all over so you know she has to live to write it). Of course the story feels more suited for the old fashioned nineteenth century setting but Simmons' gift for description (especially of the contrast between the lush Hawaiian surroundings and the primal violence of the volcano) and his ability to immerse you in that setting. Events get so over the top after a while that you have no choice but to be swept away with it and his plotting is as deft as ever. And while I thought the climax lacked a bit in suspense it's still entertaining as all heck. Yeah it won't win him any awards but that's not the point here, he's just out to spin a good yarn and that's what we got...Track it down if you can to see an excellent author cutting loose and having some (admittedly well researched) fun with a story.