Fires of Eden

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: 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: A Many Layered Fairytail
Review: With this book Simmons introduces some fantastic themes. He does this with such ease and familiarity with an alien culture, aided by Mark Twain, none the less, that despite the far fetched nature of the plot it is possible to believe in it. You are left with the impression that the book was a labour of love and according to Simmons own admission on writing, probably wrote itself through him. It is a book that will get overlooked, because it represents a highly esoteric viewpoint, and that is why I have accorded it only four stars. If, like me, you consider yourself within that viewpoint, if perhaps not on the exact same ground, then stars are an irrelevance as you already know.

Taken on a Mediocre level, some of the characters grate, but they are meant to. The parody is perhaps ironic in it's exaggeration, but maybe not to all. It works, but not if you haven't already got the joke before you read it.

Try it. It is different, if reminiscent of Koontz at his scariest or Herbert at his usual genuinely scary levels. That is not the point, this is not a horror novel, but the horror serves to highlight the real issues.