Ilium

Rating:
Summary: Weak novel by a strong author
Review: I loved the Hyperion cantos, and couldn't wait to dive into Dan Simmons' most recent foray into sci-fi. Thankfully, I'm not too disappointed--the concept is interesting, and the plot itself is executed fairly well--but the novel leaves plenty to be desired in writing style, characterization, and basic writing skills.

My biggest caveat with Ilium is the weak characters. Something about the narrative style in this book just doesn't grab me like it did in Simmons' other books, and as a result the characters seem to be ill-defined sketches, only minimally fleshed out when it's convenient to the story. Even the protagonist Hockenberry, a scholar from our time who the reader is clearly supposed to most strongly identify with, is just a set of eyes and ears on the Trojan plains, with no personality to speak of. I found myself not really caring what happened to the characters, something I didn't expect after the rich stories of Paul Dure and company in the Hyperion novels.

What makes this so annoying is that there were also a few spots where Simmons tries TOO hard, and unsuccessfully, to get the reader to identify with the characters and story. There were a few references to 9/11 that weren't really necessary (particularly when one character refers to a murderous entity as "a September eleven god," an analogy unlikely to be used 3,000 years from now), and a quick reference near the end to grisly news coverage of the second war against Iraq. At one point, a slew of creatures are mobilized to attack by recordings of Muslim calls to jihad. It's difficult to make such references without appearing to stretch for connections to the reader's world, so it's no surprise when Simmons ultimately fails in this regard.

The final weakness isn't the worst, but it grated my nerves the most--it appears that there was simply no proofreading done before sending this novel to press! There are words repeated erroneously ("and and hand" early in the book), punctuation symbols left out, and quite a few inconsistencies in character and storyline. In the third to last paragraph of the book, one character's name is substituted for another's in a clearly erroneous manner, forcing the reader to leave the book focusing on just one example of the countless such errors. Hopefully later editions will have fixed these problems.

The story itself isn't so bad, although the writing pace seems a bit rushed--some of the 60-odd chapters are so short and unnecessary to the story flow that one wonders why they weren't just combined into following chapters. I do, however, like how Simmons joined two of the three plots together near the end, and the hints joining the last storyline to them are evident and satisfying.

...

Rating:
Summary: Good, not great.
Review: A pleasant, intellectual read, but not as successful in scope and impact as Zelazny's Hugo and Nebula winning _Lord of Light_.

Rating:
Summary: A Little Disappointing (3-1/2 Stars)
Review: Not nearly as imaginative as the Hyperion series and not worthy of a Hugo, although the Moravecs are cool. Wish Simmons had spent more time on them.

Greek Gods as aliens or post-humans with advanced technology? Well, OK, but it feels like that's been done.

The ending is unsatisfying. There is no attempt to tie up any loose ends. Wait for the paperback.

Rating:
Summary: Literary sf trumps mere diversion of typical narrative fictn
Review: superb.
Dan Simmons & Gene Wolfe truly stand alone.

Rating:
Summary: none
Review: Sensational in wonder and scope. (Simmons) once again shows that he is one of the true visionaries in the annals of SF.

Rating:
Summary: Another Gem - Read this book!
Review: Simply Fantastic. Right up there with Hyperion and Carrion Comfort (IMHO both #1 for Sci-Fi and Horror titles). You won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Preaching to the Choir
Review: I hate to agree with everyone else who has commented on this book, but Dan Simmons has done it again. While I have not been a fan of Dan Simmons recent mystery novels (especially Darwin's Blade), Ilium is science fiction at its best. In many ways Ilium is similar to Simmon's previous science fiction saga, Hyperion. Simmons again has interwoven his story with literary classics as he did in the Hyperion saga. Also, as with Hyperion, Simmons tells separate tales that converge together in an epic setting. Ilium, much like Hyperion, in no way offers any conclusion, leaving the reader starving for the next book. Some of the themes in the books seem very similar.

While some people might think that the similarity between the books could detract from the enjoyment of reading Ilium. Only in the same way that drinking a fine Cabernet one night spoils drinking an equally fine Cabernet the next.

Because Ilium ends without any conclusion, I would recomend readers new to Dan Simmons to read Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion first. After reading those, wait until Olympus has been released to read Ilium and Olympus at the same time. That will give you time to get refreshed between reading the Hyperion series and the Ilium series.

Rating:
Summary: Masterful
Review: Words fail me.
Simmons weaves one of the most erudite, yet accessible tales I have ever read, tying Proust, Shakespeare, and Homer into an amazingly rewarding story. Science and mythology blend into one another almost seamlessly, and all I can do now is wait anxiously for the second part of this tale to be released. If you haven't ever read Simmons before, I promise that you will NOT be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant concept, tired delivery
Review: There is no doubt about it: Dan Simmons is a brilliant and ingenius writer. Ilium is his best book in years, and definitely one of the best science fiction books since ... well, since Simmons finished the Hyperion Cantos. Unfortunately, while Simmons has given us an amazingly fresh science fiction concept, he has failed to give us a fresh or envigorating literary style in which to deliver this great concept.

One of the things that made the Hyperion Cantos so wonderful was Simmons's refusal to turn his science fiction story into a mass of flashy, but hollow, jargon, as is so often the case in modern science fiction. With Ilium, however, Simmons has done just that (although still to a lesser degree than most other science fiction writers). Additionally, most of the characters are dry, tired, or simply science fiction transformations of characters from his other books. Indeed, other than the characters borrowed from Homer, there are only two characters in Ilium that are likeable and intriguing -- the two Jovian-system robets whose friendship is based around analyzing Shakespeare and Proust. The main character of the story (or, at least, the first we meet) is basically the same character from A Winter Haunting (in fact, I spent most of the novel being certain that it would turn out to be him!) -- just another college professor we should pity. The second principal character we meet, interesting at first, turns out to be thinly-veiled literary device. Prominent throughout the whole book, his primary purpose seems to be to ask "what is ..." and "why ..." so that another character can convey iformation to the audience. Perhaps the biggest problem in Ilium, probably the cause of its other detractions, is that it is very rushed. While the Hyperion Cantos told a story that was well paced at all times, spreading itself over four books, Ilium is paced much too quickly. The feeling the reader gets is that Dan Simmons (or is it Harper Collins?) is determined to mash a four-book story into two books. With the story being forced to move along so quickly, it is no wonder that most of the characters are shallow and hollow, and that, rather than slowly presenting to us the quantum science responsible for the plot, we are force-fed a cornucopia of jargon. Ilium is at its best whent the pace is slow, giving us time to witness long scenes from Homer or to enjoy a conversation about one of Shakespeare's sonnets or Proust's characters.

Still, this is a marvelous work. Much of what makes Ilium not great literature is irrelevant in the science fiction genre, where great literature is so scarce. Even with its disappointments and cheap literary devices, Ilium still towers over most other science fiction. What is most disapponting about Ilium is that it simply is not Dan Simmons at his best. Nevertheless, this book tells a great story (and not just the one by Homer), and you should read it.

Rating:
Summary: This book is genius
Review: This is the first Dan Simmons book that I have ever read. I saw it sitting on the shelf at Borders and decided "Sure."
I am so gald I picked up this book. Like the others before me I could not put it down. There's not much else I can add except that I cannot wait until the conclusion of this is released. Thank you Dan Simmons!