This review was also posted here - https://cavetothecross.com/blog/ilium/

This is my second attempt at reading a book by Dan Simmons. I read and hated Hyperion and after a recommendation from Nick Rekieta of this book, it is clear that I do not care for anything by Simmons and will stop trying.

I would not say that Simmons is without talent and it seems that a number of people enjoy his books. Simmon's pacing here is a slog. The story meanders and most of it feels like it's a high school teaching telling a bad story to get people interested in reading the Iliad. There is no character that is worth caring about. The main character barely seems like he would survive a fistfight let alone carry out the feats required of him in the story. For over three-quarters of the book, three different storylines crawl and switch enough times without any real revelations or reasons why one would care to continue that it is now three stories that crawl. It's not until the last quarter of the book that anything of actual value occurs and even then its a mixture of confusing reveals and plot points that I didn't know what really was going on or to what extent things mattered. Echoes of Hyperion loomed greatly here.

Simmons knows his history and his Iliad. However, what is two books could have been one and it's one that I will not be continuing as I fear it would lead to my own Odyssey. Final Grade - F ( )

recenzie la https://bloguldesefe.ro/2021/01/24/ilion-olimp-de-dan-simmons/ ( )

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This is the first volume of a very ambitious, two-part work, which encompasses multiple story threads, time frames, galaxies and life forms. We have the Trojan War, overseen by Greek Gods located on Mars, moraveks dispatched from Jovian moons, Shakespearean characters in real life (Prospero and Caliban) and a far future Earth, inhabited by the remnants of the human race, but controlled by post-human constructs.

Unlike some of Simmon’s work (the Hyperion Canto in particular), the story arc is easily followed, though at times a little silly. Likewise, the story could have been more tightly woven, saving a hundred pages, but, after all, this is Simmons, a noted editor’s nightmare.

At the end of the day, the book is a pleasant read; certainly enough so to justify a continuation to volume two, Olympus. ( )

Despite being irritating because of typos, I LOVED this story. It has a lot of stuff going in it: sci-fi, historical fiction, . . . I have to go to the library tomorrow to get the sequel. ( )