Olympos by Dan Simmons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Olympos
Book Review: Deus ex-machina fest
Summary: 1 Stars
Is with sad sentiment that I must write this review. I very much enjoyed past books of Mr. Simmons, but there's no justification for this total waste of pages.
People which talks in mysteries for no apparent reason, prophetical situations that lead nowhere, lots of things unexplained, lots of things that happen just because the characters say it must be so. Unbalanced racism, unnecesary sex, glaring plot-holes...
There are still some gems inside: fascinating places and the moravecs are still lovely. This is just proof that here what fails is the plot, not the technique. However, I'll go for the lowest rating because we're not talking any regular writer, but the much more capable Mr. Simmons.
Mr. Simmons can do better, he must know what has caused this debacle. I surely hope his future books regain his old strength.
Book Review: Didn't do it for me
Summary: 2 Stars
I thought Ilium was a good start to this series, but Olympos just didn't do it for me. I agree with much of what has been said in previous reviews. I haven't seen one of my biggest pet peeves with this book mentioned yet, so I will mention it. It is the endless reminders that the "magic" used by the Gods is actually accomplished via science. It seems to me after you make that point early in the book that you don't need to mention it again and again every time Zeus fire off a lightening bolt. It doesn't seem like a God can walk down the street in OLYMPOS without some convoluted hard science fiction explaination trapsing slowly behind. Some people obviously enjoyed this book, maybe it is matter of taste. Dan Simmons is an excellent author, and I am sure there are many great books from him to come.Book Review: Doesn't quite live up to promise of first book
Summary: 3 Stars
In Olympos, Simmons continues the multiple storylines started in the first novel Ilium: The wars between mortals and gods, the Eloi-ish humans on future Earth, and the Shakespeare- and Proust-reading moravecs. It's "literary science fiction" in Simmons' tradition, and the sequel gets off to a solid start with some extremely violent action scenes and appears as though it will be a good continuation of the previous novel. However, for me it started to drag in the middle, with some drawn-out journeys of a few characters, and then we suddenly get to an incredibly brief ending. There is too much left unexplained.
I also didn't like the way Simmmons de-emphasized certain characters in the second novel in favor of what I found to be less interesting ones. For example, Helen was a far more interesting character than Achilles, who gets most of the on-screen time (among the Greeks and Trojans) in Olympos. I also didn't like the references to contemporary events in either book.
Overall, the two books in this series comprise a solid but not superlative offering from Simmons (or maybe I should say not up to the incredibly high standard of Hyperion, and Fall of Hyperion). The first (Ilium) is better. They are related to a short story called the Ninth of Av in Simmons' recent short story collection, Worlds Enough and Time.
Book Review: Engaging story with a whimper of an ending
Summary: 3 Stars
Olympos is a fine read. Simmons as usual has excellent characters, and very fine prose. The tempo of the story is fast and you begin to feel the dread of the characters. Unfortunately, I felt that the ending was weak and he didn't give the final umph I was waiting for in both the story and characters. Tantalizing close to being a great book.
Pros- Ancient troy and hard science fiction melded together, engaging characters, tangled plot, good plot tempo
Cons- Didn't feel like the characters became completed, ending was weak.
Book Review: Excellent Olympian adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the second half of the long novel begun in Ilium. Thomas Hockenberry, Mahnmut and his companions from the Jovian moons, Ada and Harman and Daeman on Earth, the Greek gods and heroes, all struggle in their various ways and with varying degrees of understanding, to save the world. Simmons does a marvelous job-in part because he has a faith in his readers that mainstream writers seem to lack-and this is a worthy and fitting conclusion to the wonderful Ilium.
Highly recommended.