Olympos by Dan Simmons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Olympos
Book Review: What was the publisher thinking?
Summary: 1 Stars
After Ilium, this is a big let down. It reads as if Simmons couldn't be bothered work out how to develop the story any more, and just started to make stuff up to fill out the required number of pages. Where was the editor when this was published? If you have read Ilium and are looking forward to seeing how the plot lines are brought together, this book won't tell you.Book Review: Mammoth Fun
Summary: 5 Stars
To be honest, I would give this book a four, but I felt a lot of the reviews were far to low. This book is a worthy follow-up. While not all the plot lines are resolved perfectly, and some things are a bit predictable, the story nevertheless left me reeling. This is not pulp. This is the kind of fiction the original Dune was, only with more literature. It's excellent.
PROS:
- scope, breadth, imagination.
- the characters just make you want to know more.
- all the references to history, literature, lore and yore.
- just epic.
CONS:
- some of the plot resolutions a bit ... hanging. Loose threads, if you will. (But I felt like they would lead to more novels at some point).
- I want more! (Well, this is really a pro)
All in all, like a lot of Dan Simmons' books, not an easy read, not simple. This is a deep book, and to really appreciate it, you need background and education. At least Shakespeare, Homer and Proust to start.
Book Review: Fantastic follow up
Summary: 5 Stars
Twists and turns, but keeps you engrossed and on your toes at all times. You just know your not going to be disappointed.Book Review: Does not improve on Ilium - I've just stopped reading
Summary: 2 Stars
I've loved the Hyperion and Endymnion Ominibus and was so much looking forward to reading Ilium and Olympos. Unfortunately, I've been deeply disappointed. Ilium starts well, and having both studied Greek at school and enjoyed "In the Search of Lost Time", I really got attracted to the plot (and got interested in the Tempest along the way). Unfortunately, Ilium fizzles out at the end, and Olympos is just worst: I could not get beyond the first 50 pages, and stopped after Zeus and Heras's sex scene. By this point, there were too many illogical points in the story (Why did not Zeus destroy Ilium with his thermonuclear bomb, and dropped it instead so much further away? Why don't the gods blast the city to cinder if they can get a robotic dog into it undetected? Why would Zeus oppose Hera to resume the "normal" Iliad, and why did not she try to convince him to do so first (it worked well enough on previous occasions)?). I also got the impression Simmons was labouring to fill the pages even on the more philosophical/psychological side (Why tell us again and again that Orphu is blind, and that's a pain?). In the end I stopped caring about either the story or the protagonists, and decided they were too many very good other books to waste time reading this one.
A big disappointment. I wonder why Simmons delivered so poorly on something that had obviously a big potential. Did he get rushed? Did he have bills to pay that could not wait? Did he get a good start and then lost his way?
Book Review: Lots of fun
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a doozy of a book, epic in every way from page count to plot, timespan to style. I didn't re-read Ilium (Gollancz S.F.)before starting this sequel which was probably a mistake as I spent the first 300 pages or so trying to work out what on earth was going on. I couldn't work out whether stuff they were talking about had happened 'on screen' in the previous book or not. There were about 12 pages in the middle of the book where I felt I had a pretty good grasp of what was going on and then everything went to hell in a hand basket again. This isn't to say I didn't hugely enjoy reading Olympus - it's superbly written and doesn't really matter whether you understand what's going on. The characters are engaging, the mini-plots make sense, the style is interesting and everything is thrown in with a sort of gleeful abandon that makes it hard not to like. One day I'll go back and read them again and see if it makes more sense, but for now I'm happy to have enjoyed them.