Olympos by Dan Simmons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Olympos
Book Review: Highly imaginative, but very uneven
Summary: 3 Stars
Of all the people alive, Dan Simmons must be one of the most imaginative ones. In "Olympos", the sequel to "Ilium", he once again marvelously combines all kinds of mythology and literature with a lot of wacky ideas of his own.
Simmons once again creates a wonderful universe, mixing elements from the Iliad, The Tempest and Virgil into an immensely complex and ambitious tale. For the most part, this works out really well. The various story lines intersect in unexpected ways, and there are plenty of surprises and twists along the way.
"Olympos" is also a very well-written book. The characterization is great, the language is often poetic, there's a lot of really good humour, and the various action sequences are very vivid. There are also plenty of interesting dialogs on a wide variety of subjects, from teleportation and time travel, to religion and mortality.
It certainly isn't wihtout its flaws though. Most parts are really great, but there are also a couple too many slow parts, and occasionally all the talk about quantum mechanics and teleportation will devolve into techno-babble of the worst category (it's no surprise that Star Trek is referenced so often).
Still, I would have been willing to give this book a very high rating, if it wasn't for one thing...the ending. In the final act, Simmons's carefully constructed multi-tiered story mostly just dissolves into a fairly messy anticlimax. Some plot lines are neatly concluded, but some just vanish into thin air..most notably, the main antagonist just disappears, and the Odysseus/Noman character act completely out of character. Several other characters are also never heard of again.
In the end, "Olympos" left me somewhat unsatisfied. For the most part, it's a wonderfully written, highly creative and very enjoyable novel, but the ending does leave a somewhat sour taste.
Book Review: I am SO disappointed with Olympos!
Summary: 2 Stars
Please don't get me wrong. I am a HUGE Dan Simmons fan. I am an avid fan of his Hyperion series and I am waiting with serious anticipation for a movie series to unfold. While reading Ilium, I fell in love with the slightly dorky Hockenberry and the glorious Orphu and Mahnmut, worrying and fretting about their outcomes in this finale...
I was SO disappointed. This is just not Mr. Simmons' best writing. At BEST this is a melange of notes, maddeningly short chapters that jump from one subplot to the next (you literally have 5 or 6 subplots with an added one or two thrown in in the last 100 pages just to tick you off). Then, when you are heading for that all critical showdown with the antagonists (of which there are a minimum of 4 major and a whole slew of minors including Helen of Troy), you get NOTHING. I mean, there IS no showdown. The horrific Setebos and his evil sidekick Caliban (who was supposed to be THE bad one in Ilium)...Well, let's just say that Nada, zip and "What the He**!!" were my thoughts and exclamations. It was just awful. You get some seriously disturbing scenes like semi-necrophilia/rape the stasis patient (a la Kill Bill Part 1) which frankly, leave a bad, stinky, taste in your mouth. There is a lot of mind numbing exposition/explanation of physics and brane holes and all the things that make you think that Mr. Simmons is just trying to prove he ran these things past physics/chaos/quantum theory prof friends of his. (My favorite quip from anyone like this was simply "Quantum Physicists have P-branes".)
The book starts out really well. The chapters are of good length. Then they get smaller, more frenetic and things spin in and out and back again until you KNOW the end is going to slam into you and you are not going to like it. It's the same thing I have found over the years with Anne Rice. She would start out with an amazing plot and lose it in the middle and muddle her way to the disappointing, often hard to understand end.
And MAN, if Odysseus were really alive today, there is NO way he'd have followed Sycorax through time just to get it on with her. He'd have tricked her to be with his beloved. Come ON! There had to have been SOME kind of heroic ending instead of him just turning into a horny old time traveler! Gads. Such a letdown!
And BY the way, what EVER happened to the STRONG WOMAN characters that he seemed to have in his previous novels? In this one, she leads her wounded and left for dead group of friends out of serious danger then has a baby and BAM, she is relegated to a minor character who defers to hubby by the end. (Must be all the BOOK LEARNING he could hold over her head. Maybe he didn't send her as many PACKETS????) She just turns from heroine to glowing barefoot momma with kids in the background...ick.
Mr. Simmons is an amazing writer. I would really like to see more of the Hyperion series with a fresh, new slant. I have said this before and I hope I don't see these things anymore. I do not ever want to see another literary translation of a major epic in any more of his sci fi books. The man is seriously intimidating in his love and knowledge of ancient literature but, I can't take another novel full of clips from Keats, Yeats, Proust, Shakespeare and the myriads of Iliads. Moreover, I don't want any more stories with brane holes, creches or resurrection couches. And for goodness sake, stop with the mini-chapters and zillions of characters and sub plots. Too many to keep up with.
All in all, I am seriously disappointed. I even popped for the signed leather limited edition. Oh well. I hope for many more. They can't all be divine. But no more stinkers please!!! I like you too much to see you steep yourself in more of this!
Book Review: I have to agree about the ending...
Summary: 3 Stars
Let's just say that I have to agree with what others have said about the ending. I absolutely LOVED Ilium, and I have been a big fan of Mr. Simmons' work ever since Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion.
He introduced so many wonderful ideas and mysteries in Ilium and I couldn't wait for Olympos so I could learn more about these mysteries and get some answers.
They aren't there. The story has so many loose ends it's not funny.
Still, I would take a mediocre Dan Simmons novel over many other books on the market... I just wish he had written Olympos in the way I know he can.
Book Review: If you speak "Quantum" this book is for you.
Summary: 5 Stars
I throughly enjoyed this book as I did the first in the series, Ilium. Never was much for Shakespeare, Proust, Virgil or Homer, but after this book I am interested. The physics was great. Characterization was even better and there were surprises with every third page. The twists and turns of the plot caught my interest.
If you are not into quantum physics and recent developments then this is not for you. You will either hate or love this story (see reviews above). I loved it.
Book Review: Ilium was superb, Olympus fell short, but was still superb
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't need to repeat what everyone else has said. Both Ilium and Olympus were great. But there was too much in Olympus unanswered, I didn't finish the book with a sense of wonder, but rather with a sense of frustration and disappointment.
Frankly, it was TOO vague. Don't worry, I won't spoil the book. But there was just too much that was simply introduced with no explanation, then taken away. Moira, Sycorax, The Quiet... the list goes on. I have NO idea where these things came from, what they were doing, and just what happened. I think Simmons overstretched with Olympos.