Olympos by Dan Simmons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Olympos
Book Review: Like a hundred other reviewers...
Summary: 2 Stars
Others have already said it better, but I feel compelled to register my lack of stars for Olympos. When I started this book, I couldn't understand all the negative reviews. I thought, they must not know what they are talking about. But how right they are-- the last half of the book is completely by-the-numbers. Like another reviewer said, either Simmons got writer's block or the publisher told him to wrap it up, because the ending here not only lacked creativity and imagination, it lacked coherence, and completely dodged the point of the book! The entire Illium/Olympos story was based on setting up a huge list of complex questions, conflicts, and mysteries...those questions, rather than the flimsy characters, keep the reader turning page after page, anxious to see the entire scheme laid out by the end...
Unfortunately, that never happens. One minute the book seems to set up a gigantic final act in which all conflicts will play out and all questions get resolved...and a few pages later you are reading "and they all lived happily ever after!"
This book is a testament to squandered genius. The concept and set up were deliriously complicated and multi-faceted, incredibly rich with ideas both literary and scientific. That all gets abandoned for a cop-out ending that leaves the reader feeling cheated.
Book Review: Magnificent Mess
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm a Simmons fan because of his ability to create complex worlds that, for the most part, stand out from the sort of stock tropes of space opera. When you read a Simmons novel you feel as though you are reading something truly different and, well, amazing.
For the most part, Ilium and Olympos engender the same sense of wonder I felt when reading the Hyperion and Endymion books. The head-snapping shifts between Shakespeare allusions, quantum physics, and romance made me laugh out loud occasionally, sometimes with glee at the craft of it and sometimes at the fact I knew I was being jerked around, but in a way I totally enjoyed.
Finally, these books are a glorious, enjoyable mess. They careen from one implausible plotline to the next, eventually intertwining everything into an unstable whole by books end. If you want tidy, sensible sci-fi go elsewhere, but if you want a joyride of a read, you'll enjoy the two thick, fast-paced novels of the series.
Book Review: Marcel Proust on Quantum Steroids
Summary: 4 Stars
This sprawling novel is inventive, ambitious, fast-paced, not completely coherent, but always engaging. My hat's off to Simmons for bringing his love of literature and a belief in the transformative power of artists to the sci fi genre. (Don't let this make you think the novel is airy or arty; it actually has a lot in common with Simmon's hard-baked detective novels.)
The preceding book, Illium, introduced a mix of Homer's Illiad, Shakespeare's sonnets, the Tempest, and Marcel Proust with Greek and Trojan heroes on a terraformed Martian landscape. This world is ruled by petulant Olympian gods with a penchant for quantum manipulation and a strange unexplained relationship to events on a future Earth. I simply didn't believe Simmons could pull this all together in one more novel, but he has largely done it. While some holes remain, and the author had to rely on too many deus ex machinas to pull the plot threads together, the conclusion is satisfying. If you enjoyed Illium, you will find this equally engrossing.
My only complaint with the writing is an overdone pseudo-science that features the word "quantum" way too often. Apparently anything can happen if you evoke the magic Q-word. This is one time I think leaving the science a little vague might have been better, since the heart of the book isn't science at all. This flaw is more than made up for by a large cast of interesting characters that Simmons never loses track of, and a page-chomping cinematic style that charms and lures you on.
By the way, don't skip the long Marcel Proust quote -- you will understand the novel far better, and you may never quite look at a great work of art the same way again.
Book Review: Mostly a Letdown
Summary: 3 Stars
Simmons is a brilliant writer. No question. And he can manage complex plots and subplots over multiple volumes, as he showed brilliantly in The Hyperion Cantos. He is also nearly unique in being able to blend serious literature and poetry into hard core science fiction in varied and interesting ways. Alas, none of those skills is on display in "Olympos."
"Ilium" was a fun set up. Intelligent robots from Jupiter's orbit who have long, serious discussions of literary criticism. A recycled classics professor who not only gets to sleep with Helen of Troy but also completely derails the Trojan War. And, in Achilles' challenge at the end of "Ilium," one of the great challenges in literature.
But as a sequel, "Olympos" is a serious letdown. Unlike The Hyperion Cantos, there is no grand, unifying theme to tie the books together, or resolve loose plot ends, or logically and coherently explain what has happened. Instead, matters dissolve into nearly meaningless, disconnected vignettes. I was particularly disappointed in Simmons' treatment of Odysseus, out of a job (or at least without an Odyssey). Surely the sly fox of Ithaca could have been treated better?
Three stars for consistently challenging a reader, and for taking on a real challenge. No more than three stars because, uncharacteristically, Simmons falls short of meeting that challenge.
Book Review: Mr. Simmons hits a homer
Summary: 5 Stars
While Helen mourns the death of her husband with the help of her lover twentieth century scholar Hockenberry, the Greek and Trojan warriors have united to fight the Olympic Gods who caused much of the conflict with their meddling (see ILIUM). However, the Gods have not been sitting back for a millennium as they are used to interfering, intruding and attacking mortals so they begin a counter assault. Abetting the humans is the moravecs space robots, but that might still prove inadequate as the allies war with the Gods they once worshipped.
While Helen dresses for Paris' funeral following some lovemaking with traveling historian Hockenberry, in other dimensions the robotic voynix revolt against their dissolute human masters and Prospero and Caliban battle the Tempest god Setebos. Meanwhile Achilles mourns his beloved dead Amazon queen as Odysseus journeys to an alternate Earth. Soon these seemingly divergent happenings will converge with Trekkies appearing while Helen buries Paris before and after making love with Hockenberry.
The storytelling talent of Dan Simmons is incredible as he somehow brings together this Homeric epic that feels more complex than the DNA helix yet the multiple story lines blend into a cohesive delightful satirical tempest of a novel. The story line combines humor with action adventure in a terrific time alternating science fiction thriller. Readers need to set aside several days to read this enthralling work slowly as Mr. Simmons "sneaks" in all sorts of tidbits. Readers will treasure this sequel that is as good as or perhaps better than the highly regarded ILIUM.
Harriet Klausner