Song of Kali by Dan Simmons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Song of Kali
Book Review: A Scary Mystery with an Unhappy Ending
Summary: 3 Stars
A journalist is sent off to India to collect a new epic poem written by a famous poet supposedly dead for eight years. Expecting something scary, I was sorely disappointed. Song of Kali is more proof that the judges of the World Fantasy Award just don't have time to read. Granted, the writing is clear and precise; Simmons isn't lacking technical skill. In fact, the book isn't bad, it just can't be called fantasy, and isn't quite horror. So what is it? It's a scary mystery with an unhappy ending.Book Review: A frightening experience!
Summary: 5 Stars
Particular scenes in The Song of Kali are still haunting me over a month after finishing the book. This is certainly the mark of a good horror story. What sets this novel apart is the mood created by the author. The story takes place in Calcutta, painted as a locale that is as evil as any you might find in your worst nightmare. The atmosphere and the local characters add to the effectiveness of this book in a way that exceeds any other book in recent memory. For lovers of well-written horror, you 'd be hard pressed to find a better page-turner. I'm a huge Stephen King fan, but this one has images that horrify more than Mr. King's best. If you read this book, you will be thinking about it for months. Try it and enjoy...Book Review: A great read--up to a point
Summary: 3 Stars
I read this book mainly to see if I could recognize the Calcutta that I used to know ten years ago. I have no great interest in books on anything supernatural, books involving traveling in time or midgets on horseback constantly fleeing from an unidentified threat in the horizon. The fact that D.R. Koontz expressed his admiration for Song of Kali on the back cover of the Finnish-language edition was a minor put-off for me.I was quite pleasantly surprised. The story takes place some fifteen years earlier than my visits to Calcutta, but I did find it interesting to see how Mr. Simmons had experienced that, to my mind, wonderful Indian city. The Grand Oberoi Hotel, obviously, had not been renovated yet, and the young boy who used to lie on his back on the sidewalk of Chowringhee St. with his head buried into a pothole filled with sand had not been borne yet.
The slight tinge of fear brought about by the intense culture shock you are likely to experience when you come to Calcutta for the first time was not there, for me, in the Song of Kali. And in reality, too, it wore off after the few first visits. The dark shadows of throngs of dark people and cows in the night, living on the streets, lit only by open cooking fires on the roadsides, all the way from Dum Dum Airport to Chowringhee St., in a rattling, hot Ambassador speeding through the hot, moist darkness of the night, constantly swerving around potholes or policemen; all this, and the noise and the sounding horns make quite a memorable experience.
The story itself was better than I had expected in the sense that nothing supernatural happened, the plot was believable. O.K., the image of Kali came to life once, but that was maybe two pages, at the most. Amrita, the protagonist's wife, had moved to London with her family at the age of seven. Despite this, she knew six or seven Indian languages in addition to the normal European languages and Russian. This kind of exaggeration I find as annoying as Clint Eastwood portraying his clumsy he-man characters as connoisseurs of fine art and classical music--in his later films, that is, the ones he produced himself.
The funniest part to read was Muktanandaji's account of how he was initiated into the secret and terrible society of Kali-worshipping criminals. The end flops badly. I got the impression that the last part was written to make Song of Kali a plausible manuscript for a film, complete with the second coming of the murdering thugs.
Book Review: A must read for everyone!
Summary: 5 Stars
When poet Bobby Luczak is asked to go to Calcutta in search of the poet M. Das, he ignores friends' warnings and of course, says yes. His wife and infant daughter accompany him on what is to be something less than the perfect family holiday. M. Das has been missing for eight years, but recent reports suggest that the man is still alive and that there are unpublished works to be found. Luczak begins to suspect that it may be a scam, but the truth of the matter is far more horrifying.
A haunting tale that will stick with readers long after it's finished. Highly recommended!
Book Review: A poor book
Summary: 2 Stars
The book is full of little actions and descriptions which don't have much meaning in the story. Looks like they are here for filling the pages.
The text would have needed radical cuttings. At one point I even wondered if Simmons had written it himself; but actually it was his first novel.
Slow and pointless.