Song of Kali by Dan Simmons Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.99 You Save: $9.00 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.59 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Song of Kali
Book Review: A really good book
Summary: 4 Stars
Although not what I would call scary or shocking, this book was very engrossing. It puts you dead-center in Calcutta so that you can almost smell and see what's being described. The writing style is excellent, the characters are entirely believable and the story moves at a perfect pace. It's different - highly recommended.Book Review: A spectacular novel, terrifying to the core of your being.
Summary: 5 Stars
Dan Simmons' "Song of Kali" is one of the most terrifying and horrific novels ever written. It is a book which grabs the very core of your being and takes it on a roller coaster ride in the macbre setting of India's most bloody cult. The prose flows like fine red wine, seeping into your mind with effortless ease, while exerting an influence which is irresistable. Plan on spending a while once you open the cover, as it will be nearly impossible to put it down once you have heard the the opening strains of the deadly song of Kali.Book Review: All violence is power ... but other songs are also sung ...
Summary: 4 Stars
Wow! I just finished reading Dan Simmons' excellent first novel, "Song of Kali," and I must say that I am extremely impressed by this work of fantastic horror and its meaning in the real world the reader is invited to recognize as both insane and wonderful all at the same time.Yes, there are some flaws in the book, and for that reason you should ignore the hype and superlative praise showered on it. For starters, the narrator is not a particularly likeable character; he admits to having a short fuse and a quick temper that often seem out of proportion to even minor annoyances.
In addition, the author goes on for too long just setting up this tale, and nothing much of consequence actually happens for the first third of the story. Then there is the problem of the loose ends that do not answer the questions raised by a murder which serves as the emotional climax of the novel. My best guess is that Simmons deliberately left some things obscure to reflect the protagonist's own confused and frustrated inability to understand what prompted the killing, but - if such is the case - it still leaves the reader unsatisfied with the unresolved mystery of why certain events happened as they did.
Finally, "Song of Kali" suffers from a lack of editing and/or proofreading (at least in its paperback edition), as shown by the many typos in the manuscript. Ordinarily, this would not matter a great deal, but in a story that concerns itself with wordsmiths in one form or another (i.e., writers, editors, and a literary agent) the errors are glaring and disrupt the flow of the otherwise nicely nuanced text.
However, having said all that, I remain amazed at how well the "Song of Kali" managed to pull me into its plot and delve into themes that were at once disturbing and yet undeniably fascinating. The dramatic tension between good and evil is captured in dialogue and descriptive prose that explores the duality of man at both the macroscopic and microscopic levels. This might sound dry and dismal but in fact the final third of "Song of Kali" truly does build suspense like a runaway freight train, and I was unable to put the novel down for the last 80 pages.
Simmons also does an especially good job of translating the universal nature of depravity from the teeming streets of Calcutta to the familiar environs of our own supposedly more civilized society. Although he touches on Indian mythology, the occult, mysticism, and the supernatural, Simmons suggests that the manifestations of culture and religion are merely props that mirror the darkness (or lightness) of the human soul.
And that is really what this book is about when you get down to it: the importance of free will and each person deciding for him- or herself whether to embrace hope and life or give into greed, hate, and the fear of death. In spite of its faults, "Song of Kali" concludes on an optimistic note that does not smack of a conventional, contrived happy ending. Instead, Simmons says, we must beware of the beast within us, but choose the better way.
Book Review: Almost overcomes its abrupt ending; really 3.5 stars
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of those books that holds you for the whole book, but somehow never quite pays off.
Bobby Luczak, an American poet, his Indian-born wife Amrita, and their daughter Victoria, embark on a trip to the city of Calcutta. Luczak has been contacted about doing a magazine article on the new work of a famous Indian poet, who has been missing for eight years. What the family instead finds is a hidden cult that worships evil, and personal tragedy.
Simmons knows how to build a sinister mood. From the early warnings of Luczak's friend Abe about going, to Luczak's first person observations of the city, Calcutta is a haunting, frightening, disturbing place. Indeed, it is probably the best developed "character" of the novel, a place reminiscent of something out of "Blade Runner," with its omnipresent shadows, grinding poverty, and general inhumanity swirling in a morass of evil.
Further, Simmons keeps the reader intrigued throughout, as Luczak encounters tightlipped professors and suspicious assistants, discovers a horrible secret about the poet, Das, and finally reads the horrifying epic poem,the titular "Song of Kali", that Das has uncharacteristically created after his 8-year absence. Luczak's battle for survival, his panic, and his frenzy to escape with his family from Calcutta clung to me, compelling me to turn the page even when it was really time I should go to bed. Simmons creates a generally unhealthy atmosphere throughout the book, and his simple, yet detailed prose paints a grotesque picture.
The problem with this book is its ending. While too much detail would spoil it, suffice it to say, I kept looking at the top of the page thinking "He needs to give us the payoff here, not too many pages left." Unfortunately, the payoff isn't there. While Simmons makes his point about human nature, there are a few too many loose-threads. While it's not unheard of (indeed, it's really a cliche) to leave a certain ambiguity in novels of this type, Simmons leaves too much ambiguity. Characters' motivations and actions are hinted at, but never confirmed. Ultimately, upon reaching the last page, my only reaction was "That's it?" This rather hurt the book overall.
Nonetheless, the majority of the book is still excellent, and ALMOST overcomes its abrupt ending. But the ending hurts, and marred my enjoyment of a book that I suspect would have otherwise played on my mind for some time to come.
Book Review: An OK read, but doesn't even come close to living up to the hype
Summary: 3 Stars
While I must say that I love Dan Simmons' SF novels, his "horror" novels mostly leave me cold. "Song of Kali" is no exception to this. While it's by no means a disaster, it really doesn't live up to the hype.
What "Song" does extremely well is to paint a truly atmospheric and horrifying picture of Calcutta, as a city that is pretty much the embodiment of evil. I've never been there so I have no idea if this is accurate, but Simmons has convinced me not to go there anytime soon.
That being said, the rest of the story left me mostly cold. I didn't really care much about the self-absorbed and unresponsible protagonist and his unusually docile and subservient wife. I also think that the story doesn't really go anywhere. It starts out very nicely and sets up all kinds of mystery and intrigue, but the end it all collapses into a big anticlimax in which, ultimately, very little makes sense and very little is resolved.
That being said, I don't want to be too hard on this book. Like most of Simmons' work, it's undeniably well-written, and there are parts that work really well, like the story of the Indian student. But in the end, it feels to much like an attempt to vent frustations about Calcutta than as a fully-fledged and well-constructed story.