Olympos
by Dan Simmons
List Price:
Our Price: $4.95
You Save: $4.04 (45%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Dan SimmonsEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-07-25
ISBN: 0380817934
Number of pages: 912
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Book Reviews of Olympos
Book Review: Too much going on and choppy construction, but interesting science. Only recommended as a sequel
Summary: 3 Stars
The sequel to Ilium, and unfortunately not as good. Olympos picks up where Ilium left off: On Mars, where the Trojan War has been lived again, the scholic Hockenberry has changed the course of events and started the Greeks and Trojans in a joint war against the gods--but the gods have plans to restart the war between the mortals. Meanwhile, on Earth life as they know it of the old-style humans has been completely changed, and rather than endless parties and good health they must now fight for themselves while being attacked on all sides by the very machines that used to serve them. Sentient robots called moravecs unite the two storylines when they leave Mars for Earth in order to stop the wild quantum fluxations that originate there. A sci-fi epic on a grand scale, Olympos unfortunately has too many concurrent plot lines to stay afloat and feels disjointed and incoherent. Nonetheless, the characters are interesting and the plot original. The book does bring to a satisfying close the story begun in Ilium, if you've read the prequel you'll care enough about the story and characters to make it through this volume, and the science-fiction aspects (while not particularly well explained) are innovative and make for a unique setting. I'm fairly ambivalent about this book: it was ok as a sequel, but I didn't enjoy it much in its own right.
This sequel is quite a change from the first book. While the first followed and played off of literary allusions to Homer's Iliad and Shakespeare's Tempest, the sequence of events has separated this book from those sources. The characters from the Iliad are still around and new characters from the Tempest are introduced, but for the large part the book has become more independent than the original. As a result, there are fewer worrisome interpretations of both texts but it's also less enjoyable for those that picked up the book for these elements. The author tries to make up for it by introducing more Proust quotes and, at one point, a poem written by his wife, but these addictions seems cursory--slapped on late in the game in order to keep some symmetry with the original book. Furthermore, in the case of the poem, they don't nearly rival the importance or depth of the original inspirations and allusions.
More bothersome than the literary allusions or lackthereof is the sheer number of characters and plot lines that Simmons tries to balance throughout this text. The Greek, human, and moravec stories are all split up into one or two subplots, and the text is still constructed with one chapter dedicated to a plotline, ending in a cliffhanger, and moving to another plotline in the next chapter. With so many plotlines and so many cliffhangers, the book quickly becomes fragmented, cliche, and even annoying to read. In his attempt to create an epic and remain faithful to Ilium, Simmons put himself in a bind: the combination of plots and writing style don't work well together, and are perhaps the biggest problem with this book. I still contend that readers of Ilium will make it through this text because of interest in characters and plot piqued in the original book, and ultimately Olymos brings the plotline to a satisfying, almost too-quick conclusion. However, on its own this is a shoddily-crafted, disjointed novel that tries to take off more than it can handle in a style that doesn't compliment the content.
All in all, I recommend Olympos only as a sequel. Ilium leaves off at such a cliff-hanger that it's almost necessary to read this book simply in order to resolve the story. At 700 pages, it is time consuming, but luckily the writing style isn't very complex--rather, Simmons seems to delight in profanity, sex, and violence to an extreme that almost seems comical--and so it's not a huge investment of time and energy. It does provide a conclusion to the original story, one that ties up all the plotlines and saves everyone we care about. The science that runs throughout both novels is interesting--a little too explained at points, a little unrealistic at others, but overall a unique idea and sci-fi geeks should enjoy. Nonetheless, independently this is a pretty middle of the road, poorly constructed sci-fi epic, and on that basis I have a hard time being passionate about it and am hesitant to recommend it.
Summary of Olympos
Beneath the gaze of the gods, the mighty armies of Greece and Troy met in fierce and glorious combat, scrupulously following the text set forth in Homer's timeless narrative. But that was before twenty-first-century scholar Thomas Hockenberry stirred the bloody brew, causing an enraged Achilles to join forces with his archenemy Hector and turn his murderous wrath on Zeus and the entire pantheon of divine manipulators; before the swift and terrible mechanical creatures that catered for centuries to the pitiful idle remnants of Earth's human race began massing in the millions, to exterminate rather than serve.
And now all bets are off.
Welcome back to the Trojan War gone round the bend. Hector and Achilles have joined forces against the Olympic Gods. Back on a future Earth, assorted creatures from Shakespeare's The Tempest get ready to rumble in a winner-takes-the-universe battle royale. And amid it all, a group of confused mere mortals with their classically trained robot allies (from Jupiter no less) race across time and space to keep from getting squashed as the various Titans of the Western Canon square off.
Confused? It's all part of Dan Simmons's Olympos, a novel one part fun-with-quantum-physics and two parts through-the-looking-glass survey of Western Literature. Picking up where he left off in the high-wire act Ilium, Simmons doesn't disappoint. Not only is Olympos excellent hard science fiction and grand space opera, it's a riveting and fast-paced book that is alternately shocking, thrilling, and often deftly hilarious as his hapless human creations wrestle the forces of literary history itself. Be sure to read Ilium first though. That and a more-than passing familiarity with The Illiad might come in handy for the journey to Mars, Ilium's far-off shores, and the Earth that might be. --Jeremy Pugh
Amazon.com Exclusive Content
Master of the Universes: An Exclusive Interview with Dan Simmons
Changing genres as easily as others change clothes, bestselling author Dan Simmons has written horror, mystery, historical fiction, thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction. In this Amazon.com exclusive interview, he talks about his latest SF triumph, Olympos, a tale of Mars, the Greek gods, and survival in a post-human world.Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.80
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
The Hollow Manby Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1993-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.84
Price in other shops:
Song of Kaliby Dan Simmons
Tor Books; Published: 1998-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
Flashbackby Dan Simmons
Reagan Arthur Books; Published: 2011-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.95
Price in other shops:
A Deepness in the Skyby Vernor Vinge
Tor Books; Published: 2000-01-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.71
Price in other shops:
A Fire Upon The Deep (Zones of Thought)by Vernor Vinge
Tor Science Fiction; Published: 1993-02-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.06
Price in other shops:
Hyperionby Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1990-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.70
Price in other shops:
Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, Bk. 3)by Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1996-11-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.59
Price in other shops:
The Rise of Endymionby Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1998-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.97
Price in other shops:
Iliumby Dan Simmons
HarperTorch; Published: 2005-06-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.73
Price in other shops:
The Fall of Hyperionby Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1991-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops: