Ilium
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: 2005-06-28
ISBN: 0380817926
Number of pages: 752
Publisher: HarperTorch
Book Reviews of Ilium
Book Review: Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles...
Summary: 5 Stars
Crazy. Joyous.
Those are the first two words which came to mind, upon finishing Dam Simmons' Ilium a couple of weeks back. I read most of the book in a straight shot, on my recent flight from San Francisco to Tokyo/Narita a couple of weeks ago....I couldn't put it down.
To set the scene...well, it's the future, and something has happened to mankind. Over the many years, mankind mastered many technologies, sending sentient robots out to Jupiter and the asteroids, developing quantum teleportations, developing the Internet into a sentient being, and surrounding the Earth with settlements in orbit. Then, those technologically and otherwise evolved beings disappeared from Earth, leaving behind less than one million "survivors", who are in the dark as to the true state of affairs, and who are technologically backwards. Some of those advanced beings re-appear on Mars, terraforming the planet rapidly, bringing into existence the people and events of Homer's the Iliad, and monitoring the events as they unfold through the use of long-dead, re-animated historians and experts on Homer's epic tale.
Why? Why has all this happened? Why are people being pushed through the Iliad as a kind of science experiment? Why are the people on Earth so caged, unknowingly, by their own ignorance? These are the questions that drive the main characters of Ilium, into rebellion against their fates and against the Fates, a drive for answers and for freedom.
Dan Simmons is one of our current generation's best writers, as he's demonstrated in adventurous and inventive works such as Hyperion. He has a love for literature, and here not only does Homer's Iliad feature into the work, but also The Tempest, Shakespeare's sonnets, and the work of Proust. His characters are flawed, believable, and they grow...and grow on you. He uses several science fiction motifs as weapons, enabling him to speed along the story without making the technology necessarily the focus.
Simmons' work often features concepts that are evolved from the work of H.P. Lovecraft, in a sense. There are Cthulhu-like beings which occupy this story: amoral by our standards, because these beings have a morality which doesn't line up or intersect with our own; vast; impenetrable; and seemingly beyond our ability to damage. In the Hyperion novels, these roles were fulfilled by the UIs. Here, these roles are fulfilled by...well, I won't spoil it for you, but clearly Zeus is one of those cast of characters, but not the only one.
The tale does not end with the end of this book. We will have to await the release of Olympos to see the end of the struggle here. In the meantime, while I patiently wait, I can certainly recommend this work. At 731 pages in paperback, it'll keep you busy for a while!
"Surrender now," says Achilles, " and we'll spare your goddesses's lives so they can be our slaves and courtesans."
- Dan Simmons' Ilium, chapter 63.
Summary of Ilium
The Trojan War rages at the foot of Olympos Mons on Mars -- observed and influenced from on high by Zeus and his immortal family -- and twenty-first-century professor Thomas Hockenberry is there to play a role in the insidious private wars of vengeful gods and goddesses. On Earth, a small band of the few remaining humans pursues a lost past and devastating truth -- as four sentient machines depart from Jovian space to investigate, perhaps terminate, the potentially catastrophic emissions emanating from a mountaintop miles above the terraformed surface of the Red Planet.
Genre-hopping Dan Simmons returns to science fiction with the vast and intricate masterpiece Ilium. Within, Simmons weaves three astounding story lines into one Earth-, Mars-, and Jupiter-shattering cliffhanger that will leave readers aching for the sequel.
On Earth, a post-technological group of humans, pampered by servant machines and easy travel via "faxing," begins to question its beginnings. Meanwhile, a team of sentient and Shakespeare-quoting robots from Jupiter's lunar system embark on a mission to Mars to investigate an increase in dangerous quantum fluctuations. On the Red Planet, they'll find a race of metahumans living out existence as the pantheon of classic Greek gods. These "gods" have recreated the Trojan War with reconstituted Greeks and Trojans and staffed it with scholars from throughout Earth's history who observe the events and report on the accuracy of Homer's Iliad. One of these scholars, Thomas Hockenberry, finds himself tangled in the midst of interplay between the gods and their playthings and sends the war reeling in a direction the blind poet could have never imagined.
Simmons creates an exciting and thrilling tale set in the thick of the Trojan War as seen through Hockenberry's 20th-century eyes. At the same time, Simmons's robots study Shakespeare and Proust and the origin-seeking Earthlings find themselves caught in a murderous retelling of The Tempest. Reading this highly literate novel does take more than a passing familiarity with at least The Iliad but readers who can dive into these heady waters and swim with the current will be amply rewarded. --Jeremy Pugh
Literature & Fiction Books
- 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
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: $6.92
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
Song of Kaliby Dan Simmons
Tor Books; Published: 1998-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
A Deepness in the Skyby Vernor Vinge
Tor Books; Published: 2000-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.71
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 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:
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:
Olymposby Dan Simmons
Harper Voyager; Published: 2006-07-25; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
Summer of Nightby Dan Simmons
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2011-07-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.02
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:
The Fall of Hyperionby Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1991-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Hyperionby Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1990-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.82
Price in other shops: