Ilium

[andrewducker]

I just finished reading Dan Simmons' Ilium, in which Greek Gods, the Trojan War, Eloi, The Tempest and Space Opera are melded together.

The most annoying thing about it is that the sequel isn't out for another few months.

The second most annoying thing is that a decent editor would have fixed the few bits where it suddenly drops from amazing to annoying, and then back again - too proud of its own cleverness, or where the author hasn't edited different drafts together well (the Deus Ex Machina joke is made twice in the space of two pages, once well, once badly - one can only assume that the bad one was replaced by the good one, and then forgotten about). Oh, and the bits with Caliban/Prospero seemed badly grafted on. Once can only hope that the sequel explains all.

Well worth a read, although I'd love to hear swisstone's opinion on the 'accuracy'.

Comments

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I've not read it, though I do own a copy, and I will get around to it eventually.

[code-delphi.livejournal.com]

How did you find Ilium compared to the Hyperion/Endymion quartet?

[andrewducker]

Depends on the second half. At the moment it has too much dangling to work for me as a book - whereas I could have read Hyperion by itself and not have worried about it.

On the other hand, I ended up feeling very disappointed in Endymion, so it'll hopefully turn out better than that.

It's certainly well worth reading - so long as I don't get burnt in 5 months...

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I found it loped on pretty well, was amusing, held my attention, but I wasn't wildly impressed or anything. I'm not exactly gagging for the sequel to be out, let's put it that way.

[andrewducker]

I'm largely wanting the sequel because I waited the entire book for a fucking explanation and never got one. I want to know what was going on!

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

The author was trying to be clever (but not entirely succeeding)?

Let's hope *he* knows what it's supposed to be about.