Reviews

Ilión by Dan Simmons

lactomar's review against another edition

4.0

Again, such an odd and surprisingly enjoyable book from Mr. Simmons. No idea what I was getting into with this one, other than my previous reads of the Hyperion 4. This one was such much different...was really surprised. Has the same sense you have no idea where this thing is going. Integrates classic literature in a similar way, honestly I had never read most of the Iliad prior to this and feel a richer understanding now that I have finished this. Dialogue and characters actually feel tighter than Hyperion, especially the Endymion books. He always had an issue with the whiny protagonist, which you get with Damean, but he actually is written tolerably and has some believable character growth meant to represent the whole of humanity. Also such an interesting near future, a little closer to the present than Hyperion - and with even more foreign/other types of personalities with the moravecs, posts and Caliban/Prospero/Ariel. Overall, Hyperion remains my favorite (the structure of that book with the individual stories still gets me), but I think this is #2 of the books of his I have read. Looking forward to Olympos to see where this goes.

amaranth101's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

merxlmor's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

rossbm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

A decent science fiction read, though it's borderline magic/fantasy rather than actual science. A lot of "quantum" technologies and such. Literary allusions. Seems like at times it's just paraphrasing the Illiad. Kind of fun, but not going to read second book in series

good_will's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Enjoyed my time with this, despite the fact that it can get quite dumb/silly. Gotta admire the ambition

theciz's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I have really mixed feelings about this book - it took me a while to decide if I really actually enjoyed reading it. It’s a fascinating concept - literary sci-fi, the Iliad in space, sentient robots, post apocalyptic Earth, etc. But the execution is such a turn off - this is clearly written as an homage to classic sci-fi and only the random and unnecessary 9/11 references mark this out as being from 2003 rather than 1963. 

The sexism was just too much for me at several points - unnecessary sexual descriptions of teenage girls, "breasted boobily" writing throughout, female POV characters who can only think about relationships and their poor hysterical female emotions, the slubby everyman who is somehow irresistible to beautiful women - I could go on. Just so much casual misogyny for such a long book grinds you down mentally, and it made me hate two out of the three main POV characters (Mahnmut and Orphu forever). 

Ultimately though, that’s not what’s stopping me going on to the second book - I feel like Simmons has made an interesting world, but I don’t think it needs a sequel. I don’t usually read the "preview of the next book" they put at the end, but I did here, and it and some reviews confirmed my worst suspicions. There didn’t seem to be a need for another 800 pages to finish this story, and it seems drawn out with new POV characters whose thoughts don’t really add anything - drawn out and meandering where the story doesn’t ultimately demand it. I think I’m happier inserting a head canon extra chapter ending drawing on the best parts of this one and calling it a day.

katpavlikova's review against another edition

3.0

Kombo Trojské války a vesmírných scifi věciček. Myslím, že to bylo docela prima. Strašně mě bavila dějová linka přímo s Trójany, tam, kde jsem sledovala dění války. Jen jsem se od ní nedokázala úplně odtrhnout, dostat se do těch dalších, správně se do nich začíst, přestože měly svůj význam a jen díky nim mám po dočtení fakt super pocit, hrozně se těším na další díl.

wrenandpeter's review against another edition

medium-paced

2.5

grifen87's review against another edition

Interesting concept but a bit hard to follow between the fictional sci fi jargon and Greek mythology references. Ultimately I stopped reading because of how much the characters objectified women.

shermanberry's review against another edition

3.5

I have given this book four stars but really I think it's a 3.5. I must say it's hard work. I was about 200 pages in before I started to work things out and enjoy the various intertwined stories. For me, the story thread with the moravecs would have been better minus the Shakespeare and Proust stuff. Personally I found that pretty dull and irrelevant and just wanted to get on with the story. The story thread focusing on the humans was best in my opinion. The Greek one was interesting but I was overwhelmed with too may names to try and remember. In the end I gave up. There were some very interesting ideas and thoughts and I found my reading pace accelerated as I progressed through it. Overall pretty good but I'm not as desperate to read the next book Olympos as I would be if it had really grabbed me.