A review by lactomar
Ilium by Dan Simmons

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.