Ilium

Starred review from May 26, 2003
Hugo and Stoker winner Simmons (Hyperion) makes a spectacular return to large-scale space opera in this elegant monster of a novel. Many centuries in the future, Earth's small, more or less human population lives an enjoyable, if drone-like existence. Elsewhere, on some alternate Earth, or perhaps it's the distant past, the battle for Troy is in its ninth year. Oddly, its combatants, Hector, Achilles and the rest, seem to be following a script, speaking their lines exactly as Homer reported them in The Iliad. The Gods, who live on Olympus Mons on the planet Mars, may be post-humans, or aliens, or, well, Gods; it isn't entirely clear. Thomas Hockenberry, a late-20th-century professor of the classics from De Pauw University in Indiana, has, along with other scholars from his era, apparently been resurrected by the Gods. His job is to take notes on the war and compare its progress to Homer's tale, noting even the smallest deviations. Meanwhile, the "moravecs," a civilization of diverse, partially organic AIs clustered on the moons of Jupiter, have been disturbed by the quantum activity they've registered from the inner solar system and have sent an expedition to Mars to investigate. It will come as no surprise to the author's fans that the expedition's members include specialists in Shakespeare and Proust. Beautifully written, chock full of literary references, grand scenery and fascinating characters, this book represents Simmons at his best. (July 22)Forecast:An 11-city author tour, plus the anticipation over Simmons's first new SF epic in years, will fuel sales. The conclusion to this two-part saga, Olympos, is due in 2004.

March 15, 2003
The first in a new series drawing on The Iliad and The Tempest, no less.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2003
Restored to life by the "gods," a race of beings who dwell on the heights of Olympos, 20th-century scholar Thomas Hockenberry travels back in time to observe the events of the Trojan War, as chronicled in Homer's epic poem. There, one of the gods recruits him in a secret war against her brother and sister deities. Set in a far future in which the population of true humans is kept strictly regulated by extraplanetary forces and machine intelligences study Proust and Shakespeare as they perform their duties throughout the universe, Simmon's (Hyperion; Darwin's Blade) imaginative retelling of The Iliad forms the framework for a tale of epic proportions. Ancient themes of love, honor, duty, and courage play out on the stages of the distant past and the even more distant future. Highly recommended.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2003
The author of the popular and highly praised Hyperion books returns to sf in his usual manner, applying a variety of raw materials to a very large canvas with a free hand. There is the cast of the Trojan War--warriors, women, gods, and all. There is a terraformed Mars. There are robotic scholars resurrected from literature, a pastoral but poisoned Earth (genetic engineering was overdone), and Savi, the Wandering Jew. The action in and around Troy is the easiest to follow, provided one is familiar with the " Iliad." The action on Earth and the terraformed Mars develops more slowly because of the vast changes in human beings and the widespread development of artificial intelligence, which tends to follow its own rules, which Simmons must elucidate. Fortunately, Savi serves as a bridge between the past and the future. The book concludes with a cliffhanger, to be resolved in the forthcoming " Olympos." Simmons has entered the ranks of those writers--a distinguished company, beginning with Euripides--who are disgusted by the gods' behavior in the " Iliad." Broadly literate sf fans with a high tolerance for uneven pacing will be the readers who are best able to orient themselves. An impressive if not transparently accessible novel, and as such no surprise coming from Simmons.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)