The first book (Ilium) was fantastic. Olympos was terrible. I'm a big fan of Simmons but this duology took a massive dive from awesome to laughable in just a single book.

and then there were none... no one writes like Simmons, and even when he has split open your skull, taken out your brains, juiced them with some Reyka vodka, chocolate sauce, coffee beans, and butter pecan ice cream (it's known in Hugo and Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke winning circles as a Medulla Mudslide, which is why you'll never have one, non-award-winner types hahahahahaha- OK, that's just me being silly) and then sluiced them back in and stuck a bendystraw in your mouth so you can sample the goodness, even after all that he still writes this book and makes you wish he'd just stopped after Hyperion and at least let some other authors do their thing and not feel too bad that their books may be darned good, but they're just not made of the same stuff as the books Dan Simmons writes... i read he penned this while he was getting facial reconstructive surgery so he would stop being swooned after by Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, and Arthur C. Clarke... i read it on the internet, so... just read this, EVERYONE. it's OK to be jealous and stab your eyes out with anger, there is an audiobook version too! there are plenty of kneelers at the Altar of Dan Simmons...

A rather disappointing end to what was a fascinating epic of fiction. Both books Ilium and Olympos entailed over 1,300 pages. Dan Simmons did a rather good job of building character, but then got in a hurry to end the book despite its length. He left far too many unanswered questions such as what Caliban, Sycorax, Old Odysseus and Setebos fates would be. It is almost as if he is leaving it open for a trilogy but there is no indication there will be one. The constant references to Shakespeare and other metaphoric poems in the book are not contextual - they don't make sense. I will read another of Dan Simmons book, but if he continues to use large sections of his stories to paraphrase poetry that I either can't digest or has no relevance, I'm done.

HIUL

Bookopoly 2021. – Big book
Orilium – Heritage: Dwarf – read a science fiction
Globalni ciljevi: nastavak serijala, SF

Moram priznati, Dan Simmons zaista zna osmisliti kompleksnu priču. Fascinira me kako netko može imati tako bujnu maštu. Knjiga je strašno kompleksna i prepuna detalja koji se do kraja svi brilijantno poslože. Vidi se da je Simmons proučavao različitu literaturu prilikom pisanja.
Priča je u nekim trenucima imala pomalo alienski vibe i Simmons je puno koristio Deux ex machina foru. I opet je priču bazirao na Shakespeareu, Homeru, Proustu i drugim književnicima. Knjiga je bila prepuna njihovih citata i referenci na njihova djela i likove. Mnoge od njihovih likova je i sam preuzeo i ukomponirao u svoju priču.
Što se tiče radnje, situacija na Zemlji se zahuktava, poglavlja koja su pratila Adu, Daemana i Harmana su mi bila najbolja. Daeman je lik koji je najviše napredovao od prvog dijela, promijenio se, postao je zrelijia i bolja osoba. Ada u sebi otkriva vođu, a Harman mi je u ovom dijelu nekako slabiji i njegov dio priče mi je bilo nešto manje zanimljiv. Mahnmut i Orphu dragi kao i u prvom dijelu. I dalje najdraži likovi.
I u ovom nastavku su me Grci i Trojanci smorili, ali srećom ipak u nešto manjoj mjeri. Naglasak je više bio na individualnim likovima Odiseja i Ahileja. Ahilej je čak predstavljen kao poprilično humorističan lik i uživala sam u njegovom dijelu priče. Nadam se da se kasnije uspio riješiti Penthesileje. Ostatak grčko-trojanske priče mi je bio većinom nebitan.
Dobijamo odgovore na mnoga pitanja koja su nam ostala otvorena nakon prvog dijela, ali moram priznati da sam se pomalo pogubila u radnji. Toliko je toga bilo da do kraja više nisam znala na kojem je Marsu bila Troja, koja je prava Zemlja, odakle su došli (i kud su otišli) Caliban, Sycorax, Setebos… Možda bi bilo dobro opet pročitati oba nastavka da pohvatam sve ono što u prvom čitanju nisam, ali nekako sad nemam volje ponovo se upuštati u taj pothvat. Ocjena knjige je negdje između 3,5 i 4. Bila mi je puno bolja od Ilija, ali još uvijek ne toliko dobra kao Hyperion.

Well, that was loooong. Again, could have easily be 2 or 3 books, and the two-book series might have been a 4 book series alike Hyperion. Length wasn't really a big problem for me. There's a lot going on, all the separate stories are dynamic and engaging, and overall the quality of writing is up to Simonns' standard. However, the ending left me quite disappointed (and for mostly the same reasons as the last Endymion book).

First of all, I grew to strongly dislike the "it's destiny" kinds of finales. The protagonist(s) are meant to do something and end up somewhere to perform some task to exactly time everything to get resolved in a neat fashion at the last moment. It just removes any tension from the story - you already know they will do it and that everyone you cared about will for sure survive. The number of times Ardis community has been saved in the last few seconds before annihilation was just too much - and each and every character you've been invested into miraculously survives. Some side-characters which the author tried to pretend to develop so that we care about their deaths are just such obvious plants, it was clear from the start why we suddenly learn about them.

The whole ending is just deus-ex-machina at its worst - I didn't actually get why the hell it all resolved so quickly. Suddenly poof - all is good, and I guess Circe fixed it by magic... or something? Caliban is still alive and can apparently freefax, what the hell? He can just fax in at night, grab anyone, fax away and eat them at his leisure. There is no possible antidote to this kind of power. Where did Achilles go? What happened on Olympos and why we don't care about it anymore all of a sudden? I mean, they still can create brane holes, can they? And fax on Earth if they want to. Who was Noman? If he's not a post-human, as all of them were accounted for, I feel like his presence is just left unexplained. And yeah, the actual explanation for what is going on is in the first book already. No big reveal here, Orphu was right...

Lack of world-building detail is also quite underwhelming. People can freefax and there is simply no cost to it. It's free energy, really, everything is off limits after that. I feel like some cost for it had to be introduced, otherwise it's just a magic power and the humanity is omnipotent. The social aspect is also left untouched, which is strange considering the clash of cultures we've got. I mean, little part of humanity is all-powerful and others are just old styles, that's a sure recipe for oppression and abuse of power. Does people inherit those nano-whatever-quantum-powers? What if one parent is old-style? I mean, I simply don't see these communities peacefully mixing, at all, their lifestyles are completely different. It's gods and ancient tribes, they have nothing in common.

But you know what, when the writing and story is that good, you kind of notice all this stuff after you've already finished the book. It was an exciting journey and I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't revisit it either...

n  "To know that everything in the universe - everything in history, everything in science, everything in poetry and art and music, every person, place, thing, and idea - is connected, that is one thing. To experience that connection, even incompletely, that is quite another."n

4.5

Right after finishing Ilium it became apparent to me that its sequel won't be as good. However, I couldn't imagine that it would be not because of the weak plot, but due to the dragged out storyline. The book is almost 200 pages longer than Ilium, and I think those pages could be easily thrown out as containing lots of unnecessary references to the events described in Ilium. Hell, there even are loads of references to the events that were told a mere couple of pages ago.
As a result there are some moments when reading becomes a bit boring, which I didn't experience with the first book. The other shortcoming, in my opinion, is surprisingly weak ending. With all the build up, I, for one, reckon it could have been much better.
Nevertheless, despite these drawbacks I really enjoyed this book, even though it was not as epic and thrilling as the first one.
One thing I'm going to promise you for sure - you're not going to have a slightest idea how the book ends, and this is one of the most beautiful features of the duology.

+ Интересный мир и герои
- манера повествования с чередованием ракурсов истории и клиффхэнгерами в конце каждой главы - выматывает, примерно как в падении Гипериона
- нет четко рассказанной истории мира, обрывки там и тут
- не закончены нормально (как по мне) большинство историй, вместо интересных деталей - шляпа. Будто автор сам устал под конец.

Короче, разочарование.

Хубаво продължение на „Илион“, но имах малко по-големи очаквания към финала... Сюжетните линии в „Олимп“ отново са три. Героите, сражавали се помежду си в Троянската война, неочаквано се съюзяват. С помощ от моравеките, те започват да воюват срещу високотехнологичните богове... Хокънбери и Одисей пък отиват на изключително важна моравекска мисия до Земята, като заедно с тях тръгват Манмът и Орфу. Третата линия проследява приключенията на старостилните човеци...

Дан Симънс по страхотен начин отдава почит на древногръцката митология, Шекспир и Пруст в тази заплетена научнофантастична история!



„— Още ли вярваш в боговете? — пита схоластикът и отпива голяма глътка от силното вино. — Даже след като воювахте с тях?
При тия думи брадатият стратег се намръщва, после се усмихва и се почесва по бузата.
— Понякога може да е трудно да вярваш в приятелите си, Хокънбери, сине Дуейнов, ала винаги трябва да вярваш на враговете си. Особено ако имаш честта сред враговете ти да има богове.“

Mixed bag... Rounded up from 2,5 stars.

Fun: mix of Greek mythology and science fiction. Moravecs and their love of philosophy and search for what it means to be human.
Not fun: overuse of quantum physics; everything is quantum this and quantum that. Very complicated/contrived plot, leading to some very obvious exposition dialogue. The sex scenes, especially in light of the testicle jokes felt...juvenile. Also, I struggled to visualize several elements, such as the moravecs, voynix, Caliban but maybe that's just me.

I don't know, I certainly enjoyed elements of the story but it also felt like a drag. I got baited by Ilium and then had to plow through 900 pages of very complicated story telling relying far too much on quantum mumbo jumbo for my tastes. Where I thought the Hyperion cantos was intelligent and smart, Ilium/Olympos felt intelligent and dumb, if that makes sense..
Still not sure if this was worth my time.

Mult prea lungă această carte și în cele din urmă cam fără rost. Interesantă ideea că geniul poate crea un univers fizic numai prin puterea gîndului, dar pînă la urmă stîngaci dezvoltată. A, și toate personajele masculine vorbesc aceleași măscări. Ceea ce era pitoresc în exprimarea unuia devine patetic ridicol cînd toți cîntă aceeași muzică.