El vate de la ciencia ficción, el hombre que descubrió que la combinación de Shakespeare, la cibernética y la space opera no solo no era imposible, sino que era necesaria, cierra esta particular bilogía que es Ilión con un final tan delirante como su premisa. Es sorprendente cómo el inicio de la secuela cambia radicalmente en solo cien páginas, convirtiendo casi todo el tercio de la novela anterior en una sucesión de escenas inútiles. Eso sí, al fin se responden todas las preguntas que fueron apareciendo en la entrega anterior de manera más o menos satisfactoria.

¿Qué es lo mejor de Ilión-Olimpo? La imaginación y creatividad que tiene Dan Simmons, capaz de incluir en varios párrafos cuatro ideas de ciencia ficción que en manos de un escritor menos hábil darían para rellenar cuatro libros diferentes, y gracias.

¿Qué es lo peor de Ilión-Olimpo? Que su trama se alarga artificialmente par incluir ciertos giros de guion que, a la postre, resultan intrascendentes; que la historia de los terrícolas en este libro se hace aburridísima, especialmente la de Harman, que es un vía crucis insoportable.

Por supuesto, mi amor incondicional es para los moravecs, los encantadores robots del cinturon de asteroides y los satélites jovianos enamorados de la cultura humana. Manmhut de Europa y Orphu de Io, siempre en mi corazón.

¿Lo recomendaría? Hasta el peor Dan Simmons es mejor que muchos escritores de ciencia ficción y fantasía, y esta bilogía esta muy lejos de ser lo peor: solo es lo más delirante. Si queréis pasar una buena temporada disfrutando de la guerra de Troya en suelo marciano, de las desventuras del pobre observador escólico Hockenberry, de las despreocupadas vidas de los eloy terrícolas y de las conversaciones sobre Shakespeare y Proust de dos robots exploradores, este es vuestro libro. Ningún otro libro os va a dar lo que os dará este.

Eso sí, leedlo solo si ya habéis leído Hiperión. Porque TENEÍS que leer Hiperión.

Sometimes, Kara, you need to listen to yourself more. I really should have read my review of n  Iliumn before diving into Olympos. Not only would it have refreshed me on the plot, but I actually mentioned the uncomfortable, rapey, male-gazeyness of Simmons’ writing in that review. This is what clinched my dislike of Olympos. As with Ilium, I almost gave up on it—but I soldiered on, and honestly? Not worth it.

Picking up where Ilium left off, Olympos has a lot of plot threads/characters to summarize, so bear with me. First we have Thomas Hockenberry, a “scholic” rebuilt from the writings and DNA of a 21st-century scholar to bear witness to the ersatz Trojan War playing out on a terraformed Mars. He has had a part in convincing the Trojans and Greeks to unite against the Olympian Gods, who are actually posthumans. Into this fray come the moravecs, part-human and part-machine, descendants of machines sent out to Jupiter prior to humanity’s leap into posthumanity. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the “old style” humans need to rediscover a lot of technology and skills fast, because their former servitor robots the voynix are really keen on killing all the humans. This includes Ada, now preggo with Harman’s baby, and Harman himself, who quickly becomes embroiled further with the mysterious beings known as Prospero and Ariel. In the background lurks Setebos, some kind of alien incorporated as a brain with a terrifying number of hands for limbs.

I’ll give this to Dan Simmons: Olympos offers a lot of explanations for the mysteries broached in Ilium. It’s just that most of them aren’t great. My praise for the first book centred on how Simmons explores the nature of literacy and the benefits and drawbacks it has bequeathed on humanity. Olympos largely jettisons these themes in favour of action; the themes mostly seem to trend towards “lots of tech good, but play nice with other branches of humanity” without much clarity there either.

Oh, and then of course, there’s all the sex stuff. What is it with cis white male science-fiction authors and an obsession with sexytimes? Asimov was conservative enough at least to merely be sexist in his descriptions of women. Simmons is closer to Larry Niven, whose obsession with “rishathra” torpedoed any enjoyment I could get from the Ringworld series. Everyone in this book is so horny. Add to that the descriptions of things, not even people, but things in terms of “the shape of a woman’s thighs,” and I was so close to noping out.

Then Simmons decides it would be a good idea to include rape as a plot point. Not just any rape either. No, in this case, Harman has to have sex with an unconscious woman who looks like someone he knew from the first book (Savi) because the DNA in his semen is the key to unlocking her from stasis.

I am not kidding. I nearly threw my book across the room. I persevered mostly so that I would never, ever be tempted to pick up this book again just to know how it ends. But I am telling you all now, any readers of this review, that if you are in the middle of this book and wondering if it is worth it, it is not.

I would like to spoil the ending for you, but I am going to be honest, a lot of the explanation just doesn’t make sense in a narrative sense. Like, the Big Idea does—and it’s cool, but I have seen it done better elsewhere, and Simmons just kind of drops it onto the table like a flopping, soon-to-be-dead fish so that he can spend more time telling us how fuckable Helen of Troy is. Nor does the ending really matter. Everything gets tied up just a little too neatly, as if Simmons wants us to gaze upon him admiringly and say, “Oooh, look at how clever you are for plotting all that!” And hey, maybe I would, if you hadn’t been rapey as fuck.

I am done with you, Dan Simmons. Good day.

Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.

n  n

[Review of Ilium here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...]

Well I still think Dan Simmons is a weird guy. But I think things make a bit more sense now than they did after Ilium.

Olympos did a satisfying job of resolving the mysteries laid out in the first book, and more importantly, it was an epic adventure in its own right. I felt like I had to read a lot every night because there were so many threads and it was hard to remember what they were all doing. But they came together.

All the characters I liked from Ilium continued to entertain. The characters I didn't like became more interesting. The moravacs continue to be my favourite.

I think I'm still not fully on board with the premise. Unfortunately I can't really say what the premise is without spoilers, but it was very fantastical, and I don't think it was made better by trying to connect it to a theoretical physics explanation.

One other running theme I didn't like was how desperate it was! The number of times somebody is pretty much killed, their body torn and broken (in some gruesome detail) but still limping on... the number of times vast numbers of people were killed... the number of times the one thin lifeline was cut, plunging characters into even further desperation... It was pretty grim. I suppose that's one thing that keeps you hooked, but I found it too much.

One final negative: Dan Simmons needs to chill out on the sex scenes. I don't mind a bit of that sort of thing, but you don't need to be so graphic!

Anyway, for the most part it was really good. An exciting, intricate, enormous story. If you liked Hyperion but wish it had more Greek mythology, you'll love Ilium and Olympos.

Even though I really enjoyed the first book of this duo-logy, the comments in the review section at Amazon.com were less than stellar. However, I couldn't pass up the chance to follow all the characters I had rapidly come to know in Ilium. I'm glad that I disregarded all of those comments. While this rating is more a 4.5 (I thought the sex scenes were over the top and unnecessary) I still thought the book was really good. Some of the reviews I read complained about things not being explained fully, and while I found that to be somewhat true, I thought that enough was explained to leave me satisfied. Further, I thought there was enough information given that inferences can be made about everything else (Odysseus possibly excepted). I blew through both Ilium and Olympos in about a week and a half of reading; a testament to the powerful story telling of Dan Simmons.