A book should not be hard to read. To pick up a book, and to read the words and enjoy them should not be hard, it should just be. Reading this book was hard. Every moment I normally would pick up a book to read a little I would pick up this, and every time I did not look forward to it.

It baffles me; I could have sworn that I enjoyed Hyperion and that it was well-written, could I have been so wrong? This was not enjoyable, it was not well-written, and it was so hugely disappointing.

700 pages is a lot to ask of a person, especially when the story is divided into what could be three books and each book filled with characters who are not in the slightest interesting or fleshed out. What bothers me most is the gods and the heroes of the Iliad. This was my chance to see some characterization of all my favorite mythological badasses and it failed so astoundingly. Diomedes, my favorite character from the Iliad, is nothing more than a spear or a weapon, and the only descriptions of him are as a bumbling greedy oaf. Odysseus is a bulky, bear of a man who seems neither cunning nor clever, and most of the characters seem rather monstrous. At least in the Homeric versions there is no authorial opinion given for actions, just statements of fact. If Jason (who was a total douche) wanted to love and leave women then he could damn well do it without the writer telling us what a dick he was, all of the characters here are colored by perspectives I don't care about and find rather frustrating.

Ultimately, it felt as if Simmons wanted to show off what he had studied, not a story or characters or any of the things that I tend to like in a book. 350 loooong pages into the book nearly nothing has happened. There is lots of posturing and pondering but very, very, little has progressed the story forward. It is as if most of the novel is filler, Simmons just plugging away to fill some page quota. Additionally, and more irritatingly, the prose is awful, really just awful. Adverbs are awesome, but I don't need them for something that is obvious, dammit. Typing DO NOT DISOBEY ME in caps and bold makes me believe Zeus is angry, you don't have to follow it with, 'Zeus bellowed angrily'. Seriously, it is like a high school paper. Every event is reiterated and things pointed out earlier are reiterated again, as if I couldn't just look it up if I forgot something.

This is a jumbled mess of showboating and condescension (or at least underestimation) of the audience and I can no more tolerate it from an author I thought I liked than by one I know I do not.

Wie bei allen Büchern von Dan Simmons, die ich bisher gelesen habe, bin ich auch von diesem Begeistert.

Ilium ist eine brilliante Verschmelzung von Zukunft und Vergangenheit, mit Göttern, Menschen, Aliens und intelligente, fühlende Maschinen, sowie Monstern und einigen Dingen von denen man auch nach dem Buch nicht genau weis was sie sind. Die Geschichte die Simmons um den historischen trojanischen Krieg aufbaut ist von Anfang bis Ende spannend und weckt ein grosses Verlangen nach der Fortsetzung, welche ich glücklicherweise schon zur hand habe und gleich zu lesen beginnen werde. Wie schon bei Simmons' Hyperion-Gesängen, sind auch hier die verschiedenen Spezies und ihre Welten wundervoll beschrieben und die Charaktere der einzelnen Figuren regen zum mitfiebern an, auch wenn man (oder zumindest ich) einiger der Hauptfiguren ab und an gerne Ohrfeigen möchte, wenn sie sich wiedermal (nach meinen Massstäben) allzu dumm aufführen. ;)

Ein kleiner Minuspunkt, der jedoch nicht zum Abzug eines Sterns gereicht hat, ist, dass Simmons sehr lange braucht um einige wichtige Dinge zu erklären, was bei mir zu einiger Verwirrung führte, die sich erst auf den letzten zweihundert Seiten auflöste.

Eine zwingende Leseempfehlung meinerseits an alle Sience-Fiction Fans! Und lest bei der gelegenheit auch gleich die Hyperion-Gesänge und am besten auch alle anderen Bücher von Simmons!! ;)

tHands down the best scifi that I’ve read in the last ten years. This was the first time that I’d read Dan Simmons and I was floored by the depth of his characters, the complexity of his plot, and the intricate and fascinating world(s) he created. I personally liked the feeling over never really knowing more than any of the characters. I enjoyed the mystery of being on level with the characters, unsure of what would come next. Nothing about this is a light read. The book treats you like an adult, and you’re going to have to work for it. You’ll never guess what comes next.

I’m also ecstatic to see a return of “monsters.” I’ve been so sick of reading about the cliché evil human, terrible bad person, delighting in torture, etc that all modern authors seem to use as the arch villain. Yes, we get it, people have a huge capacity for doing evil. I watch the news nightly and I already know that. To see a return of Cetebos, Voynix, and other creepy-crawlies was exciting and refreshing.

tRobots, monsters, Greek gods, humans fighting for survival, Gaia Hypothesis, dinosaurs. This book has it all, and it has it all well. Its takes a true master to weave this sort of story together. You will not be disappointed by Simmons.

I was absolutely floored by this book. It is simply genius. It got my blood pumping, my mouth watered, I was stressed and in love with the characters.

In spite of the violent content, I really like Dan Simmons' Hyperion and its sequel.

This book looked like it had potential. For reasons unknown, the Greek gods are kicking it on Mars and the Trojan War is being fought with a lot of their participation.

Now the book starts throwing in all sorts of sci-fi wonders...nice, but not enough to save this.

First- it's far too detailed and has too many repeated references to the Iliad. Second, some seriously unbelievable things happen several times. And third, it's crippled by too much witholding of revelations. You could feel the author doing this over and over.

Proof positive for this is that, after seven hundred and twenty-five pages of reading, you are just now STARTING a major conflict and many things are as yet unexplained and unresolved. The sequel takes you there, if you have the staying power.

I made it through the first one, but even though I bought the second one inexpensively at the same time as I got the first, I won't be reading it.

Винаги съм харесвал книги които показват каква и къде би могла да бъде човешката раса в далечното бъдеще и тук както и в "Хиперион" , Симънс намесва божественото с човешкото .
Определено ми хареса и ще чета "Олимп" с голям интерес

Simmons, titulado en Inglés y profesor tb de Literatura y Redacción antes de dedicarse a tiempo completo a escribir.
Cito esto porque por ahí me falla esta obra.

Idea de la novela: mezclar la guerra de Troya & dioses griegos cuántico-nano-tecnológicos & robots con partes biológicas diseminados por el sistema solar & una civilización post-apocalíptica lúdico-lotófaga en la Tierra & algo más que no os digo. Y, claro, hacer que eso confluya o se relacione de alguna forma.
Muy, muy, muy, muy buena.

Pero, ¡ay!, el señor Simmons le da a “eruditadas” sobre cientos de nombre de aqueos (griegos) y troyanos, “eruditadas” sobre Shakespeare y Proust, pinitos de poesía y hasta idas de olla con discursos surrealistas de un tal Calibán. Vamos, que idea muy buena pero desarrollo a ratos que te hace desenganchar y desear que las páginas pasen rápido. Y la creación de personajes tampoco es el gran fuerte de Simmons, cuesta verlos.

He dudado mucho entre las tres y las cuatro estrellas. Por idea, cinco. Pero si un libro me cuesta tanto leerlo, no puede pasar de las tres…y en eso se va a quedar. Y además habría que continuar obligatoriamente con la segunda parte, Olympo. Sí, decidido, se queda en tres

Parts of it felt artificial, like Simmons was tired of getting ignored at parties when he talked about Shakespeare and Proust and decided to put it in a book. Also suffers from comparison to Lord of Light. But the concept carries it and I'll read the sequel.

This was a fun read! Combine the Greeks and Trojans in the Iliad, aliens, space travel, dinosaurs, war, and AI then you've got Ilium! This was such a new and great twist to the story we all know and love!

n  "Death, when it comes, comes fast on the plains of Ilium."n

4.9

Cīņa pret dieviem nekad nav bijis pateicīgs pasākums un autors to labi atspoguļo. Jauks stāsts par mūsu civilizācijas tālo nākotni, par pasauli kuri daļa cilvēku ir kā Velsa Eloji, kas gaida savu piekto divdesmitu beidzamies, lai tiktu uzņemti pie dieviem. Un tad ir daļa, kuri tā aizspēlējušies dievus, ka īsti vairs neatminas, kas viņi paši ir. Un protams maroveki, kas ar ir cilvēku radīti, bet kuriem acīmredzot piemīt vairāk saprāta nekā abiem iepriekšminētajiem kopā. Jauka Iliādas interpretācija.

Wow. This book was amazing. I never thought I'd say that reading a science fiction book would inspire me to read Shakespeare and Proust and brush up on my Greek mythology and reread some Homer. But for all the references that I understood, I felt like there were many more that went completely over my head. The level of detail in this book and how everything fits together is astounding. If it weren't so long, I might have turned around and started again at the beginning to catch some of the details I missed on the first go 'round. I don't think anything I could write would do it justice.

At first, sure, it was a little overwhelming going back and forth between the three, seemingly completely unrelated points of view. And the morovecs were especially confusing -- I didn't understand what they were for quite some time, they were kind of boring initially. But I had faith that it would all be explained and would be important to the story, and of course I was right. I found the world that Simmons built to be fascinating - the idea of the five twenties and the firmary and the modified humans who had apps built into the palm of their hand but had no idea about their history or the hows and whys of any of it, the morovecs out in space trying to police the "idiot savants" who were ruining the universe with their wormholes and quantum transportation, bringing back the Scholics and the motivation behind it ... how much did Zeus really know and what was he trying to prevent? So much going on here.

I of course went and immediately added the sequel to my TBR but I'm horribly disappointed because everything I've read says that it pretty much sucks in comparison (or maybe even without the comparison) and I'm going to be even more disappointed when I actually read it. Which I will, because I want to know more about the post-humans and why/how they accomplished what they have on Mars, and the history of the morovecs and how they ended up on their own out there, and what happens to the humans now they they have received enlightenment.

Четиринайсет години след най-популярното си произведение „Хиперион“ Дан Симънс представя на зажаднялата публика своя нов роман „Илион“, в който залага на познатата формула: паралелни и привидно несвързани сюжетни линии плюс загадки. Този път те са комбинирани с литературни анализи for Dummies, и подсладени с описания на жени, за които авторът ни съобщава, че били секси.

Да кажа няколко думи за сюжета, преди да дръпна дявола за опашката и да изразя негативното си отношение към книгата.

Първата и най-често цитираната сюжетна линия е симънсовата версия на „Илиадата“. В нея схоластикът Хокънбери проследява обсадата на Троя. Още...