I used to love reading Dan Simmons’s novels. This collection may have a story of ETs who hire a group of actors to perform Hamlet or Lear for them because they think it’s the greatest experience in the universe.

Is it just me or has Dan Simmons become the grumpy old man yelling at “foreigners” or was he always like this? If he wanted to give a history lesson “Itbah al-Yahud” really should have been replaced with 2nd century Latin or a quote from the New Testament.

I'm a big fan of Dan Simmons' novels but the five short stories in this volume are utterly forgettable. Even worse are the pretentious introductions which mostly serve to let us know what a great life Dan Simmons leads. I got it from the library so at least I wasted only time and not money as well.

Sadly only a couple of stories were really interesting for me. I haven't read a Dan Simmons book in a really long time. I enjoyed 'Auf der Suche nach Kelly Dahl', 'Der neunte Av', especially due to its open end and the potential this story had for me (I really would love to read a full book, where the whole story is set up and brought to a further point) and 'Mit Kanakaredes auf dem K2'. The last story was the one I thought best compiled in its setting from the beginning to the end.
It is a good afternoon read (I actually finished the book in less than 24 hours).

Es incomprensible que no haya traducida una colección de relatos de Dan Simmons. No se ha prodigado en el terreno breve tanto como en el de la novela, donde ha sacrificado al "tocho" el centro de su magisterio. Pero incluso cuando escribe alejado de la excelencia de sus primeros relatos (Prayers to Broken Stones), logra piezas bien urdidas, capaces de sacar rédito a temas universales como el sentimiento de pérdida o la muerte. A los que en esta antología se une la búsqueda de sentido a esas aventuras más grandes que la vida que ponen en riesgo la propia existencia.

Es algo patente en "The Ninth of Av", donde la cercanía de un fin del mundo lleva a un personaje a indagar los últimos días de Scott y sus compañeros en la Antártida; o en "On K2 with Kanakaredes", centrada en un ascenso futuro al K2 junto a un alienígena con técnicas de alpinismo clásico; o en el tratamiento de guión para una película de encargo, "The End of Gravity", sobre el sentido de la carrera espacial y las personas que participan en ella. Pero también en "Orphans of the Helix", cómo una expedición hacia los confines de la galaxia lleva a la tripulación de una nave colonizadora a poner en riesgo su misión para ayudar a un grupo de humanos que encuentra en el camino. Independientemente de los peros que se puedan poner a estos relatos largos y novelas cortas, trabajan un cuerpo común sin repetirse ni explicitarlo a las bravas (salvo en el tratamiento de guión). También, alguno necesitaba de algo más de cocción para acentuar su sugerencia. O haberse mantenido a más distancia del universo original, como ocurre con "Orphans of the Helix" cuyo vínculo con la secuencia de Endymion supone una pequeña carga para su disfrute (cosa que no ocurre con "The Ninth of Av", un claro un precedente de Ilión)

No obstante, la narración que mejor funciona es la que, sin negarlos, menos vínculos mantiene con el resto: "Looking for Kelly Dahl". Además de una vuelta de tuerca a las emotivas historias de poderes mentales marca de la casa, gira sobre una idea que nos atormenta a muchos profesores: no percibir los problemas que ahogan a sus alumnos.

Mención especial merece el prólogo, en el que compara su escritura con un jardín zen, y los textos que acompañan a cada relato. Un evocador e ingenioso ejercicio de striptease creativo, entre la autojustificación y la reafirmación de las convicciones de las cuales emerge la obra de Simmons.

5 Short stories from the author of my favourite sci-fi Novel. S'alright but nothing amazing here.

I really liked The Terror, so when I saw this on the shelf I knew I had to give it a shot. It's a short story collection, so I expect some inconsistency going in.

Looking for Kelly Dahl was interesting to read as a teacher. It touched on this perpetual worry that you're failing somebody who needs you in a way I found really striking. It's my second favorite in this collection.

Orphans of the Helix was a lot. I probably would have liked it more if I knew the universe it's set in better.

The Ninth of Av wasn't my thing. It felt like the kind of concept fiction and established writer sends in to a magazine when they don't have much at stake anymore. The man wrote Hyperion. If he wants to follow some thread he finds interesting, we let him. If he does some odd world building exercise and wraps it around a reveal he gives away in the forward, that's fine.

On K2 with Kanakarades was my favorite in this collection. I'm a sucker for a 'get to know the alien' story, and this one is really cool. I also love the way Simmons writes cold inhospitable places. Man vs nature is a conflict he's very good at telling.

The End of Gravity was kind of boring to me. It's probably my least favorite. Not terrible, but a little too philosophical for how little actually happens.

Sure, these stories are well-crafted. However, Simmons appears far more interested in presenting an array of facts, and not in the connections among the facts. My impression can be summarized as "self-importance."

For as much as the first two books of the n  Hyperion Cantosn astounded me with their brilliance and passion, Worlds Enough & Time kind of didn't make an impression, and that in itself is pretty puzzling. I was really looking forward to reading this book, and from the first "tale of speculative fiction," there was an increasing sense of "meh" building. The stories weren't bad, and clearly, Dan Simmons knows how to write, but... well... meh.

Truly, I'm shocked that I didn't absolutely love this collection, because I fully expected to love it.

My advice: read it after you've read the Hyperion Cantos, i.e. the Endymion stories.

Good Lord!

Reading Dan's books tends to always leave one with something akin to a religious experience.

I don't know if it is the mastery of the craft. Or a deeper understanding of what makes humans, well ... humans.

Oh I wish Dan Simmons would write some more of the Hyperion and Endymion four book series. I was so struck by his imaginative and astounding creation, science and religion wrapped up in an exciting and chilling universe that hooked me completely. He is such a marvelous story teller. I found this book of short stories with a promise to revisit his ethos set not in the same time or worlds but far off in the future, connected to Hyperion by the thinnest of threads in the short story 'Orphans of the Helix' . I know that Dan Simmons has said that he doesn't want to revisit the stories so as not to 'dilute the vitality' of the epic and so though I was very keen to get my hands on this book, I didn't know what to expect. I need not have worried because although I haven't read the Hyperion quartet for many years I found myself transport back into that universe within the first page. Little snippets, words and phrases prompted long lost memories of those stories and I was gripped. Shame it was just a short story and one that could have benefited from a longer exploration as I felt the ending was some what rushed.

Of Dan Simmons other works that I have read more recently are Ilium and Olympus, another double book series that he revisits inthe short 'The Ninth of Av'. This I hadn't realised was in the collection and although for me Ilium wasn't as great as Hyperion, I was still able to marvel at his retelling of Greek mythology encompassed in a far flung future. This was a very nice addition to that story even if it didn't actually add much to it.

The other stories in this slim volume were okay but didn't rouse me enough to mention them individually and it was these that drag my review of the whole book down to 3 stars. If you though have read the Hyperion / Endymion series and want more 'Orphans...' will at least wet your appetite and if it leaves you wanting more, then like me perhaps you'll think about re-reading the originals.