3.3 overall - Dan Simmons is an outstanding writer. I have only read two of his novels thus far, yet I am confident in making that assertion. His talent for communicating the complex details of his stories is truly remarkable.

In The Hollow Man, however, that very ability somewhat detracts from the overall enjoyment of the book.

The concepts introduced throughout the plot are extremely fascinating and captivating; telepathy and shared telepathy, alternate branches of reality, the consequences of death, how death can be influenced, and many more. It's truly mind-boggling stuff. Much of it works well, but Simmons is overly preoccupied with explicating the "why" of all these things. Page after page is dedicated to mathematical explanations, countless theorems, and the names of both famous and obscure mathematicians and physicists. At times, it's truly excessive and impossible to keep track of everything. But, hey, you might pick up some knowledge along the way.

All in all, the essence of the story is still very well executed. The excessive jargon can be intimidating, but it's not entirely incomprehensible. The central love story shines through, making this a book that's worth persevering with until the end.

I found this to be a truly engaging book to peruse. However, upon its completion, it left me with a profound sense of "What? Wait a minute...".

Thematically, it bears a resemblance to King's The Dead Zone. Nevertheless, it incorporates a substantial amount of speculation regarding quantum mechanics and mathematics. These elements, unfortunately, seem to clash rather harshly with the intense love story and the overwhelming hopelessness of loss that permeate the narrative.

Additionally, there is the entire aspect of criminal philosophy. More so than in any of his other works, I have observed that the majority of those providing reviews either have a strong affinity for this book or utterly detest it. I had an enjoyable experience reading it once, but I highly doubt that I will return to it for a second time.

I really liked this book. It is the first one I have read by this author and it definitely didn't go unnoticed by me.

The story and the setting are excellent. I really liked the main character and the ending it had at the end. Only on some occasions I didn't feel comfortable with the mathematical references and concepts that were applied. They were not impossible to understand but they were a bit heavy for the reading.

It is a short book that can be read quite quickly. It contains a somewhat melancholy story when you manage to put yourself in the shoes of the character. A book that you won't forget so easily.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story with a unique setting and an interesting main character. Even though the mathematical references might be a bit of a challenge for some readers, they don't detract from the overall quality of the book.

I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

What can I say?

I literally devoured this book in four days. It is truly a keeper for me. I will surely reread it someday.

Dan Simmons is really good at taking true science and transforming it into a beautiful story filled with numerous emotions. You will encounter love, horror (some pages are just extremely difficult to read, I swear!), passion beyond imagination, and despair.

This book really needs to be more widely known among other readers and Dan Simmons fans like me! It's a hidden gem that deserves more recognition. The way Simmons weaves together the scientific elements with the emotional narrative is truly masterful. It keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish, and you can't help but be drawn into the world he has created.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story that combines science, emotion, and a touch of the supernatural. You won't be disappointed!

This work is somewhat of an outlier within Simmons' body of work, at least as far as what I have read. It is the first book that truly places a relationship at the forefront, with an interesting SF twist of mindtouch or telepathy.

Just like in "Children of the Night", Simmons delves a little too deeply into the jargon of his 'holographic wavefront' theory. By the latter part of the book, it sometimes gives the impression that he is simply flaunting the complex research he has conducted. However, he is aiming for something greater here. I'm just not entirely convinced that he achieves it.

CW: I believe that his repeated use of the word "retarded" was inappropriate even back in 1993. It really undermines the humanity of a character that he is attempting to make us pity rather than empathize with. This usage detracts from the overall impact and believability of the story.

Perhaps if he had chosen more sensitive and appropriate language, the character's plight could have been more effectively portrayed and the reader's connection to the story could have been stronger.

I started it at the beginning of the year and so far I have finished it more out of pride in not leaving it unfinished than out of the pleasure of continuing to read it.

It's quite a pity for me because I had high expectations based on the concept that seemed very attractive to me in the synopsis due to how little it has been explored in science fiction. However, it ended up being soporific for me due to the way it was carried out in this book.

Definitely, it wasn't for me.

I had thought that this story would offer something new and exciting in the realm of science fiction. But as I delved deeper into the book, I found myself losing interest. The pacing was slow, and the plot didn't develop in a way that kept me engaged.

Perhaps if the author had approached the subject matter differently or had added more elements of excitement and mystery, I might have had a different opinion. But as it stands, this book just didn't click with me.

Nevertheless, I'm glad that I gave it a try, as it's always interesting to explore different works within a genre. Maybe someone else will find this book to be a captivating and thought-provoking read. But for me, it was a bit of a disappointment.

I’m severely confused.

I received this book as a gift last year and it has remained untouched until now. I didn't have much knowledge about Dan Simmons, and I've always been a bit hesitant to explore new authors in genres that I don't frequently read. However, when I finally made the decision to take it off my shelf and give it a try, I wasn't even certain if I would be able to finish the book.

Well, I did finish it. Just now. I have read every single page of it. And I don't regret it. I'm just left feeling confused.

The story is... something. That's the main reason why I only gave this book 3 stars. It was interesting, that's for sure, but did it make sense? Not really.

Simmons's writing is truly amazing. Kudos to him for that. Maybe that's why I couldn't put the book down. He's really great, and if I'm in the mood, I might look into some of his other works.

Overall, The Hollow Man is not a bad book. It's just a bit weird.

This one's a real mixed bag. It's kind of a unique amalgam of SF, horror, and thriller elements.

Jeremy Bremen is a telepath, and he's married to another telepath. She's the only other confirmed telepath in the book. However, there's also a psychotic mass murderer with a ferocious mind-shield and an apparent psychic ability. We can only infer this, though. There's also a deaf, blind, and "retarded" child. I know, it's a bit of a cliche. But this child has an even more ferocious mind-shield and an evident ability to create realities within his head because he's been cut off from external stimuli.

The book has a lot of plausible-sounding mathematical hand-waving to rationalize telepathy. It also has an interesting take on particle-wave theory and the role of the observer in creating reality. There are some really exciting set-pieces too. For example, our hero's encounter with the psychopath, which includes a climactic battle in a meat locker filled with both bovine and human carcasses. And the psychopath sports a razor-sharp dental insert for chomping on her targets.

Despite the book's evident interest in patterns, math, and probability, there are a few too many coincidences. These are perhaps intended to justify Bremen's improbable sequence of experiences. There are also bits that seem to meander, like Bremen's attack on a pedophile. The book also has evident literary pretensions, as signaled by its title. But in my opinion, it doesn't quite succeed in realizing them. I did enjoy it, but for me, it didn't quite gel into a coherent whole.

A rather boring, totally unremarkable book.

At the outset, there is an interesting premise that unfortunately fades away after just the first twenty pages. You quickly realize that the author shows no concern for delving deeper into it.

The initial conceit, presented right on the first page or two of the novel, is that the main character is a telepath. He shares an extremely strong and unique telepathic connection with his wife, who is the only author telepath the characters have ever come across. Sadly, she is sick and passes away within the first few pages of the novel. At first, it seems as if the novel will explore the fascinating question of whether the main character can continue to hear her thoughts. However, by page 20, it becomes abundantly clear that the author has no intention of going down that path.

Most of the book strays so far from the initial, captivating premise that, in fact, the character's telepathy hardly holds any significance at all. It is used so sparingly that it barely functions as a plot device, except perhaps at a few crucial moments. But it never manages to pique the reader's interest. It's so dreadfully boring and such a tiresome slog that I had great difficulty remembering that the author had begun with an interesting idea in the first place! The story seems almost uninterested in the main character's telepathy.

The questions regarding the afterlife do surface perhaps only 300+ pages into the book, but by that point, the damage has already been done. The book is far too much of a chore to get through. And if someone had told me how boring it was going to be after initially presenting such a compelling main idea, I simply wouldn't have believed them.

I am a huge Dan Simmons fan, but there is simply not much to love here, despite the fact that there is an overabundance of content to begin with.

Je ne m’étendrai pas sur l’absurdité du titre qui ne veut rien dire (décision arbitraire de l’éditeur et non de la traductrice d’après ce que j’ai compris). It seems that the title was chosen without much thought, perhaps just to catch the reader's attention. This is not the first time nor will it be the last that such titles are used.

Bref, nous voilà avec un roman d’une grande originalité, qui n’a d’égal que la profondeur du propos. The story poses many fascinating questions about the nature of consciousness, spirit, and soul. Can we see them, give them a form? Do they survive after death?

Autant de questions fascinantes que l’auteur pose. Tellement fascinantes et profondes que ce dernier nous perd un peu avec de nombreux passages un peu ardus à suivre pour la non-scientifique je suis. The author presents these questions in a way that is both engaging and challenging. However, some of the scientific concepts and theories can be a bit difficult to understand for those without a scientific background.

Jeremy Bremen se retrouve non pas seul, mais sans sa femme, son alter ego télépathe, avec laquelle il pouvait se prémunir contre la neuro-rumeur du monde. His adventures are completely rocambolesques, for ne pas dire invraisemblables. The story follows Jeremy Bremen as he embarks on a long journey across the country, dealing with the loss of his wife and the invasion of his mind by the neuro-rumor. His experiences are both thrilling and unbelievable.

Durant la lecture j’ai trouvé ce personnage bizarrement assez absent, peu concerné par ses mésaventures, en retrait de sa propre histoire, et cet aspect trouve tout son sens à la fin du livre. The character of Jeremy Bremen is initially presented as somewhat distant and unemotional. However, as the story progresses, we begin to understand his motivations and the reasons behind his actions.

Un roman étonnant, qui peut déstabiliser le lecteur de prime abord mais qui se révèle une belle aventure métaphysique. Overall, this is an amazing novel that challenges the reader's perception of reality and the nature of the human mind. It is a must-read for fans of science fiction and metaphysics.

2.0 Stars
This is probably the worst Dan Simmons book I've ever read.

At its core, this story seems to be confused about what it wants to be. It vacillates between being horror, hard science fiction, and a romance. It's all over the place, lacking a clear sense of purpose or structure.

Nowhere is this more evident than in an early scene where the telepathic main character dresses up as Goofy at Disney World to evade some mafioso who have kidnapped him during a vacation retreat in Florida after the recent death of his wife. But then he stops to entertain a group of Make-a-wish kids on their trip to the park. This is just as bizarre in context as it sounds out of context.

It really feels like Simmons had a good idea for a solid novella that was stretched too thin. The original idea gets completely muddled by all the nonsense side plots and half-realized ideas.

I would only recommend this book if you're a huge Dan Simmons fan who feels compelled to read everything he's written. Otherwise, it's best to stay far away.

Dan Simmons is among the three most talented storytellers of our time. Each of his novels is a story that stirs the heart, rearranges the aorta, and causes mental stupor.

When I read "Hyperion", I told myself that this is Simmons' magnum opus, and I almost regretted starting my acquaintance with this long-neglected writer right here. "Hyperion" is a perfect psychological science fiction, brutally intruding into the taboos of theology and elsewhere - a book in which Simmons shows how classic constructors, themes, and literary influences are combined only to be blown up by his damned (super-)intelligent, (super-)understanding, and (super-)sensitive heroes.

The fragile, unattainable balance between the soul and consciousness is a vivid pursuit in Simmons' texts. An elusive theme that the author virtuously always manages to enclose between the pages of (apparently) such differently genre-oriented works. Also elusive is the literary gift that the American writer possesses. Years after "Hyperion", I read "The Terror" and was convinced that some creators do not need the framework of their magnum opuses. Some creators create parallel universes with the ease with which a regular high school student gets an erection at the sight of an attractive teacher of literature.

"The Terror" is a perfect adventure novel with metastases in the topoi of Simmons' characteristic deep insights. Disguised as a travelogue about shipwrecked people on their way to unexplored sea routes at the end of the world, "The Terror" is no less a provocation for the unreality of human desires, for the shifting sands in which we inevitably get stuck, for that precious thing that we are willing to exchange for the last sip of given air. Brutally depressive, nihilistic, and debunking myths from the dawn of days, in its faintly beating heart, "The Terror" pulsates with a penetrating love for man in a desperate, but thoughtful, attempt to overcome the voices in our heads and try to hear the song from beyond.

And just when I thought there was nothing more to surprise me, Simmons confiscates two nights, erodes my views on literature and life that have been built over the years, and gives me the impression from the beginning of "Carrion Comfort". An apocryphal Bulgarian-language edition by "Galaxy" in the stormy, smooth years of the mid-to-late last decade of the past century, the book comes with the incredible translation of Yuri Luchev and today is very rarely found in the dusty boxes of antique dealers for a modest ten euros. But what are 20 leva for a priceless story without an analogue in contemporary literature, at least according to my humble opinion as a professional philologist. Wrapped in the hypnosis of the poems of T. S. Eliot and "The Inferno" of Dante, "Carrion Comfort" is the naked soul of Dan Simmons. Poetic in its uncompromising prose, smiling at the plot to a perfect whole, everything in this novel evokes empathy. Empathy that requires a complete deconstruction of the self. Empathy that commands the marginalization of the "I".

"Carrion Comfort" brings the reader to a pile of scattered atoms that Simmons, with a quick brushstroke, spreads on an epic canvas, depicting only intimacy. Deep intimacy. Taking over the suppressed ashes forgotten because there is no other way to self-knowledge.

What isn't here!

When I was very young, not yet going to school, my father bothered me with impossible riddles before going to sleep. One of them is the well-known limitation of the human mind to imagine the infinity of the ever-expanding Universe.

Obviously, in the case of Simmons, some children have more imagination than others. And they can describe their answer years later on paper.

Telling "Carrion Comfort" is like describing faith. If the other doesn't experience it, every word of yours sounds unworthy. And if you have believed together, you are free to exchange thoughts wordlessly. Just like the main heroes in the novel - Jeremy, the brilliant mathematician, and Gail, the researcher of the soul. Until death separates them. Terrible both because of its timeless approach and in contrast to the uninterested dawn, replacing night, replacing warmth, replacing morning, replacing fate, replacing voice, replacing pen, and again death is the beginning of the story, its cyclic culmination, not only forgetfulness.

Dead from the inside, Jeremy composes his descent among the yellowed pipes of the spiral of soul-destroying corrosion. Simmons is categorical. To know Heaven, you must plumb the bottom of the Ocean.

Smudged, unexpected, intelligent, mathematically precise, but fast-artistic, provocative, melancholy, and optimistic, the book is a hopeless handkerchief for those in love with literature, the blindly sighted, the suffering, the believers, the lovers, for you.

Somehow logically, between the pages, even the saw-toothed teeth of the god-ravaging Shrike - the creature-ruler of Terror, Pain, and Death, comparable in its literary weight and emotional-semantic load only to Lovecraft's Cthulhu, peek through. An innocent easter-egg, enclosing the themes, impressions, and beliefs of Simmons.

Somehow logically, "Carrion Comfort" is ranked among the most exquisite creations of literature in general, transcending its own boundaries until it touches the edge of the gaze into the seemingly abstract picture of the unknown that is still seeking your manifestation on the canvas.

Particles or waves...