Olympos

Excellent, But Sometimes Overwhelming

Would you consider the audio edition of Olympos to be better than the print version?

The narrator was excellent. His characterizations kept everything understandable, and in a book with this many characters and story lines that is not a simple feat.

What other book might you compare Olympos to and why?

The last 3 books of the Hyperion Series. I am a huge fan of Simmons but his books are different from other contemporary Sci Fi and challenging in their own regard. His grasp of literature and history is impressive, and his inter textual, nuanced storytelling combines literature, history, science and pop culture in a way that makes the complexity of the underlying narrative pale in comparison. His books give you a reason to do research on Proust, Shakespeare and ancient history, just so you can keep up with the story. I cannot think of another author who works this territory and does so in a impressive manner. I enjoyed the Hyperion Series and this series is just as entertaining and challenging. This is not a light read, but if you want to invest the time and energy the payoff is substantial.

Which scene was your favorite?

The ending scenes of the book brought everything together, something I did not think would be possible mid-way through the series. There are many, many things going on but everything is resolved in a way that is logical and satisfying.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No way, this is a huge book. If you are a Dan Simmons fan you realize early on that this is a big time investment but you commit to get lost in his world, and to enjoy things while you are there.

Any additional comments?

Good production. The narrator was great. I hope Simmons returns to these types of stories, his current approach are more horror and contemporary novels. His Sci Fi imagination is not only impressive but needed in the genre. Great stuff.

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Classic Simmons

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This book is classic Simmons, he likes to take the classics, turn them inside out and spin them, dice them, cook them and serve them with gravy and potatoes . If you don't mind Homer spinning in his grave, you will like this book.

Any additional comments?

I like Dan Simmons as an author, he keeps turning out great stories time after time. I've read several bad reviews of this book, don't understand why. It could be me. For what it's worth, I liked it, great story, another winner.

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Second volume is good but not quite as great

This sequel to Ilium follows a pattern I've noticed with Dan Simmons, now that I've read his entire Hyperion Cantos - his first books in a series are really, really good, while the follow-ups are still good, but seem to lose a bit of the brilliance of the original and wind up going in strange places.

Olympos, the second book of this fat duology, continues the saga of a classics professor from 21st century Earth resurrected 3000 years later to witness a recreation of the Trojan War on a terraformed Mars. Although it's not really accurate to call this Hockenberry's saga; he is just the unifying character flitting between the subplots and separate groups of characters, but being a middle-aged temporally displaced academic with a few technological artifacts and his modest wits, he's hardly as epic a figure as vainglorious, undefeatable Achilles, tricky, crafty Odysseus, beautiful and scheming Helen, or the entire Greek pantheon, the two "gods" who created the gods, and the ever-escalating series of gods above them that these various figures meet in what turns out to be a multipart, often disconnected quest not only to unravel the mystery of this futuristic Trojan War, but save the world.

Hockenberry is the only first-person narrator, and he remains a rather milquetoast protagonist, though it's hardly his fault that he got yanked from a Midwestern university 3000 years into the future where suddenly the gods themselves want him dead.

The more interesting chapters are those describing the continuing adventures of the Greek and Trojan heroes, now that recreated plot of the Iliad has gone completely off the rails and Achilles and Hector have teamed up to go to war with the gods. The gods are really masters of magic-like nanotechnology, though their true nature and where they came from is finally revealed in this book. As Olympos opens, the sentient robots from the moons of Jupiter who'd come to investigate a big mess of quantum shenanigans taking place in the inner systems, where Mars was thought to be uninhabited and humans on Earth thought to be long extinct, are helping defend Troy from siege by the gods. Meanwhile, the remaining humans on Earth, whose miraculous ancient technology has fallen, forcing an Eloi-like civilization to learn how to actually survive the hard way, even as long-dormant mechanical beings have awoken and begun seeking to exterminate them, are also forced to contend with Caliban, the cannibalistic genetically engineered monstrosity who was one of the chief villains in the previous volume.

There are a lot of characters and subplots here, and Simmons as usual loads this science-fantasy space opera with references from Proust, Homer, Shakespeare, Blake, and numerous others. He layers subplot over subplot, multiple layers of villainous schemes, each villain being the pawn of a greater one, and then starts shoving all sorts of reality-bending weirdness into the story, involving actual divine beings, quantum reality, the last remnants of an apocalyptic war, all still while having Shakespearean and Homeric figures running around doing battle.

Simmons definitely captures the barbaric nobility of the Greeks (and sheer orneriness of the Greek gods). And while at times I really had no idea where the story was going, it was never boring. In the end, I think it got a bit bloated and meandering and it seemed that Simmons was willing to throw any weird idea that came to him into the mix, which is why this was a huge doorstopper of a novel following a previous huge doorstopper of a novel.

An epic SF saga, which I recommend, but in my opinion slightly inferior to the first book.

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Excellent story. Long complex and intelligent!

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Between classical poets and heroes, futuristic technology and god like beings shaped time itself. What a great concept.

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A truly mind boggling enjoyable listen!

Would you listen to Olympos again? Why?

I have listened to it twice already and will again...the interweaving of historical fiction with scifi is just so tasty to have only one helping...

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Disappointment after Ilium ;(

After listening to the excellent book of Ilium, my expectation were high for this sequel. Perhaps too high. The book drags on into meaningless detail. One wonders if an editor was too scared to tell the author what to cut out from the book. It also falters from a lack of a clear distict voice which was the main character in Ilium. Instead, it goes into multiple third-person perspectives to the point at which one starts to not care where the overall stroy is going. The only redeeming part of the book was the area that dealt with the Trojans, the Greeks, Achilles, Zeus, etc. The rest I could have fast forwarded through and not been any wiser as far as plot development.
I recommended the first book: Ilium. I'd recommend stopping there.

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Everything but the kitchen sink

Would you try another book from Dan Simmons and/or Kevin Pariseau?

It'll be a long time before I'm ready for another Dan Simmons novel. And a long, long time before I'll listen to a Kevin Pariseau performance of a work of fiction.

Would you recommend Olympos to your friends? Why or why not?

Would not recommend. The book lacks focus, and is not a good example of Mr. Simmons' better writing.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Mr. Pariseau's inflections in dialogue were atrocious - I often wondered if he even read the descriptions of the way things were said. There was no nuance in his delivery - whispers, speculation, regrets, all were delivered in the same monotone. Except for once character . . .

I almost could not continue once the character of Moira appeared. She's a (SPOILER ALERT) young woman, but he makes her sound like my 85 year-old great aunt. A terrible, terrible misread of the character that threw me out of the story everytime he voiced a line.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Mild curiosity, the further I got into it. The story went everywhere (almost literally), without managing to imbue the characters with much that made me care what happened to them. But I was curious to see what else Mr. Simmons would cram into the book, and to see how - if - he pulled it all together.

Any additional comments?

This book contained some of the most cringe-inducing descriptions of sexual arousal and intercourse I've ever seen in a work of fiction (fortunately, there weren't many, but they were memorable for their awfulness). Mr. Pariseau's delivery of the scenes only made them worse - turgid prose delivered in a stentorian monotone is a combination to be avoided at all costs.

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ancient Greece meets far future hard scifi

a wonderful series combining the violence and excitement of ancient Greece and the imaginative far future of a world Beyond most people's capabilities and Imagination

Great concept... poorly executed

The concept was great... some technologically created gods of Olympus, the Trojan war and an alien presence. But neither the writing nor the story lived up to the promise of the concept. I wanted to love this book, it sounded amazing. Unfortunately not only didn't I love it, I had a hard time finishing it. There are too many plot holes and unexplained events for me to be swept up by the story. Too bad, this could have been as great as "The Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny.

time to read Homer

After reading the Hyperion series I found myself interested in John Keats poetry. Now I guess it's time to read Homer's Iliad. Great