Illium
Dan Simmonds
Gollancz
Hardcover, 570 pages, R159.95
Reviewed by Ian Jamieson, 30 March 2004
As a true SF fan, Dan Simmons has been a favourite of mine for quite a few
years. He is able to mix fantasy and hard SF with an ease I find astounding
(read Carrion Comfort or
Hyperion to see what I mean).
Illium is a perfect example of this. He has mixed the Trojan War, Greek
Gods and all, with cyborgs (called moravecs in this book) and future humans
who cannot read or write and have no knowledge of the sciences.
Based on the Illiad, very loosely from what I remember, Simmons tells three
separate stories; the one told us by Mahnmut, a Shakespeare-loving
moravec, who together with three comrades, has been sent on a suicide mission
to investigate quantum shift activity on a terraformed Mars; the second is
told by Thomas Mockenberry, a long dead university professor resurrected as a
member of a team of observers who have to observe the daily war between
the Greeks and Trojans at the siege of Troy (Ilium) and report back to the
Gods; and the third is told by Daeman, a total party human, who ends up on a
dangerous quest with three others to find Savi, the wandering Jew (this on a
world with no religion) an "immortal" who may have some answers to
their very existence.
Each story is written separately and it takes a long time for them to start
coming together and for the reader to understand exactly where they are
heading. Each story builds slowly to its climax, and then there is a sudden
rush at the end and this is where I feel the book falls down. The ending is
very open, and there will be other books. Simmons has given us a book which is
exciting, extremely innovative, and above all entertaining. It should
be read over two or three days at most or the story becomes confusing.
Nevertheless - READ IT.
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