From the towering heights of Olympos Mons on Mars, the mighty Zeus and his immortal family of gods, goddesses, and demigods look down upon a momentous battle, observing--and often influencing--the legendary exploits of Paris, Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, and the clashing armies of Greece and Troy. Thomas Hockenberry, former 21st-century professor and Iliad scholar, watches as well. It is Hockenberry's duty to observe and report on the Trojan War's progress to the so-called deities who saw fit to return him from the dead. ...
Read More
From the towering heights of Olympos Mons on Mars, the mighty Zeus and his immortal family of gods, goddesses, and demigods look down upon a momentous battle, observing--and often influencing--the legendary exploits of Paris, Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, and the clashing armies of Greece and Troy. Thomas Hockenberry, former 21st-century professor and Iliad scholar, watches as well. It is Hockenberry's duty to observe and report on the Trojan War's progress to the so-called deities who saw fit to return him from the dead. But the muse he serves has a new assignment for the wary scholic, one dictated by Aphrodite herself. With the help of 40th-century technology, Hockenberry is to infiltrate Olympos, spy on its divine inhabitants...and ultimately destroy Aphrodite's sister and rival, the goddess Pallas Athena. On an Earth profoundly changed since the departure of the Post-Humans centuries earlier, the great events on the bloody plains of Ilium serve as mere entertainment. Its scenes of unrivaled heroics and unequaled carnage add excitement to human lives devoid of courage, strife, labor, and purpose. But this eloi-like existence is not enough for Harman, a man in the last year of his last 20. That rarest of post-postmodern men--an "adventurer"--he intends to explore far beyond the boundaries of his world before his allotted time expires, in search of a lost past, a devastating truth, and an escape from his own inevitable "final fax." Meanwhile, from the radiation-swept reaches of Jovian space, four sentient machines race to investigate--and, perhaps, terminate--the potentially catastrophic emissions of unexplained quantum-flux emanating from a mountaintop miles above the terraformed surface of Mars.
Read Less
This is possibly the first science fiction book I've come across that rewards its readers for being ridiculously well-read. Allusions to Proust, Shakespeare's sonnets, "The Iliad", "The Time Machine," "The Tempest," "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," and Judeo-Christian mythology are all woven into the tapestry of this novel. There are probably many more that I simply did not catch. "Ilium" is intelligent, earnest, and funny, leading the reader on a deliriously intricate ride between far-flung plots which seem impossible to fit into one single novel. However, Simmons managed this feat with ease. As the plot kept getting weirder, the author increasingly imbued the characters with more humanity and empathy, so that I truly cared about their fates through the climax of the story. Even better, the development of the characters occurred naturally and believably because of the events of the plot, not out of convenience or necessity as a plot device. Simmons ably made it a joy for the reader to try and put all the pieces together. Overall, the effect was like mashing up a traditional science fiction novel with a sudoku puzzle. It was a great ride, but it was also an active read. Be ready to have the sequel standing by on your shelf, however, because he definitely leaves the reader hanging at the end of the book. I've never enjoyed being so in the dark.
