"Ilium" by Dan Simmons

I have to honestly admit that my main motivation for reading Ilium was the fact that I enjoyed immensely his 5-part story of Hyperion and Endymion.  Being familiar with the Ancient Greek legends on the matter (but not with the poems by Keats), I found the previous works just the right amount literary-resurectionism and the right amount of science, fiction and interesting characters.  I am sorry to say Ilium is not at the same level of craft, although still a good book in it's own merit (hey it won the Locus award!).

Ilium seems to borrow it's main storyline from Homer's "The Illiad" about the besieged city of Troy (or Ilium, or Pergamon, or many other names), starting near the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th (and final) year of the Trojan War.  All the Achayan/Argive/"Greek" heroes from the Iliad are there, and all their father's names, their shields and armor and oiled, muscled bodies, etc. etc.  The 'main' protagonist of the book,  Thomas Hockenberry, is a resurected 20/21 century PhD on the Iliad, and the 'new' Olympic gods use him and other "scholics" (maybe from "scholis" - a comentary on the edge of a book) are obesrving the Trojan War and reporting to the gods, who themselves do not know the outcome (except Zeus). 

Another line of narration (out of 3 here, considerably less than the near-dozen in Hyperion), is about two "Morovecs" - basically organic-metal cyborgs who are created by 21st century human to explore the dangerous outer Solar System (mostly Jupiter and Saturn moons) and are give self-consciousness and the ability to self-evolve.  Mahnmuth from Europa and Orfu of Io are two very different, but also quite similar cyborgs (why "Morovecs" Dan? Do we need more confusing terms when 'cyborg' pretty much covers everything?  I respect Dr. Hans Morovec too, but please lighter on the new terminology). 

The third line of narration has to do with some of the last remaining 'humans' on earth, after the post-humans have left it as something overgrown, just like they did with their own bodies.  Daemon and Harmon and Ada and the rest of the menagerie (Odysseus!) are finding the ugly truth about their overindulgent civilization, or lack thereof.  Here is where Simmons borrows from both Wells' "Time Machine" and Nabokov's "Ada, or Ardor" although the borrowing is only on the surface, not going into the deep symbology of the previous two works, especially Nabokov's.   Later in the book, and especially in the sequel "Olympos" - pretty much the entire cast and geography from Shakespeare's "The Tempest" will be re-worked in Sci-Fi.

I am not sure the literary-sci-fi works for me in Ilium/Olympos.  It definitely worked in Hyperion, both Chaucer and Keats, but here it feels forced and somewhat fake.  Rendering Setebus and Caliban as the main bad guys also feels forced, especially if you know The Tempest.  It is enough that I need to remember all the hundreds (thousands?) of names from the Iliad, and who killed/raped/maimed whom and in what order - mixing all the other books in just makes a big mess. 

And the technology.  Oh, the technology in Sci-Fi.  The bane of all non-engineers writers (Simmons was an English instructor).  While in Hyperion the technology seems very fleshed-out and fitting (even the backward traveling Time Tombs and the cruciform), here it seems amateurish and fake.  The 'fax' nodes are just rehashing of the gates from Hyperion.  The 'sauni' flying machine is pretty ridiculous.   The 'voynix' and the related Voynich manuscript could use waaaay more development, and no, leaving it 'unsaid' does not add to the mystery (especially for the ones who are very familiar with the Voynich manuscript, it just doesn't fly).  The orbital rings could use way more background, and so could the 'firmary' technology, healing tanks, blue/green worms, the "healer of the gods", the Rock-vecs/Morovecs culture, motivation, psychology (why?).  Even the BS about Quantum Teleportation, Brane Holes, 'parallel' universes and the very concept that consciousness is just a material phenomenon arising from complexity (nope) - are all just amateurishly thrown together.

And don't start me on the length of these two books (700+ and 900+ pages)!  They could have been half their current lengths and just as effective (or more).  Still, an enjoyable summer/commute read.  I wish there was more Proust in the book, but you can see that Simmons is an expert on Keats, and to some extent on Shakespeare, but the rest of his knowledge of authors is at the level of university literature courses, not decades-long independent study.