“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

Olympos by Dan Simmons
EOS (2006)
891 pages

Here’s what I think: if I had viewed Ilium and Olympos as one very freakin’ long novel, it probably would’ve been better for me. I would have considered the later chapters mediocre but necessary to the story and found the whole thing readable. When I consider Olympos as a different book, I keep comparing it against Ilium and it just falls short.

What happens here is basically the last battle begins. Any summary more detailed than this will make no sense whatsoever since Olympos builds heavily on Ilium and I don’t believe it’s possible to read Olympos without reading Ilium. Which makes me wonder if Simmons actually believes this is possible, because for some absurd reason, there are recaps of what happened in the previous book in the earlier chapters of Olympos. Uh. Possibly the gap between publishing the two novels — I think it’s two years? — made someone think this was necessary, but I find it rather peculiar.

There were some narrative changes this time aroud. It’s still two separate stories this time around, about the moravecs and Hockenberry (and the Trojans and the Archaeans) on Mars, and the old-style humans on Earth. No more first person from this point, though I think I like Hockenberry’s narrative better when it was in the first person.

Other things, let’s see. The plot sort of spiralled away in Olympos. I found myself more confused as the story progressed. I suppose the whole thing’s point is to have the Iliad derail off its original course, but the more it went off-course, the more I wondered about the characters’ motivations. I still have no idea what it is Zeus wanted to accomplish, and the whole Archilles subplot left me scratching my head. And, uh, the other Odysseus. What was that all about?

Mahnmut and Orphu of Io are still my favourite characters. Their discussions about Shakespeare and Proust still go over my head.

This book was a rather bizarre experience, honestly. Coupled with Ilium the whole thing was entertaining, the whole idea clever, and the books made me curious about a lot of things, but at the same time Olympos left me going “huh?” way a little too many times. (Having sex with a woman to wake her up from suspended animation gets definite WTFs from me. What kind of fail-safe method to wake someone was that? Seriously. I mean, seriously.) I think Dan Simmons could have done better. Tied more loose ends at the end. Cut off some of the long-winded journeying going on.

Phew. I am glad I’m done with this. Now maybe I should add the Iliad to my reading list.

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