Ilium

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau

Length: 29 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

©2003 Dan Simmons (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Achaeans and robots and post-humans, oh my

(3.5 stars) I think there was some Star Trek episode in which characters from a fictional work were brought to life by advanced technology and wrought havoc, until Kirk remembered his classics. This novel is that idea on steroids. We get Shakespeare and Proust-quoting robots from the moons of Jupiter, and classical Greek gods who dwell on Mount Olympus -- on Mars -- and use nanotechnology and quantum doodads to intervene in a parallel universe in which the events of The Iliad are taking place, almost exactly as Homer described them.

Dan Simmons set a high bar with Hyperion, which remains one of my favorite science fiction novels (I’m less enthusiastic about its followups). That book proved that space opera can play games with literary intertextuality, and it also had a great universe and some page-turning mysteries. So I was half skeptical, half optimistic about this one.

I’ll give Simmons credit for having the skill to suck me into the story, in spite of my skepticism. The Iliad storyline, in which a 20th century Homeric scholar named Thomas Hockenberry was somehow resurrected by the gods to be an expert observer of the Trojan War (which only Zeus can foresee the outcome of), seemed well-researched and was a lot of fun, though it was helpful that I had recently read a translation of the Iliad. Hockenberry, ever the jaded academic, manages to manipulate the poem’s characters, who stay in character, towards breaking free of their prescribed fates.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, where about two thousand years have gone by since our time, a small population of “old-style” humans lives lives of leisure and ignorance, cared for by machines that post-humans left behind when they departed centuries ago. A group of these humans has begun to suspect that things have not always been this way, and embark on a hunt for answers on a planet that’s changed quite a bit since our time. With a little help from their new friend, Odysseus. The third thread concerns two moravecs from Jupiter, where their kind has evolved over the centuries, who crash-land on a now-terraformed Mars, and soon discover that knowledge of Shakespeare (not to mention Proust’s thoughts on the strangeness of time) might apply to their situation.

In terms of writing, I thought this one was only sometimes up the dark brilliance of Hyperion, but still a good ride. Simmons is at his best when he’s immersing the reader in a scene (as he does fantastically in some of the Troy sequences) or doing clever mashups (as with a creepy space station monster who speaks in Shakespeare mode), and less so when he’s going through the workmanlike process of having characters run or teleport around the map in order to connect pieces of his far-flung plot and themes (look for the annoying SF trope of invoking “quantum” to explain the essentially magical). How Simmons will pull everything together in the second, final book remains for me to see, but I find the ideas he seems to be going for interesting. Might old myths and legends, which have stayed in our collective memory so far, still be haunting us in whatever post-human, post-post-modern future is to come? "We're not fighters", says one character. "Oh, yes you are," replies another, "it's still in your genes". I also liked the little in-jokes, such as a scene in which Hockenberry, annoyed with how his PC fellow academics kept reading gay tendencies into certain Iliad characters, discovers that the truth is a little... ambiguous.

Audiobook narrator Kevin Pariseau is competent enough, but I think he does better at humor than drama. His wry Hockenberry is amusing, but his gods and heroes are a little lacking in gravitas.

Not sure about the hype

The concept is really good and I love the themes of gods and post humans, but the story just isn't here. None of the characters are fleshed out, they all seem two dimensional, and I just couldn't find the backdrop to frame the visuals of the world the author created. A lot of words are thrown around without explanations from the beginning, it takes a long time and patience to figure out what the hell is going on. I loved the Hyperion series and am surprised this is by the same guy. So, just not sure on this one. I was not captivated.

The Gods of 40th century Mars

A fantastic sci-fi epic in the tradition of Simmons's Hyperion Cantos. In Ilium, as in the Hyperion books, Simmons really shows off his knowledge of classical literature. He obviously knows the Iliad and the Odyssey inside and out, but the author (through his characters) also fill this book with literary and historical references to Shakespeare, Proust, and a dozen other sources. It's ingenious and it made me to resolve to finally get around to reading the Iliad myself once I've finished this series.

Set in the 40th century, Ilium is a retelling of the Ilium. Kind of. We begin with "scholic" Thomas Hockenberry, who was an early 21st century classics professor revived by the Olympian gods in the 40th century to monitor the ongoing Trojan War — which is taking place on Mars.

"Wait, what?" you are thinking. The "gods" are creatures of super-science, using unimaginable powers of quantum manipulation and nanotechnology to take on the roles and attributes of the classical Greek deities. And not just the big names either — while all the old familiar gods like Zeus and Athena and Aphrodite of course figure heavily into the plot, Simmons, through his educated protagonist Hockenberry, encounters scores of minor named gods and heroes as well.

Just why the gods are reenacting the Iliad on a terraformed Mars is not made clear by the end of this volume, but the heroes — Achilles, Hector, Paris, Odysseus, etc — are also as epic as the gods, thanks to both nanotech enhancements and literal interbreeding between gods and mortals, just like in the myths.

Hockenberry and his fellow scholics are basically embedded journalists for the gods, but although they all know how the Iliad ends, they have been forbidden by Zeus to tell any of the other gods. The gods know that the scholics know how Homer said the story is supposed to end, but they've been forbidden to ask the scholics. So they continue playing their games with mortal lives.

And then Hockenberry is recruited by one of the gods for a clandestine mission to kill another god. And with the "magic artifacts" he's been given, he's able to change a key event. And suddenly we're not in the Iliad anymore. And Hockenberry, who's now a dead man as soon as the gods catch up to him, decides to change the story completely.

This would be a pretty awesome story all by itself, but in fact Hockenberry is only one of three main protagonists. There are two other subplots which eventually merge into the Iliad on Mars. A pair of "Moravecs" — a race of sentient robots built by post-humans before they disappeared, now living out among the moons of Jupiter — is on a mission of their own. Not having paid much attention to the inner system for generations, they discovered a lot of dangerous quantum manipulation and advanced terraforming on Mars. When they go to investigate, their ship is shot down... in orbit, by a bearded man in a chariot throwing a lightning bolt at them.

Mahnmut and Orphu, the only two survivors, try to make it across Mars, aided by mysterious "Little Green Men" who seem to be creations of neither early humans nor the gods. The two robots, whose dialog is kind of reminiscent of R2D2 and C3PO, if C3PO were a Shakespeare scholar and R2D2 were fond of Proust, add a bit of comedy relief to the story, but eventually have a role to play in the climactic confrontation between gods and mortals.

Finally, there are the last surviving humans on Earth, a tiny population of laborless dilettantes with little to do but go to parties and play musical beds. Their world has been created by the long-gone post-humans, who created teleportation networks around the world, set up a system in which all remaining humans are carefully population-controlled and do not have to work or want for anything. They are granted perfect health until their "fifth twenty," when they report for exterminationascension to the outer rings, Logan's Run-style. But as Eloi-like as the remaining human race may be (they are actually called "Eloi" by one of the old-time humans they later meet), the spark of curiosity hasn't completely died in all of them. A few set off on an unplanned adventure, and discover truths about their world... and that there are Morlocks.

Ilium is so rich in world-building and has such a tangled plot that there were occasional bits that lost me — I am still not sure of the role of Caliban, the Little Green Men are just strange, and we don't yet have an answer to the question of why super-advanced godlike beings have resurrected the entire cast of the Iliad on a terraformed Mars. But hopefully those questions will be answered in the second book, which I will be reading soon.

narration

Kevin Pariseau has made another great Dan Simmons story harder to get through than necessary.

Superb sci-fi couched in the poem of the Iliad.

The book mixes futuristic sci-fi with the events that occurred in Homer's poem The Iliad. It does so in such an excellent manner as to make me want to read/study the Iliad again! This audio book also seems to take pieces from Dan Simmon's other excellent works in the Hyperion Cantos. I found myself thinking back to Hyperion many times while listening to this book.
The narrator is solid as well imparting the perfect cynical tone to the main character.
Recommended!

big ol' meh

You'd think with robots and Greek gods and dinosaurs and at least three different planets, I wouldn't have been so...bored the whole time. I don't care about any of the characters. I mean, it didn't help that one of them was so gross and and the tone of the book wasn't condemning him. And the other main human guy- who is supposed to be the "normal" not gross one- sleeps with a woman while in the guise of her husband and doesn't have any kind of moral hesitation. It's pretty obvious that Simmons also doesn't think anything is wrong with it and couldn't possibly conceive that there would ever be anything wrong with it. He's so unaware of how a woman would react after being raped that after she finds out, they have more sex! What?

The plot was ok, I suppose, but I probably would've enjoyed it more if I was more well versed in Shakespeare and Proust and Homer and ugh as I'm typing this it sounds so pretentious. I feel like I know exactly what type of guy Simmons is and I would not have wanted to hang out with him in college. I'm not interested enough to continue on in the series.


I don't want to quote the actual book, so I'm going to quote J.G. Keely's review of this book on Goodreads (seriously, if anyone has the time, the whole review is amazing and you should just read the whole thing).

"Is this list of body parts supposed to be arousing? If you were an alien learning the ways of human culture through sci fi novels--firstly, I’m sorry--and secondly, you could be forgiven for assuming that a 'woman' was like any other human being, except that all her limbs had been replaced by breasts, and all her locomotion was achieved by squishing them together and pressing them against things. Is this what passes for seduction? Just 'here’s my naked body, have a go'?"

Great story considerably diminished by narration.

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

Yes. I'm a big fan of Simmon's stories, and this is another great time warping, world building, epic installment.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ilium?

Honestly, it's tough to pick out a single stand out point. I listened to the story pretty quickly, and thuroughly enjoyed the whole thing. I particularly enjoyed the Moravec storyline.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Unfortunately, the narrator almost trivialized the entire story for me. There was very little differentiation between characters, and regardless of the way the dialogue was supposed to be interpreted ("he shouted," "her voice shaking," "rumbled Zues, the god of gods,") the narrator generally imparted a plain conversational or petulantly comedic voice. The story would have been far more dynamic and engaging with a more equipped narrator. The silver lining: I thought he did an incredible job with Caliban's character.

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

It was a little too long for that kind of endeavor, but I did get through this story quicker than usual.

Any additional comments?

Despite the lackluster narration, Simmons' incredible world building and imagination come through. I'll certainly be tackling Olympos sometime soon (but probably on my Kindle).

5 Stars

I would recommend reading the Hyperion series if you haven't before starting this. It's a standalone series but I think its implied that it takes place in the same "universe" as he uses some of the same technobabble in both.

Great Performance - very good story

This is an interesting story that takes quite a bit of time to figure out. I hate the ending as it really just says there will be a sequal - but up to that point it is fairly interesting. It will make you read up on the Illiad as a large part of the book involves a re-enactment of the battle of troy on Mars. Kind of interesting.

The performance is very good. The read does a great job of portraying the characters and there is very good character development. There are a few things left to the next book - I felt somewhat cheated there especially since the sequel did not get very good reviews. But worth the read/listen.

Classic Simmons

If you could sum up Ilium in three words, what would they be?

Twisting the
classics...

Who was your favorite character and why?

Hockenberry is my favorite character, the average guy, in over his head. He just wants to survive and at the same time, screw the gods.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Not my favorite narrator, Simon Vance would have been a better choice.

Any additional comments?

Homer and the rest would probably hate this story, but I liked it. Simmons is not afraid to take on Dickens, Homer, Hemingway, or anybody else. He makes the average writer look bad, sometimes I think he is just showing off. Time will tell if people are still reading his books two hundred years from now. Classic Simmons, playing havoc with the classics.

The narrator absolutely ruins this.

After enjoying the Hyperion cantos I went looking for further Dan Simmons books, this looked like the next thing to move onto as it has won awards. The narrator has no range of voices, only one setting, one of a dead pan sarcastic droid from a 90s point and click adventure. It made following the story very difficult and in the end I gave up. Is the story any good? I completely have no idea.

couldn't listen too it tried twice just too boring

too monotone couldn't get past 1 hr point tried twice a shame because I've liked this author in the past

Brilliant! Amazing for Iliad fans too!

Great story and a great performance. Simmons weaves such varied material together in a way that simply works! Ancient Greece and future Sci fi! I don't know how it works but Simmons manages it! Highly recommended!

Not His Best

After reading "Hyperion" I have always looked out for Dan Simmons books. But Ilium somehow fails to hit the spot. There are long long passages in which we are treated to a roll-call of dozens of Greeks, Trojans and / or Gods - I say "treated" but I'm afraid long lists don't do much for me. The focus seems to ramble, to meander, and I didn't have the feeling of being in safe storytelling hands. Where was the story going? What was it about? Having reached the end of the 29 hours I'm still not sure. Certainly there's book two, Olympos, so I have to hope I will find out by the end of that further 36 hours. Narration was competent, possibly the book didn't give the narrator much scope to shine.

What a twister!

About 4 hrs in a wasn’t sure this book was for me. I was totally lost - didn’t know what was going on or how the characters relate and I had no real knowledge of Greek history or the Iliad. But by 5 hours in it got REALLY interesting. You start to know the characters and their place as well as a small crash course on the Iliad (crash course of one book it seems). The story line is unexpected and I didn’t find it predictable. I think I listened the last 4 hours in one sitting it was so exciting. Now for book 2!

Could have been so much more.

The ideas are great, I should have loved this. But the 'slow reveal' of how the universe works was either too slow not done the right way. I ended up just being frustrated with the characters rather than cheering them on. Perhaps if it had been slimmed down it might have been better, but then I did like the literary connections as that was fun. I normally have to finish a series to find out what happens, but I know I can't do it in this case.

Amazing book and amazingly read!

Would you listen to Ilium again? Why?

Yes, it's a great story by Dan Simmons and there would always be more to understand with each listen.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Hockenburry was my favourite character, I enjoyed the way he developed throughout the books.

Have you listened to any of Kevin Pariseau’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Yes. Always good!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

All of it.

Dull voice.

The book is brilliant. Unfortunately the narration is just dull, uninterested and soporific. What a disappointment!

no point buying it as the sequel isn't on audible

it may well change but at the moment you can't get the second book

even though you can listen too a bit of it at the end which implies copyright nonsense

Hard work!

Wow that was a difficult listen. Parts of the story are interesting but the lists of Greek and Trojan names.... just not needed! Who cares who the master surgeon is who is never mentioned again is, I don't need to know the back story of some midwatchman or the step mother in law of the nanny of the son of...... blah, blah, blah! I would like to know where the story goes but no way I'm wasting any more time on it. I'll find an online review to see how it ends. I enjoyed the Hyperion series btw so I'm not anti Dan Simmons. Also I know parts of the book are written in the style of the Illiad but that's no excuse to try (if that's what the author was doing) to make it dull.