Olympos

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau

Length: 36 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Beneath the gaze of the gods, the mighty armies of Greece and Troy met in fierce and glorious combat, scrupulously following the text set forth in Homer's timeless narrative. But that was before 21st-century scholar Thomas Hockenberry stirred the bloody brew, causing an enraged Achilles to join forces with his archenemy, Hector, and turn his murderous wrath on Zeus and the entire pantheon of divine manipulators; before the swift and terrible mechanical creatures that catered for centuries to the pitiful idle remnants of Earth's human race began massing in the millions, to exterminate rather than serve.

And now all bets are off.

©2005 Dan Simmons (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Excellent, But Sometimes Overwhelming

Would you consider the audio edition of Olympos to be better than the print version?

The narrator was excellent. His characterizations kept everything understandable, and in a book with this many characters and story lines that is not a simple feat.

What other book might you compare Olympos to and why?

The last 3 books of the Hyperion Series. I am a huge fan of Simmons but his books are different from other contemporary Sci Fi and challenging in their own regard. His grasp of literature and history is impressive, and his inter textual, nuanced storytelling combines literature, history, science and pop culture in a way that makes the complexity of the underlying narrative pale in comparison. His books give you a reason to do research on Proust, Shakespeare and ancient history, just so you can keep up with the story. I cannot think of another author who works this territory and does so in a impressive manner. I enjoyed the Hyperion Series and this series is just as entertaining and challenging. This is not a light read, but if you want to invest the time and energy the payoff is substantial.

Which scene was your favorite?

The ending scenes of the book brought everything together, something I did not think would be possible mid-way through the series. There are many, many things going on but everything is resolved in a way that is logical and satisfying.

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

No way, this is a huge book. If you are a Dan Simmons fan you realize early on that this is a big time investment but you commit to get lost in his world, and to enjoy things while you are there.

Any additional comments?

Good production. The narrator was great. I hope Simmons returns to these types of stories, his current approach are more horror and contemporary novels. His Sci Fi imagination is not only impressive but needed in the genre. Great stuff.

Second volume is good but not quite as great

This sequel to Ilium follows a pattern I've noticed with Dan Simmons, now that I've read his entire Hyperion Cantos - his first books in a series are really, really good, while the follow-ups are still good, but seem to lose a bit of the brilliance of the original and wind up going in strange places.

Olympos, the second book of this fat duology, continues the saga of a classics professor from 21st century Earth resurrected 3000 years later to witness a recreation of the Trojan War on a terraformed Mars. Although it's not really accurate to call this Hockenberry's saga; he is just the unifying character flitting between the subplots and separate groups of characters, but being a middle-aged temporally displaced academic with a few technological artifacts and his modest wits, he's hardly as epic a figure as vainglorious, undefeatable Achilles, tricky, crafty Odysseus, beautiful and scheming Helen, or the entire Greek pantheon, the two "gods" who created the gods, and the ever-escalating series of gods above them that these various figures meet in what turns out to be a multipart, often disconnected quest not only to unravel the mystery of this futuristic Trojan War, but save the world.

Hockenberry is the only first-person narrator, and he remains a rather milquetoast protagonist, though it's hardly his fault that he got yanked from a Midwestern university 3000 years into the future where suddenly the gods themselves want him dead.

The more interesting chapters are those describing the continuing adventures of the Greek and Trojan heroes, now that recreated plot of the Iliad has gone completely off the rails and Achilles and Hector have teamed up to go to war with the gods. The gods are really masters of magic-like nanotechnology, though their true nature and where they came from is finally revealed in this book. As Olympos opens, the sentient robots from the moons of Jupiter who'd come to investigate a big mess of quantum shenanigans taking place in the inner systems, where Mars was thought to be uninhabited and humans on Earth thought to be long extinct, are helping defend Troy from siege by the gods. Meanwhile, the remaining humans on Earth, whose miraculous ancient technology has fallen, forcing an Eloi-like civilization to learn how to actually survive the hard way, even as long-dormant mechanical beings have awoken and begun seeking to exterminate them, are also forced to contend with Caliban, the cannibalistic genetically engineered monstrosity who was one of the chief villains in the previous volume.

There are a lot of characters and subplots here, and Simmons as usual loads this science-fantasy space opera with references from Proust, Homer, Shakespeare, Blake, and numerous others. He layers subplot over subplot, multiple layers of villainous schemes, each villain being the pawn of a greater one, and then starts shoving all sorts of reality-bending weirdness into the story, involving actual divine beings, quantum reality, the last remnants of an apocalyptic war, all still while having Shakespearean and Homeric figures running around doing battle.

Simmons definitely captures the barbaric nobility of the Greeks (and sheer orneriness of the Greek gods). And while at times I really had no idea where the story was going, it was never boring. In the end, I think it got a bit bloated and meandering and it seemed that Simmons was willing to throw any weird idea that came to him into the mix, which is why this was a huge doorstopper of a novel following a previous huge doorstopper of a novel.

An epic SF saga, which I recommend, but in my opinion slightly inferior to the first book.

Everything but the kitchen sink

Would you try another book from Dan Simmons and/or Kevin Pariseau?

It'll be a long time before I'm ready for another Dan Simmons novel. And a long, long time before I'll listen to a Kevin Pariseau performance of a work of fiction.

Would you recommend Olympos to your friends? Why or why not?

Would not recommend. The book lacks focus, and is not a good example of Mr. Simmons' better writing.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Mr. Pariseau's inflections in dialogue were atrocious - I often wondered if he even read the descriptions of the way things were said. There was no nuance in his delivery - whispers, speculation, regrets, all were delivered in the same monotone. Except for once character . . .

I almost could not continue once the character of Moira appeared. She's a (SPOILER ALERT) young woman, but he makes her sound like my 85 year-old great aunt. A terrible, terrible misread of the character that threw me out of the story everytime he voiced a line.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Mild curiosity, the further I got into it. The story went everywhere (almost literally), without managing to imbue the characters with much that made me care what happened to them. But I was curious to see what else Mr. Simmons would cram into the book, and to see how - if - he pulled it all together.

Any additional comments?

This book contained some of the most cringe-inducing descriptions of sexual arousal and intercourse I've ever seen in a work of fiction (fortunately, there weren't many, but they were memorable for their awfulness). Mr. Pariseau's delivery of the scenes only made them worse - turgid prose delivered in a stentorian monotone is a combination to be avoided at all costs.

Disappointment after Ilium ;(

After listening to the excellent book of Ilium, my expectation were high for this sequel. Perhaps too high. The book drags on into meaningless detail. One wonders if an editor was too scared to tell the author what to cut out from the book. It also falters from a lack of a clear distict voice which was the main character in Ilium. Instead, it goes into multiple third-person perspectives to the point at which one starts to not care where the overall stroy is going. The only redeeming part of the book was the area that dealt with the Trojans, the Greeks, Achilles, Zeus, etc. The rest I could have fast forwarded through and not been any wiser as far as plot development.
I recommended the first book: Ilium. I'd recommend stopping there.

Classic Simmons

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

This book is classic Simmons, he likes to take the classics, turn them inside out and spin them, dice them, cook them and serve them with gravy and potatoes . If you don't mind Homer spinning in his grave, you will like this book.

Any additional comments?

I like Dan Simmons as an author, he keeps turning out great stories time after time. I've read several bad reviews of this book, don't understand why. It could be me. For what it's worth, I liked it, great story, another winner.

Simmons Olympos Shines, the reader doesn't.

What disappointed you about Olympos?

I have read the Hyperion books, The Endymion Books and Hollow Man, Ilium and Olympos in the past. Dan Simmons is a master craftsman. I thought it might be enjoyable to listen to Olympos as the book was a favorite, unfortunately I was disappointed. The cadence and inflection of the reader left the story flat for me. It didn't move along at the pace that I read it at.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Olympos?

I only got through Chapter 20 with Kevin before I was finished listening...and wanted to return the book.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Kevin Pariseau?

I don't know.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I like the book a huge amount...maybe I should have listened to Ilium

Any additional comments?

This was my experience of the audio book and wouldn't expect that everyone might have same experience.

As good as the first...

I enjoyed the first book in this series, although it was a bit long winded at times. The second in the series continues where the first left off and answers many of the questions brought up but left unaddressed in the first novel. If you finished the first, you will want to finish the second to get a real sense of what many of mysteries in the story were all about.

From such a huge book

you expect an epic story and tension to the end. You get epic literary masturbation.

Excellent story. Long complex and intelligent!

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Between classical poets and heroes, futuristic technology and god like beings shaped time itself. What a great concept.

This duology is a 70+ hr waste of time

The narration is fine, and actually most of the duology is a good listen, but read my words clearly: DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME.
It's around 70 hours to get through the whole thing and once you get past the rushed and somehow plodding pace, the confusing world building, and introduction of more characters then you can hope to keep track of, the story itself is wildly imaginative and quite worthy of the Dan Simmons name. But that's also what gets in the way. I expected more from him. I would not recommend even getting started with Ilium, as the end of Olympos is such a huge disappointment. Anyway don't buy it. If you want a good new space opera, look up James Corey.

Quite a disapointment

Would you try another book written by Dan Simmons or narrated by Kevin Pariseau?

Yeah, his Hyperion saga was excelent.

Has Olympos put you off other books in this genre?

No.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Kevin Pariseau?

Yeah

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Olympos?

Oh man, lots and lots. It was to islamophobic, too rightwing, hostile towards women - and ultimatly dos not answer any of the interesting questions from the first book.

Any additional comments?

Yeah, read the hyperion saga - ifinetly better and a much more satisfying read.

Pretty close to great

Very clever and imaginative story, intelligently tying together old and new stories with a unique narrative. I definitely recommend this title. The slight disappointments are where it left me with regards to key characters, hopefully this is because other books will tell continue those stories. Another was the inclusion of the Anti Semitic inferences, not sure what this added other than to apportion blame within a fiction unnecessarily; this story line just seemed a bit ham-fisted in an otherwise delightfully entertaining book.

A confused mess

I just don't get it. Presumably Dan Simmons' many fans do, but I thought this was awful. I persevered in the hope that it would somehow come together in the end, but ultimately it did not reward the hours invested.

Incredible story. So multifaceted.

Incredible story, how Simmons manages to weave sci fi and the classics together I will never know. This and the first book Ilium are modern classics. A must for any sci fi or indeed classics fans also.

A space opera like no other

This book managed to weave characters from history into an amazing story set across different planets. At each stage it kept you wanting to find out the fates of these characters and kept you hooked until the last page. Thoroughly recommend.

Wonderful

I love the book when reading it years ago and I loke the audio book. Kept me company on my commute.
The narration is very good

Just outstanding

Iliad then Olympos.
Amazing
Too much to describe, bereft now it’s finished!
Must read now!

Great Book, great performance

I loved Illium and Olympus both;
The books are fantastic and I enjoyed reading them previously myself.
This Audible version was even better, the narration was excellent. While other reviews had issues with the dry tone of the narrator I found it perfectly fitting the material and loved every minute of it.

best novel ever.

dan simmons - best writer ever.
and this book is just fantastic - lovning it.

Cracking sequel, to a classic

An excellent follow up to the madness & chaos of Ilium, thoroughly enjoyed. Well read by the narrator.