Jump to content

Dan Simmons


Red Templar

Recommended Posts

I've only read one of his books - The Terror. It may have been the best thing I read last year (it's a toss up between that and the Engineer trilogy). I liked it so much that I even bought it for a couple of people for Christmas.

I do have Hyperion and the sequel (a Christmas gift from a couple of years back) pretty close to the top of the TBR pile. Looking forward to getting stuck into that soon. :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Ran' post='1643606' date='Jan 10 2009, 06.04']Now, Simmons denies this. But in his polemic he cites, thanks to conservative ideologue Victor Davis Hanson, the tale of the Athenians killing all the men and selling into slavery all the women and children on Melos. How does he cite it? He cites it as an example of the justification for ruthlessness, and claims that when Athens lost the stomach for such ruthelssness, they met their downfall. The analogy is clear: we're in a position to be really ruthless to our enemies, but those namby-pamby liberals and conservatives too interested in morality and justice are holding us back, and so we're DOOMED![/quote]

I suspected as much, although I could not have connected the dots as well as you did. Which is why I felt the urge to post about him. On one side, the man is a brilliant writer and an excellent story teller, on the other side - grumpy, raving lunatic (a side that he hides well in public, it seems).

I feel dirty reading and thoroughly enjoying [i]The Terror[/i]. I will also purchase [i]Drood[/i], and feel dirty about that, too. Unlike Goodkind, I can't bring myself to stop reading Simmons even though I find his world-view abhorrent.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Barnes' post='1643632' date='Jan 10 2009, 14.57']I thought The Terror was very good, Children of Night a very average Vampire novel and I put down Summer of Night, just couldn't get into it.[/quote]

I would say [i]The Terror[/i] was good, but could have been improved a lot if he would have left out the whole monster thing. The invincible, unstoppable killing machine took a lot away from the story for me. Man vs. nature without the personification (I assume that's what the monster is supposed) of it would have worked far better in my opinion.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Bellis' post='1642711' date='Jan 9 2009, 19.07']It was so over-the-top I had a hard time connecting the essay to the world in which I live and therefore i wasn't so much offended as I was flabbergasted.

As for Simmons, he's alright. something about the way he writes makes me uncomfortable. it's not racist per se, but there's a certain naivete about different races and cultures. I haven't read Illium/Olympus or Song of Kali, the most obvious offenders - I'm getting this from Hyperion Cantos and Carrion Comfort and The Terror, all of which I enjoyed, but with slight discomfort.[/quote]

I love Hyperion to pieces, but...yeah. Illium/olympos had some really serious nastiness, but some moments in the Hyperion foursome have me rather twitchy as well, though I find it hard to put my finger on why exactly. Maybe it was the happily subservient anrdroids.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
What would you say are 'essential reading' for Dan Simmons? Just bought Illium and if I like it, gonna move on to others. Hyperion seems to get a bunch of mentions. Is it part of a series? How big? And what others should I look at?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with the sentiment that the terror in the Terror really ruined the end of the novel for me. Invincible, unstoppable, and honestly, a little lame...but not as lame as human throat flutes. What the fuck was with that?

I could have watched those sailors die in their own way without a word of complaint, because his handling of their encapsulation within the ice was brilliant.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Arthmail' post='1679358' date='Feb 9 2009, 01.30']but not as lame as human throat flutes. What the fuck was with that?[/quote]


This part is actually grounded in reality:
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPBvgQi8BMw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPBvgQi8BMw[/url]
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_throat_singing"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_throat_singing[/url]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to hear about Drood, too. I made a thread to ask about it, but I have since been referred here. I am trying to decide whether to buy it. I have not been a great fan of Simmons in the past for many of the reasons you all stated so eloquently. Yet Drood looks interesting by the blurb/dust jacket. Does it have the same pitfalls as some of the other books? For example, that undercurrent of nastiness, the lack of voice/identity, weak conclusion, etc.)

My apologies if this is the "wrong" place for this question. I thought it would be better in its own thread since there are bound to be book spoilers if it is discussed and not many have read Drood yet as it is fairly new. But, as I said, I was referred here.

Thanks!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[i]Hyperion[/i] is a genuinely great book, and can stand alone despite the cliff-hanger ending - alas, it's all downhill from there, though slowly. I would unreservedly recommend this to anyone, despite being an ex-Simmons fan with all the loathing of the recently deconverted.

I say this a lot, but I've found that Simmons' work is good the first time through, then (Hyperion excepted) rapidly loses its appeal on rereads. I thought [i]Summer of Night[/i] was a genuinely scary horror story on my first read, so much so that I would read Stephen King books wishing they were more like Simmons, but after a second read I haven't bothered again. [i]Fires of Eden[/i] was another one I enjoyed, and I haven't dared to reread in case it also turns into shit.


[url="http://sandstormreviews.blogspot.com/2008/02/hyperion-cantos-dan-simmons.html"]Hyperion Review [/url](feels dirty about posting link to own blog twice in one day but is still going to do it anyway)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Jon Fossaway' post='1679851' date='Feb 9 2009, 14.39']I really enjoyed Summer of Night, because as was said before...I could really see it as a King novel. Now I hear Winter Haunting is a sequel of a sort? Does it pick up the same characters or the same town?[/quote]

Winter Haunting is boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring. Seriously. It takes the main kid from SoN (the one who became a writer?) when he's all grown up and comes back to town, and... well, probably something happens, but it's nothing even slightly memorable. I think the ghost of the smart fat farm kid who got killed in SoN is haunting around, or something.

Fires of Eden also features a grown-up version of one of the SoN kids, to much better effect.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Decius' post='1645861' date='Jan 12 2009, 18.16']I would say [i]The Terror[/i] was good, but could have been improved a lot if he would have left out the whole monster thing. The invincible, unstoppable killing machine took a lot away from the story for me.[/quote]
[quote name='Arthmail' post='1679358' date='Feb 9 2009, 01.30']I agree with the sentiment that the terror in the Terror really ruined the end of the novel for me. Invincible, unstoppable, and honestly, a little lame...[/quote]
Finally! After all the love for The Terror on this board and elsewhere someone feels the same way I do.
SPOILER: Spoiler for the Terror
The combination of a completely invincible monster and an historical mission where everyone is known to have died does not make for much suspense.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Truly. I found myself skipping over the monster elements entirely, and just reading a lot of the crew. The crew was fascinating and well-written. The environment and the men's reactions to it were far more interesting than the actual monster.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Kalbear' post='1680512' date='Feb 9 2009, 23.28']Truly. I found myself skipping over the monster elements entirely, and just reading a lot of the crew. The crew was fascinating and well-written. The environment and the men's reactions to it were far more interesting than the actual monster.[/quote]

Ah, well, i've broken. I'll take any amount of annoying monster for some well written crew trapped in ice. I saw "Terror" in a store today, and I think i'm going to buy it, growing ambivalence for Simmons disregarded.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I need to reread Hyperion I think. I remember enjoying Fall of Hyperion a lot, but Hyperion was one of those rare books when not a word or paragraph felt wasted, yet there still wasn't enough of it. Never read anything more by him. Maybe I'll pick up this Terror book.

And yeah, he probably was or is a little bit crazy. You have to be a little bit unhinged to create something great.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...