Reddit Reddit reviews Ilium

We found 16 Reddit comments about Ilium. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Literature & Fiction
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American Literature
Ilium
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16 Reddit comments about Ilium:

u/dakta · 23 pointsr/printSF

^(Note: these are all books I've read and can recommend from experience.)

David Brin's Sundiver is a detective mystery. Likewise his Existence is a mystery about a recently discovered artifact, though its presentation with multiple perspectives lacks the singular detective tone of Sundiver. It's not as much of a mystery/thriller more of a mystery/adventure. It is also one of the overall best science fiction novels I've ever read; the writing is top notch, the characters superbly lifelike, the tone excellent, and the overall reading experience enjoyable and filled with a realistic optimism.

Gregory Benford's Artifact is an investigative mystery about a strange artifact. His Timescape is about a strange phenomenon.

Jack McDevitt's The Engines of God is an investigative mystery about a strange artifact.

Asimov's The End of Eternity is a classic mystery/thriller.

Alastair Reynolds' The Prefect and Chasm City are both standalone detective mysteries. His Revelation Space is similar, but does not have the same classic mystery tone.

Greg Bear's Queen of Angels and Slant are both standalone detective mysteries.

I seem to recall the Second Foundation (Foundation's Fear, Foundation and Chaos, Foundation's Triumph) trilogy by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, and David Brin having some mystery aspects. I think one of them at least is a detective mystery, but I can't remember which right now.

Dan Simmons' Ilium/Olympos is a sort of detective mystery, but its tone is much more action/adventure despite the protagonist's undertakings to determine what in the world is going on.

Joan D. Vinge's Cat Trilogy (Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall) are detective mysteries.

Julian May's Perseus Spur is a detective mystery. It's pretty light-hearted and a lot of fun to read. Something you would pick up at an airport bookstore and not be at all disappointed with. I can't speak for the other two books in the trilogy, haven't read them yet. Just ordered them off Amazon for $4 a piece.

I could go on, but I think that should keep you busy for a while.

 

^(Edited to clarify the tone of some suggestions. Some are more traditional mystery/thriller, while others are more adventure/mystery, more alike to Indiana Jones than a noir detective.)

u/trekbette · 14 pointsr/printSF

Dan Simmons Ilium and Olympos books are a very odd, and very good, retelling of the Trojan Wars.

u/Pitfall_Larry · 6 pointsr/KotakuInAction

It is very real, its really heavy scifi but its a great read imo.

u/steve626 · 6 pointsr/printSF

Ilium by Dan Simmonds is fun.

Almost anything by Peter F Hamilton, but Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained is a good place to start.

u/Bo-ba · 5 pointsr/The_Donald

have you read Ilium? If you liked Illiad, it is mind-blowing.

u/njm1314 · 5 pointsr/books

You probably need to have a pretty good understanding of mythology (especially Homer's poems) to appreciate them, but Dan Simmons has two of the most entertaining books I've ever read.

Illium and Olympus. They are just a bizarre mix of classical references and science fiction. Throw in a little Shakespeare and Proust for fun and you are set. I know I was hooked after this intro:

>“Rage.

>Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles, of Peleus’ son, murderous, man-killer, fated to die, sing of the rage that cost the Achaeans so many good men and sent so many vital, hearty souls down to the dreary House of Death. And while you’re at it, Muse, sing of the rage of the gods themselves, so petulant and so powerful here on their new Olympos, and of the rage of the post-humans, dead and gone though they might be, and of the rage of those few true humans left, self-absorbed and useless though they have become. While you are singing, O Muse, sing also of the rage of those thoughtful, sentient, serious but not-so-close-to-human beings out there dreaming under the ice of Europa, dying in the sulfur ash of Io, and being born in the cold folds of Ganymede.

>Oh, and sing of me, O Muse, poor born-against-his-will Hockenberry, dead Thomas Hockenberry, Ph.D., Hockenbush to his friends, to friends long since turned to dust on a world long since left behind. Sing of my rage, yes, of my rage, O Muse, small and insignificant though that rage might be when measured against the anger of the immortal gods, or when compared to the wrath of the god-killer Achilles.

>On second though, O Muse, sing nothing of me. I know you. I have been bound and servant to you, O Muse, you incomparable bitch. And I do not trust you, O Muse. Not one little bit.”

u/idhrendur · 4 pointsr/slatestarcodex

Just finished the third book in the Codex Alera series. I'm working on Ilium, but need to return it to the library tomorrow (already renewed once an can't do so again) and won't stand a chance of finishing it.

u/FreelanceSocialist · 2 pointsr/books

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge - Absolutely fantastic. Full of well-fleshed-out technology, a great understanding of actual science. Top notch storytelling with a complex setting to back it up. I think Vinge writes some of the most exciting scifi narrative out there.

After you read Hyperion, get Ilium, also by Dan Simmons. Kind of a cool reinterpretation/continuation of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War. Has a cliff-hanger of an ending that picks up again in the sequel Olympos. I didn't like Olympos quite as much, though.

u/ruboos · 2 pointsr/SF_Book_Club

Ilium by Dan Simmons (of Hyperion Cantos fame)

Description from Amazon:

>The Trojan War rages at the foot of Olympos Mons on Mars -- observed and influenced from on high by Zeus and his immortal family -- and twenty-first-century professor Thomas Hockenberry is there to play a role in the insidious private wars of vengeful gods and goddesses. On Earth, a small band of the few remaining humans pursues a lost past and devastating truth -- as four sentient machines depart from Jovian space to investigate, perhaps terminate, the potentially catastrophic emissions emanating from a mountaintop miles above the terraformed surface of the Red Planet.

Now my notes: Just like the Hyperion Cantos, this pair of books (the sequel is Olympos) is an epic. Unlike the Hyperion Cantos, Ilium/Olympos do not take place over a few hundred years, but it is an epic because of the grand scale in which the story takes place. It's got a little bit of everything for everyone. The basic sci-fi is on point, there's enough technology and far future to satisfy any sci-fi junky. There's quite a bit of history in the way that part of it is a retelling of Homer's Iliad. Keep in mind that the portion that is in the book isn't based on the Iliad in the same sense that Oh Brother Where Art Thou is loosely based on the Odyssey, but closer to how Romeo + Juliet is based on Shakespeare. It also has a few really awesome romance plot lines, as well as some really fucked up ones. I haven't read it in about three years, but I have read it thrice through, every page, every word, so the details are a bit hazy. My overall impression was one of being awestruck. I have nothing ill to say about this book, it is a work of art.

u/doctorbaronking · 2 pointsr/KingkillerChronicle

The Hyperion and Ilium books by Dan Simmons both have the kind of narrative weight that KKC does, though both are a hardish Sci-Fi.

u/mnemosyne-0002 · 1 pointr/KotakuInAction

Archives for the links in comments:

u/FiveFourThreeNoseOne · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

I'm currently reading a sci-fi book that is something of a re-telling of The Illiad taking place on Mars. There's a lot going on to give an accurate picture, just read the synopsis, it does a better job than I can: it's called Ilium. It is a little overly convoluted at times but there's so much originality. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

u/neuquino · 1 pointr/reddit.com

Cool. I figure this is just another step towards the nanomachines that give us a built in Internet, like they have in Ilium

I'm really looking forward to that.

u/damnimnotirish · 1 pointr/ImaginaryLandscapes

This is how I imagine the Pantheon in Ilium by Dan Simmons would look. (Amazing book- read it!).

u/nziring · 1 pointr/printSF

Well, Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy mostly takes place about 25000 years in the future. But it is a fairly straightforward extrapolation of a galactic empire (still awesome work, though!) and people are still just like people today.

A lot of the other suggestions here are really good: Silverberg, Campbell, Clarke, Egan, Niven, Bear, Wright, Simmons, and Banks.

Gregory Benford's "Galactic Center" series takes place way in the future, first book is In the Ocean of Night.

A couple of commenters mentioned Simmons' Hyperion series, but nobody mentioned his novels Illium and Olympos.

There are quite a few novels where people travel through time to the far future, some by relativistic means, but those don't seem to meet your criteria.