"Ilium" by Dan Simmons

A while ago, someone quoted an article in Locus Magazine,
in which Dan Simmons wrote that he had turned down
an offer to write prequels of some beloved SciFi series,
presumably Zelazny's Amber series.

Now I'm reading Simmons's new novel "Ilium" and
am surprised how it is Zelazniesque. On Mars, in
far future, some mysterious entities are playing Greek gods
using very advanced nano tech (Lord of Light!), and
interfering re-created Trojan War. They can "Phase Shift",
or Quantum Teleport, to a destination by visualizing it
in his/her mind (Shadow Shift!). A 21 century Homer scholar is
ressurected by the gods in the middle of the war and reports
the progress of the war through his presentday viewpoint
(typical of Zelazny protagonist), and he is involved in
a Machiavellian power game played in the Pantheon of Olympus
(Amber). Beside these, some characters (in another story thread)
are taken from Shakespeare's Tempest (in RZ's "Exeunt Omnes"
he did a parody of The Tempest).

I highly recomend this novel to RZ fans.
--
M.Itakura itakura(at)users(dot)sf(dot)net
Japanese Geek Log http://d.hatena.ne.jp/ita/

I agree, in my opinion Illium was the best novel of 2003. I can't wait
for the sequel next year. Of course I enjoyed the Hyperion series, but
I do think Illium is more imaginitive. I could do without all the
vulgarity though...

itakura.RemoveThis@users.sf.net (Mitsuhiro Itakura) wrote in message news:<79dd6c19.0409011815.2948341b.RemoveThis@posting.google.com>...
 > A while ago, someone quoted an article in Locus Magazine,
 > in which Dan Simmons wrote that he had turned down
 > an offer to write prequels of some beloved SciFi series,
 > presumably Zelazny's Amber series.
 >
 > Now I'm reading Simmons's new novel "Ilium" and
 > am surprised how it is Zelazniesque. On Mars, in
 > far future, some mysterious entities are playing Greek gods
 > using very advanced nano tech (Lord of Light!), and
 > interfering re-created Trojan War. They can "Phase Shift",
 > or Quantum Teleport, to a destination by visualizing it
 > in his/her mind (Shadow Shift!). A 21 century Homer scholar is
 > ressurected by the gods in the middle of the war and reports
 > the progress of the war through his presentday viewpoint
 > (typical of Zelazny protagonist), and he is involved in
 > a Machiavellian power game played in the Pantheon of Olympus
 > (Amber). Beside these, some characters (in another story thread)
 > are taken from Shakespeare's Tempest (in RZ's "Exeunt Omnes"
 > he did a parody of The Tempest).
 >
 > I highly recomend this novel to RZ fans.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->