Books - the Science Fiction of Dan Simmons

I feel compelled to write about those books that I love to re-read. Dan Simmons is a multi-genre master. He’s done some very scary horror books, a hard-boiled detective novel and an alternate-history Victorian adventure featuring Sherlock Holmes. But it’s his two sci-fi series that I find indispensible.  

“Hyperion” won Sci-fi’s big prize, the Hugo, when it debuted in 1990. It was a “Canterbury Tales”-type of story in which several pilgrims relate their personal stories to each other while on a fateful journey. The first story, told by a priest, is actually about another priest’s bizarre experience among a tribe of strange, primitive people in a remote and mysterious region. These first hundred pages can seem slow, but set up what will be a thrilling series of events with inter-galactic consequences. The Catholic Church in the far future figures crucially in this epic, and is captive to dark forces.  And there’s the Shrike; a powerful creature who guards the Time Tombs, it’s a mortal threat to our pilgrims and, later, a heroic couple who are on the run from sinister powers. The sequels are “The Fall of Hyperion”, “Endymion” and “The Rise of Endymion”. “Hyperion” and “Endymion” are poems by John Keats; the literary references are one of the delights of Simmons’ writing. “The Matrix” borrowed mightily from the evolving story, in which mankind trades free will for a form of immortality. Serious but exciting stuff!

“Ilium and “Olympus” are even richer in their literary allusions. Yes, it’s “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” being re-played in the far future, as a game for the gods. Only this time, both Mt. Olympus and the battlefields of Troy are on Mars! All our favorite Homeric heroes are back, especially Ulysses, Achilles and Helen, although their fates may play out a bit differently, with a reincarnated old-Earth professor and some charming machine-men from Jupiter’s moons complicating things. (Minor characters in the war are oft-mentioned; it may seem distracting, but it’s a stylistic homage to the original epics which are, after all, our first.) Shakespeare and Proust are referenced frequently in the Ionian moravecs’ dialogue, much to the reader’s amusement. There’re also many scenes on Earth, beginning at a garden party in what once was the northeastern U.S., dropping in at the site of the Burning Man festival (yes, it’s still going millennia down the line!) , going underground in volcanic Paris, scaling the peaks of Machu Pichu and fighting horrible creatures for the survival of civilization.  it’s rousing adventure!

There is an abundance of imagination at work in these stories. Simmons’ descriptive skills are cinematic, and his cleverness is endless. These six books are easily found used.