Olympos

By Dan Simmons.
Begun 04 July 2009; finished 12 July.
Review written 14 July 2009.

Ilium, Dan Simmons’ science fiction adaptation of Homer’s Iliad, ended with the scholic Hockenberry’s successful turning of the Greeks and Trojans against the gods on Mount Olympus, and Earth’s posthumans’ epiphany of their collective history and existence. Nevertheless, Ilium had only started to uncover the greater truths, and there were still many puzzles that have not been resolved yet. Olympos is the novel that promises to bring all the storylines together and reveal all the mysteries — and it does, albeit in a byzantine and flawed manner.

Olympos opens with the three storylines begun in Ilium. The Greeks and Trojans and the Olympians wage ferocious war on the foot of Mount Olympus, although both sides are plagued with schisms and schemings and fallings-out. On Earth, the human protagonists have regained some of their history through the efforts of Odysseus and the avatars Ariel and Prospero, but the human species is under relentless attack from both the mysterious mechanical voynix, and an alien force called Setebos which has arrived to destroy the collective memory of the human race. And the moravecs continue their investigation of quantum fluctuations on both Earth and Mars, and uncover astonishing truths about the manifestations of the gods and the literary avatars, and the origins of the remnant human civilization on Earth. These three subplots operate in parallel and eventually converge, with facts from one storyline clarifying another storyline’s puzzles. Eventually the things that were initially disparate — Ilium and Earth, gods and mortals, the literary avatars and the voynix and other alien entities — are linked to a common past, and the mysteries of how the story’s present human civilization came to be, are all revealed.

The result is an epic novel: not only does it have a vast plot, and a huge cast with awesome superpowers, it also encapsulates heavy-duty hard science (mostly of the quantum physics sort), their applied technologies and the consequences of their use, and human nature and the collective consciousness of Western civilization in literature. Ilium and Olympos together explore various aspects of literary form and how they reflect humanity’s values and collective consciousness, the massive potential of extremely advanced quantum physical technology and its impact on space-time and reality, the consequences of humanity losing the foundations of its past — plus, how mythology may actually take on reality through the quantum physical avenue. (Sound mind-bending? Read the book and find out!) The three storylines deal variously with these issues, but they collectively speak about the human race and civilization.

This overarching dialectic, begun in Ilium and extended in Olympos, was exceedingly fascinating and made for a lot of brain food. There aren’t many SF authors out there who can and do discuss human history and civilization through literary classics! However, I have not read many of the literary works quoted by Simmons — Homer, Shakespeare, Proust, and various 18th century poets. So although I could see the overall message, someone better-read in the clasics would fully appreciate the quotes in both their original and Olympos context.

The novel is not without flaws. I appreciate the strength of its themes, but their execution in the plot left much to be desired. Olympos was actually quite confusing in its conclusions. The pieces to all the mysteries were eventually uncovered, but I felt in a haphazard and roundabout manner. One evidence uncovered in one storyline doesn’t explain much for that storyline, but seems to explain a mystery in another one. These cross-plot connections were not clear, and I found it difficult to piece everything together; even now I haven’t fully understood all the whys and wherefores. (The scenes involving the Titans, and the reasoning of how post-humans are connected to the Olympian gods, and how quantum physics comes into that, were completely befuddling. I still don’t get it.) So I came away from Olympos with many parts of the puzzle pieced together, but still unable to make the full picture. It’s frustrating to read a novel which you know has all the answers to the question, but you’re not able to put everything together! Is it the fault of the author? In this case, I do think Simmons did not make all the connections evident to me, as the reader.

Perhaps the novel’s heft was partly responsible for this muddle. Olympos was not as tightly scripted as Ilium, and suffered from extravagant histrionics. I think Ilium, despite its length, still moved much faster because its plot had to follow the Iliad. Since Olympos splits completely from Homer’s saga, this freedom may have led to excessive meandering. I felt this novel lingered too long on certain scenes, and devoted too many words to superlative writing. There is a time and place for pomp and circumstance, luxuriant mood-setting and descriptive writing, but in a novel that had to traverse so many details and expound so much knowledge as Olympos? I felt purple prose was completely uncalled for here and didn’t add to the novel; in fact it intruded into my awareness, and “noticeable writing” is one of the most infuriating intrusions to me as a reader. I found myself often thinking, “Yeah, yeah, you’ve already described the mood of the situation, you don’t have to dwell on it for another paragraph! Get with the story!!”

I suppose at least 100 pages could’ve been cut out of an almost-900 page novel, if the writing had been tighter and more plot-focused. And I think this stylistic weakness in Olympos may have contributed to my confusion about the conclusions. Honestly though, whether it’s Simmons’ lack of clarity, or my distraction and/or ignorance of Western literature… it’s all debatable. I would definitely like the hear the opinions of another reader more familiar with the literary references!

Finally — although this is less critical than the previous flaws — the motives of the Greek pantheon and literary avatars remained mysterious, especially the latter. Even though Prospero and Ariel helped bring humanity to enlightenment, their real motives remained confounding; whilst Setebos and Caliban had more obvious goals, the manifestation of these avatars and their vassals on Earth made no sense. But then again, I didn’t fully understand the myriad connections between the quantum physics, the link between Earth and Ilium, the manifestation of literary and mythological figures, the doings and motives of the post-humans, the deeds of the past that led to the present situation… of course I wouldn’t understand the reasons of (for?) the gods. But I shouldn’t be surprised either that gods will always be capricious and beyond mortal reason.

That’s all I can say about Olympos. Even though the story was complicated, the overall message of the novel is fascinating indeed. There is much food for thought and details to chew over for any reader who loves dense and dialectic plots. Even though the writing detracted from my reading experience, I’m sure another reader would enjoy pulling all the threads together and seeing how all the stories and settings are connected to each other. And I’m certain that Simmons explained everything. I just couldn’t pull it all together!

Olympos is a fitting continuation and conclusion to Ilium, that portrays a fascinating interpretation of our universe, how mythic figures and literary traditions can be made manifest through hard science, without losing their legendary quality. A magnificent saga indeed, grounded in both sophisticated hard science and a strong literary background. I recommend at least Ilium for anyone who loves SF and classic literature (especially Homer and Shakespeare), and I hear Hyperion also has literary references, so I will have to check that out!

This was also one of the hardest reviews I’d ever written. I wanted to do Simmons justice but also point out the problems with Olympos. What a relief to finally post this!