# Anyone here read Dan Simmons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2009, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800 "2009-02-14T07:19:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/21 "2009-02-15T00:58:03Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > _Darwin’s Blade_ was one of the worst novels I’d ever read. It put me off reading any other Simmons. I think he wrote that one for the paycheck. He might have had some fun writing it though. I wasn’t sure what happened at the end of the Hyperion/Endymion books so I e-mailed him and asked my big question. He responded with a “Yes.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/22 "2009-02-15T01:21:13Z")
All I’ve read of his is Hyperion. I liked the Canterbury Tales aspect of it, but that was all. After trudging though sixty million pages just to find the huge blinking sign that said “SEQUELS AHEAD - no resolution for at least three more volumes” I gave up and never looked back. And I’ve defended Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy on this board. Make of that what you will. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/23 "2009-02-15T03:58:55Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > Summer of Night is the best horror story I’ve read. Well worth your time if you like horror. This. I absolutely loved this book. On the other hand, I thought \*\*The Terror \*\*sucked. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/24 "2009-02-15T04:25:37Z")
I loved _Hyperion_ and \*The Fall of Hyperion _as well as Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. \* Illium_ didn’t move me at all. I remember reading here that this was the masterpiece - meh. I never read _Olympos_ since it continued the previous tale. I need to read _Song of Kali_. Wow - I just checked Wiki and there are a lot of catching up I need to do. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/25 "2009-02-15T05:42:53Z")
I thought _Carrion Comfort_ was hella good. _Summer of Night_ I didn’t like; to me it read like he was aiming it at selling the movie rights. _Hyperion_ was brilliant, simply amazing, and _The Fall of Hyperion_, while not quite to the same level, was also excellent. I too was disappointed at the bait-and-switch he pulled in the _Endymion_ novels, and found them rather muddled. I haven’t read any of his recent work; _Summer of Night_ pretty much killed my interest in him as an author. ---
**Author:** ![ChordedZither](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9c0ed/32.png) [@ChordedZither](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChordedZither)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/26 "2009-02-15T05:43:49Z")
Very good, though out of his usual genre: _The Crook Factory_, Earnest Hemingway hunts for German U-Boats in the Caribbean in 1942, with cameo appearances by Ian Fleming ---
**Author:** ![SuntanTigerTamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@SuntanTigerTamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanTigerTamer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/27 "2009-02-19T15:27:33Z")
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who recommended Mr Simmons. I had the night off of work last night and didn’t feel like going out or having company, so stopped on my way home and bought **The Terror** , along with a bottle of wine and some rolling papers. I went home, cracked a window, and curled up in my chair to read. It was about -20 outside last night, with loud gusts of wind that beat against the house to remind you just how damned cold out it was; it was the perfect weather to read this book to. I finally had to put the book down somewhere around 2:30 am. I am loving it. I’m a little afraid that the Esquimaux woman is going to turn out to be a shapeshifter, which would be kind of lame, but I’m definitely enjoying the journey, even if the arrival will be a disappointment. Thank you all. (I also picked up **Drood** while I was there, and I can’t wait to start it.) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/28 "2009-02-19T15:50:08Z")
I liked the early Simmons; **Song of Kali** was terrific (though you may have to read it before anything else of his) and **Carrion Comfort** is a fine horror novel. **Summer of Night** is also very good, and I enjoyed the Hyperion novels and **Phases of Gravity**. I did find **Ilium** a real disappointment, and thought **Darwin’s Blade** was a real hack job – a second rate mystery that was only an excuse to describe guns in loving detail and recount hoary old urban legends. ---
**Author:** ![Discordia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Discordia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Discordia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/29 "2009-02-19T16:12:39Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I’ve only read Hyperion and it’s sequels, but I really enjoyed them. > > Never did figure out exactly what or who the Shrike was though If I’m remembering it right.. Short version: The Technocore succeeds in making its “Ultimate Intelligence”. Humans also create a god, with human attributes (important one being empathy). They ‘fight’ in some sense, the human god flees back in time. The UI creates the Shrike and the tree of pain, in an attempt to lure out the human god. The Shrike is based on that Kassad fellow, IIRC. After he defeats the Shrike. Yay for time paradoxes. IIRC it’s never explained in detail though, and the Endymion books contradict it, sooo. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanTigerTamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@SuntanTigerTamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanTigerTamer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/30 "2009-02-19T16:18:25Z")
> [@Discordia](#): > > If I’m remembering it right.. > > Short version: The Technocore succeeds in making its “Ultimate Intelligence”. Humans also create a god, with human attributes (important one being empathy). They ‘fight’ in some sense, the human god flees back in time. The UI creates the Shrike and the tree of pain, in an attempt to lure out the human god. The Shrike is based on that Kassad fellow, IIRC. After he defeats the Shrike. Yay for time paradoxes. > > IIRC it’s never explained in detail though, and the Endymion books contradict it, sooo. I have no idea what you guys are talking about, but it just sounds so damned _awesome_. I don’t generally read sci-fi (the last of the genre that I read and enjoyed was The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. I also enjoy pretty much all of Harlan Ellison’s stuff) but this sounds very interesting, and everyone so far has raved about the Hyperion books. Might have to give those a go also. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800/31 "2009-02-19T17:53:56Z")
I’m reading _The Terror_ right now and really enjoying it. Seems appropriate, in the dead of winter. Glad to hear that he’s got some other good ones out there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-read-dan-simmons/485800.md?page=1)