# Dan Simmons has died **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 2, 2026, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140 "2026-03-02T15:45:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/21 "2026-03-02T23:45:40Z")
I forget what I’d read of his that made me pick up Flashback. Now I wish I could forget Flashback. He seemed to have the mindset that liberals don’t get to be right on _anything._ I don’t mind a writer being conservative, I loved Jerry Pournelle who, when he portrayed the other side, did so honestly.. But with the Simmons book, the vitriol dripped off of every page. I am only grateful that I picked it up at a library sale for maybe a buck and didn’t pay full price. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2026, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/22 "2026-03-03T00:49:35Z")
Yes. That’s when I gave up on him. The book was just an excuse to lovingly describe firearms. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/23 "2026-03-03T02:11:05Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Yes. That’s when I gave up on him. That was near his last book. Only two more after _Flashback_, plus one more that was supposed to be published in 2025, but wasn’t. ([It was also supposed to be published in 2017](https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18122879-omega-canyon-update), but wasn’t.) He got a brain injury in 2014 that apparently left him unable to continue writing much. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/24 "2026-03-03T02:42:11Z")
I enjoyed Hyperion Cantos 1&2, and agree that 3&4 are very different books. I do actually enjoy 3&4, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not sure I’d recommend them to fans of the first two. I read and enjoyed the Illium/Olympos dualogy, but didn’t feel the stories intertwined as successfully as Hyperion. And with the disappointment of the latter 4 novels, I didn’t read anything else, and thus was ignorant of the changing political tone. Still, I’m a sucker for anyone who works classic literature, poetry, and history into quality scifi, so I’ll miss their writing, even if not the person they became. 🍻 ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/25 "2026-03-03T21:27:40Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Too bad he turned into such a nutjob douchebag in later years. Oh, I hadn’t heard of that? In what way? Guess I’ll have to read more and find out. It’s not unprecedented I suppose: there was James Hogan who started off as a fairly interesting almost hard-SF writer and then went off into woo-woo in later life? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/26 "2026-03-03T21:31:04Z")
Oh no! Hyperion is one of my favorite books of all-time too! So, so good. In fact, I just bought an old hardcover copy of Hyperion for my bookshelf. I’ve already read it (more than once) but wanted a nice copy on my shelf. I just got it yesterday. RIP Dan. One of the best. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/27 "2026-03-03T21:33:00Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > Oh, I hadn’t heard of that? In what way? > > Guess I’ll have to read more and find out. Google up some reviews of _Flashback_. Also, take a look at this Reddit thread (for just one choice) > **[Reddit - The heart of the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/horrorlit/comments/1ksbgr2/i_didnt_realise_how_many_people_never_read_the/)** ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/28 "2026-03-03T21:34:46Z")
Or better, don’t. Keep a good image of Simmons in you thoughts and dig no further. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/29 "2026-03-03T22:58:10Z")
This. I prefer to avoid the later works (and news stories) of creators who have gone off the deep end like that, just so it doesn’t tarnish their earlier work in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/30 "2026-03-04T14:51:17Z")
T. Kingfisher memorialized him on Bluesky: > **[Kingfisher & Wombat (@tkingfisher.com)](https://bsky.app/profile/tkingfisher.com/post/3mfwx6tf43c2x)** > > Dan Simmons, noted racist, has died. He wrote Hyperion, which contained a good short story and then a lot of other words, which many of us read anyway because it was the Nineties and Waldenbooks had a limited science fiction section. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/31 "2026-03-04T14:56:13Z")
I love Ursula but I think she’s being unduly harsh with Hyperion and I suspect she’s having trouble separating the work from the artist. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/32 "2026-03-04T15:48:20Z")
Dan Simmons blocked me on AOL because I pointed out to him that Paul Dure’s cruciform was removed by the Shrike in Fall of Hyperion so it made no sense to have him resurrected in Endymion. There was also that bizarro short story that had a time traveler go back to 2002/2004, whenever to tell the protagonist about how all the Moslems destroyed the world. I even started a thread about that, but the link to the original story is broken. > [@Dan Simmons apparently has no use for Islam...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-apparently-has-no-use-for-islam/352333): > > [http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message.htm](http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message.htm) Reads like a Chick tract at times. But who here believes that Dan Simmons begged ignorance of Syracuse (not the one in New York, of course)? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140/33 "2026-03-04T16:16:41Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > I love Ursula but I think she’s being unduly harsh with Hyperion and I suspect she’s having trouble separating the work from the artist. I have just started a reread of _Hyperion_ after all this. It isn’t going to stop being one of my all-time favorite books. (I just recently reread another favorite, the 7 books in Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dan-simmons-has-died/1028140.md?page=1)