A new science fiction novel (two-parter) from Dan Simmons - what’s not to love? I just bought it tonight and am looking forward to diving into it. Ala Hyperion it is based upon epic poetry, this time Homers Illiad and Odyssey.
Has anybody here read it yet? What do you think? Use spoiler tags, please - I’ll probably read them (for me its the journey, not the destination), but others tend to object to having plot points given away. 
Oh, and if this book is too new to have many readers, this can be just a general Dan Simmons discussion thread. I’ve enjoyed everything of his that I read, with the exception-proving “Hollow Man.”
Gah, that last sentence sure sucks, doesn’t it? "… other than the exception-proving ‘Hollow Man.’ "
Talk to yourself much? 
Seriously, I enjoyed the Hyperion/Endymion saga a lot.
Hollow Man was okay. I’ll have to keep my eye out for the new novel.
Not really. But that third post was necessary to save my reputation as a well-written, eruditic Doper. At least, that’s how I view myself.
Liked (in order):
Carrion Comfort
Children of the Night
Summer of Night
Hyperon/Endymion
Crook Factory
Disliked[/U):
Darwins Blade
Song of Kali
Hollow man
When he is good – he is REALLY excellent, and/but when he is Bad he is Really, really bad.
For me the the excellent has so far outweighed the horrible and I will read the new book – & look forward to it.
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion were both excellent; at the top of my list of books to recommend to folks. The final two (Endymion and Rise of Endymion) were fairly flat, IMO.
Being a bit of a literature and classics geek, I await with baited breath an oportunity to see Simmons do to Homer what he did to Keats.
I’m an avowed Simmons fan… I like almost everything he’s written. Though Darwin’s Blade is definitely a change of gears from his usual work, I found it a really fun (if somewhat shallow) thriller. It didn’t have the depth I’ve come to expect from Simmons, but the genre he was writing in doesn’t really require depth.
I’m looking forward to Ilium. I’ve even convinced the science fiction book club I recently joined to read it in a few months. I think it was the description of Shakespeare-quoting robots and the links to Homeric myth which did it. The book has the potential to be really good.
I’m about halfway through Ilium. He’s working on a truly epic scale this time. I’m liking it, but can’t really comment until I finish.
Ilium was great. It feels very well researched. I can’t honestly say I’ve ever ran across anything quite like it. There’s just something profoundly amusing about robots who spend most of their time arguing about Proust and Shakespeare.
And that one-liner at the very end of the novel…I had to put down the novel, I was laughing so hard. You’ll know which one I mean when you get to it.
There are a few parts that didn’t feel like Simmons went into enough depth about…
The Gods’ origins, for example.
…but then again, it feels like it’s going to be part of a series, so I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be an issue.
Wow… this is the first time ever I have not looked in a spoiler box. I’m really excited for this book all of a sudden.