I finsihed Ilium by Dan Simmons last night and it is a cool book. Dan Simmons writes the kind of stuff I want to write, big long epics where the fate of humanity lies in the balance. Course, I'd like to have a more Stephen King element, character development and use of language. Seems that I do have a small understanding of language Steph, I just have a different view of it.
Maybe that's the secret of language. Maybe different styles of writting attract different types of people. I'd appreciate some feedback on this, and not just Steph this time. I want to see more hands this time.
Anyway, breif plot of Ilium. It takes place in the distant future where Mars has been Terraformed and is ruled by Ancient Greek gods. Know these gods are currently in the middle of the Trojan War and have brought back a bunch of famous classical scholars who work as field agents. One of these field agents is Thomas Hockenberry, who near the beginning of the novel is hired by Aphrodite to kill Athena.
Meanwhile back on Earth, the world is inhabited by a bunch of eloi-type humans who's only goal in life is to go around and party as exemplified in Daeman, who's only interests are getting laid and collecting butterflies. On one of his missions to get laid he meets Harman, who is possibly the only human on the planet who still knows how to read. They end up going on a mission across most of Earth via fax-portals, where they learn a whole lot more about what's going on with Earth.
And on the moons of Jupeter, a bunch of Moravecs are gathered together to investigate the build up of Quantom activity on Mars, which may lead to a real catistrofic event like destroying the solar system. The crew includes Mahnmut, Ganymedian captain of the Dark Lady and amateur scholar of Shakesphere's sonnets, and Orphu of Io, a giant horseshoe crab robot with a foundness for Proust. There are two other moravecs, but they die so they arn't important.
I'm not going to give away the rest, but it has everything a good novel needs. Read it, and while your at it, read Hyperion, also by Dan Simmons. They are good books and I'm pretty sure are an influence on me.
Maybe that's the secret of language. Maybe different styles of writting attract different types of people. I'd appreciate some feedback on this, and not just Steph this time. I want to see more hands this time.
Anyway, breif plot of Ilium. It takes place in the distant future where Mars has been Terraformed and is ruled by Ancient Greek gods. Know these gods are currently in the middle of the Trojan War and have brought back a bunch of famous classical scholars who work as field agents. One of these field agents is Thomas Hockenberry, who near the beginning of the novel is hired by Aphrodite to kill Athena.
Meanwhile back on Earth, the world is inhabited by a bunch of eloi-type humans who's only goal in life is to go around and party as exemplified in Daeman, who's only interests are getting laid and collecting butterflies. On one of his missions to get laid he meets Harman, who is possibly the only human on the planet who still knows how to read. They end up going on a mission across most of Earth via fax-portals, where they learn a whole lot more about what's going on with Earth.
And on the moons of Jupeter, a bunch of Moravecs are gathered together to investigate the build up of Quantom activity on Mars, which may lead to a real catistrofic event like destroying the solar system. The crew includes Mahnmut, Ganymedian captain of the Dark Lady and amateur scholar of Shakesphere's sonnets, and Orphu of Io, a giant horseshoe crab robot with a foundness for Proust. There are two other moravecs, but they die so they arn't important.
I'm not going to give away the rest, but it has everything a good novel needs. Read it, and while your at it, read Hyperion, also by Dan Simmons. They are good books and I'm pretty sure are an influence on me.
2 comments:
Well, I was waiting to comment with the hope that someone else would, since you pretty much already know my take on language.
I definitely agree with that bit about different styles of language attracting different people. Like, the Shakespeare nuts for example. Yeah, I hate Shakespeare, but for sure there are many, many people who think he's an absolute genius.
To each his own, I suppose.
Thanks Willy's Mom. It's fine on my end.
Post a Comment