…..Olympos by Dan Simmons, this is book 2 of his Illiad adaptation, if you can call it that.

I’d gone through the Hyperion books, and the follow up Endymion series, and found them utterly absorbing, real other world material. Now, I read a lot of books, and when I find a new author who I enjoy, I tend to read all their other novels consecutively, so naturally I bought the Illiad series as well.

I was a little unsure about this last set when I bought them, as they are based on Homer’s Illiad books of Greek Mythology, of which I’ve never been interested. Having read the first one “Illium” and now half way through the second “Olympos”, I’m totally hooked. I’d rate these and Dan’s other books, as well into my top 10, they’re absolutely fantastic.

For a sci-fi groupy, this is a revelation as I’m now thinkng of reading one of the translations of Homer’s Illiad itself, and watching Troy now, is just not quite the same, I mean they never even mention the name of Hector’s wife Andomanche in the film, and Brad Pit just doesn’t capture the Demi-God’ness of Achilles, I’d better stop there, otherwise I run the risk of becoming a Greek-Geek.

If you’ve read Dan’s other work and stopped short of the Illiad books, read them – you’re missing out.