Olympos (novel)

Olympos

Cover to the 2005 first edition
Author	Dan Simmons
Cover artist	Gary Ruddell; cover design by Ervin Serrano
Language	English
Series	Ilium/Olympos
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	HarperCollins, Eos imprint
Publication date	June 28, 2005
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	690 hardcover, 891 paperback
ISBN	0-380-97894-6
OCLC	57694972
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Class	PS3569.I47292 O49 2005
Preceded by	Ilium (2003)

Olympos is a science fiction novel by American writer Dan Simmons published in 2005; it is the sequel to Ilium and final part of the Ilium/Olympos series. Like its predecessor it contains many literary references: it blends together Homer's epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and has frequent smaller references to other works, including Proust, James Joyce, Caliban upon Setebos, Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Shakespearean poetry and even William Blake and Virgil's Aeneid.

Plot introduction

The novel centers on three main character groups; that of the scholic Hockenberry, Helen and Greek and Trojan warriors from the Iliad; Daeman, Harman, Ada and the other humans of Earth; and the moravecs, specifically Mahnmut the Europan and Orphu of Io. The novel is written in present-tense when centered on Hockenberry's character, but features third-person, past-tense narrative in all other instances. Much like Simmons' Hyperion where the actual events serve as a frame, the three groups of characters' stories are told over the course of the novel and their stories do not begin to converge until the end.

References to the real world

The "Paris Crater" location (a devastated French capital) includes a few references to the real world, supposedly produced by folk etymology such as "Invalid Hotel" for "Hôtel des Invalides", "Champs Ulysses" for "Champs-Élysées" or "Guarded Lion" for "Gare de Lyon". A single reference in passing is made to the mountain "Pikespik" (for "Pikes Peak").

External links

• Olympos on Worlds Without End