Harper Torch, 2003, 725 pages
ISBN: 978-0-380-81792-4
Read: February though April, 2017, age 39
I spent the whole book unsure of where the author was headed - there are three very disparate plotlines, and I'm still not quite sure exactly where it's going to end up. There's one more book to straighten it out.
No real spoilers, just a jump.
It's a two-book series, and the first one does not end... well, the end feels like the whole book was setting up #2. I'd suggest to have them both on hand.
Ilium is a really dense book that feels like Hyperion in a lot of ways. (That's really high praise. If you haven't read Hyperion and have any interest in the kind of books that I've been reviewing here, you probably should.)
It's far-future sci-fi set mostly on nigh-unrecognizable versions of Earth and Mars. The characters are diverse, generally relatable in some way, and have very odd backgrounds, which makes normal, sane decision-making mean different things for each of them. The writing is really well-done. In general, I really liked this book.
What keeps me from rating it a 5 is that it was not really that compelling. I went on a holiday with the book partway finished, and just left it at home. It's a big book, and wasn't worth taking a mostly-done tome on the plane. When I got back, I read another book before finishing it off. I enjoyed reading it when I was reading, but when I wasn't, I didn't really want to pick it up. I'm not sure why, but my best guess is that home is currently pretty busy and adding complex reading to my schedule may be just too much for my brain right now.
Anyway, it was a really solid book, and certainly worth reading. Once I work up the energy, I'll tackle the sequel.
Rating: 4
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