Helen of Troy is in mourning for her dead husband, Paris. Killed in single combat with the merciless Apollo, his body is nothing but a scorched and blasted thing. Hockenberry, her lover, still sneaks from her bed after their nights of lovemaking. And the gods still strike out from the besieged Olympos, their single-molecule bomb casings quantum phase-shifting through the moravecs' force shield and laying waste to Ilium. Or so Hockenberry and the amusing little metal creature, Mahnmut, have tried to explain to her. Helen of Troy does not give a fig about machines. She must dress for the funeral. And man and the gods and the unknown players in this tragedy must prepare for the final act. And a battle that will decide the future of the universe itself.
Oh boy. As much as I like the idea behind the Illium/Olympos series, this one required some suffering to make it through. I loved Hyperion, and the wealth of characters, and how well their stories intertwined in time, but for this one, most characters I could not connect with. Perhaps it has to do with basing the story around a first person point a view, which made it more difficult for me to think the story was more than the main character. The Illium storyline and the Gods were easily the most interesting, but when it came down to an explanation I wasn't satisfied with it.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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24 October, 2014:
Finished reading
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24 October, 2014:
Reviewed