Simmons Books

I am a huge fan of polar adventure stories, but this one is too long, repetitious, and misogynistic. I haven't read any horror stories before, but if this is a prime example, it must be a boring genre. White snow monster eats sailor, eats another sailor, dismembers another sailor, ad (literally) nauseum. The novel is more disturbing for how it portrays women: unknowable, sexualized (there is one sex scene with Crozier and a society woman which is almost laughable in its unrealistic male fantasy depiction), and only worthy if their tongues are cut out.

The basic story of two ships that set sail from England during the age of exploration to find a northwest passage is true. That neither ship was heard from again is also a part of history. As to what happened to the two crews and their ship, this story purports a possible explanation that is both fantastical and horrible.

If you enjoy this, the Hyperion series is a must-read too. Dan Simmons is a master of his craft; to keep you spellbound and ultimately to make you say WOW repeatedly.

The funny part about this, is that I hesitated buying the book. The only book I had read from Dan Simmons was Darwin's blade, and I didnt like it at all. But after reading a positive review in USA Today I thought I'd give him another shot. Am I ever glad I did! Quite simply, maybe the best book I've read in a decade. Meticulous in detail, a broad spectrum of fully developed complex characters in a spartan deadly landscape. I followed the voyage eagerly for nearly 800 pages- completely absorbed. Multi-faceted- an enormous achievement for Mr.Simmons.

I felt like I was there with the characters. It literally made me cold to think about what they were going through. So detailed, I needed little imagination! It convinced me not to go artic exploring. Dan Simmons makes the characters very real. I felt the book was a little too long but I couldn't put it down until I finished it. A good read, if a little long.....

I was pretty suspicious about this book when I started to read. A horror story combined with a historical fiction/arctic exploration novel, it combines a number of elements which I typically do not really like separately, let alone together. Also, I am *not* a fan of Simmons. I disliked Carrion Comfort very much-- found it tedious and emotionally manipulative. Given all that, I didn't have high hopes for the book, despite a glowing recommendation from a friend.

In the end, I found it quite a bit better than I expected/feared. It is quite readable, and once I got used to the shifting timeframes at the beginning, the pages moved very quickly. I also have to give Simmons credit for his diligence in research and his persistence in building such a huge book. I don't really like historical fiction. I really don't like arctic explorer novels (historical or modern). I think the fact that I still enjoyed the read given all that is pretty impressive.

Simmons does a particularly good job with the characters in general. That impressed me since that was the aspect that I liked the least in the other book that I have read by him.

I do have several quarrels with the book, and these kept it (in my mind) from being a great read rather than a good read:

* Kitchen-sinkism. We really didn't need to have so many sly little references thrown in. There isn't enough meta in the text for me to really have enjoyed artifices such as the Masque of the Red Death out on the ice. It annoyed me, even though I believe that it was meant to be a sly wink.

* The monster. I kind of liked it as an unexplained embodiment of the arctic-- mindless killer that seems to only become mindful to make sure that the wrong thing happens at the very long time. The explanation towards the end of the book felt unsupported. Although some of the mythology was put in through the character of Lady Silence, I did not feel as though the book built to its conclusion about the thing. It was also an explanation that I kind of felt had been done to death, so that was at least a little bit disappointing.

* Hickey. He's just too evil as a secondary monster. Too conveniently evil, anyhow. The way that he emerges at appropriate plot points to turn things to the worse got on my nerves. An online firend compared him to Pinky & the Brain and I myself was thinking about a twisted Of Mice and Men riff. That part was kind of fun, but he was just too obvious as a plot delivery vehicle. In contrast to most of the rest of the book, whose characters were painstakingly constructed, I just never bought him.

* Women. There were really only a few of them in the novel, and I guess that it could successfully be argued that the way that Simmons portrayed them reflected the views of the time. But not quite. There's a particularly disturbing trope that sometimes pops up in popular fiction that posits the evil/frigid/grasping/bullying/manipulative civilized woman against the free-spirited/young/mystical/virginal native women that is a nasty twist on how native populations have been typically portrayed. It isn't *so* bad in this book, but it is emphasized because of how central it is to Crozier's character arc. He's had two women in his life who both seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time flashing men with their private bits-- but one did it with an intent to manipulate while the other was unashamed and sincere. It left kind of a bad taste in my mouth. (And it didn't surprise me at all to come to find that Simmons is a serious fan of Jack Vance.)

All this sounds like pretty serious criticism, and I guess that it is. But I find it worth mentioning precisely because the book was so very good. It was disappointing to me that it didn't take that left turn south into great-- at least not for me. These points start to sum up the reason why even though I enjoyed it, I was happy enough to leave it in a hotel room in Sweden when I was done reading.

Honestly, I would have given this book three stars. But I've given it four because of the size of the accomplishment and the visible research and reverence that Simmons has for the history/material.

Couldn't put it down, every part ends in a cliffhanger, original and exciting. Highly recommended for true Science Fiction Lovers. If you don't like this book then you should read fantasy or something, because you don't have what it takes for SciFi. When I finished it I knew that I would read the follow up book, Olympos, no matter what the reviews said (they are mostly bad it turns out), and I can't wait for it to get here tomorrow. I also ordered the Hyperion books, this author knows how to write!

"Ilium" by Dan Simmons, © 2003

Mr. Simmons has a penchant for poetry. His story here reminds me of his previous trilogy, "Hyperion," a bunch of stories centered on John Keats. I am not big on poetry, it is good and interesting, but a lot of it needs so much knowledge I do not have (mythology, literary allusions, etc.) I am lost trying to get anything out of it. At least these stories have a beginning, middle and end, so, even with all the allusions I do not get, the stories are really good. Ya, hey, is this a sign of a good author?
This is a story in three parts: the first is of Gods on Olympos; or the new people of Earth.; or robots (called 'Moravec'). The good thing is that two combine in the end and the third is out of touch, but hey, who knows what the future will bring, especially in fiction.
The story is of quite a bit of growth and development. Characters become more then they were (and we readers are happy to see it); accidents happen on Mars, and it is good.
But then????the robots were supposed to be stopping some quantum transport stuff, and it did not happen. What gives?

No more Trojans, please.


I am sure I am all Trojan-analogued out with all the various pieces I have read over the last couple of years, and while I really like Simmons and some of his books and stories are among my all-time favorites, I have picked this one up twice and tried to read it, no joy.

(Book is actually 0-4 in this house, as the spousal unit has done the same thing).

Just one of those things, I suppose, so on to his next book, as this one is too tedious and uninteresting to be finishable.


1.5 out of 5

this long, boring, full of not finished ideas and stories will waste a lot of your time. beware. i bought it after reading the hyperion books. it never comes close! dan simmons, i will never read any of your books again.

I'd like to say that Dan Simmons is one of the best pure writers in science fiction, but that would pigeonhole him into a genre. In fact, he's also written his share of mysteries, horror stories and even a couple non-genre works. The last book I read by him, The Terror, can be described as a supernatural historical novel. Completely different from The Terror (and written a few years earlier) is Ilium, the first part of a science fiction epic that concludes with Olympos. Though different than The Terror in subject matter, it is equal in quality, which is to say it is really good.

Ilium takes place a couple thousand years in the future, at a time when most of humanity has disappeared from the Earth. A higher race known as post-humans had taken over, but now they seem absent. On Earth, only a few hundred thousand people remain, living an Eden-like existence. That is to say, they have all their needs attended to by mechanical servants, are free from harm and even death (until they reach age 100), and they are around as ignorant as five year old children. One older woman, Savi, has existed outside the system and has been able to say alive for fourteen hundred years; now she has recruited a few others to go on a mysterious mission, shaking them out of their blissful stupidity.

Meanwhile, on the moons of Jupiter, several sentient robots known as moravecs are gathered together to go on a secret mission to Mars, where large amounts of quantum activity is causing alarm. The moravecs include Shakespeare-loving Mahnmut and his friend, Orphu the Proust fan. They will be the only two to survive an attack when they reach the terraformed Mars; though they will continue the mission, they are not really sure what it is, only that they need to get to Mount Olympos to activate a mysterious device.

It is around Mount Olympos that the third and central storyline takes place, the reenactment of the Iliad. Thomas Hockenberry is a resurrected 20th century Iliad expert whose job is to monitor the events and see how much they correspond to Homer's epic. That means dealing with heroes like Hector, Achilles and Odysseus as well as Greek gods. Hockenberry is coerced by Aphrodite into a secret job, but eventually he will get his own ideas, threatening to derail the legendary history that only he is really aware of.

As just described, this is a complex story, filled with literary references. You don't need to have read Shakespeare, Proust or Homer to understand the story, but at least a familiarity with Greek mythology is helpful. And at 700+ pages, Ilium is an epic in its own right, even if only the first half of a longer saga. Though long and complex, it is also a real page-turner, well worth five stars, though the concluding volume will actually dictate the true quality of this tale. Simmons again demonstrates why he's one of the best writers around.

Hyperion was a marvelous read - I really enjoyed the combination of SF and fantasy/horror. Each of the stories were complex, entertaining, grotesque and tragic at the same time.

But this is not Hyperion: this is a cheaper version based on the same universe. Like a straight-to-DVD sequel of an excellent movie. The characters are not nearly as serious or interesting. Neither is the story - some of the moments are comical, to be expected in a Hitchhiker's Guide story - a good example of this is how the whole mission is stated by Martin in the first place: first save the girl, then destroy the PAX, then stop the TechnoCore ...

The whole book is basically a chase scene across the known universe, not that it makes it bad, its just been done before. The girl is not a convincing 11 old girl at all, she acts way too mature for her age and the constant "do this because I've seen it" becomes a bit irritating after a while. Then there are some strange errors - since when is 26 a prime number? And an ecology with two species, where each specie relies 100% on the other for food, is not stable - they will sooner or later (mostly sooner) become extinct.

The fact that this novel has already spawned at least 2 sequels means that somebody is liking it. For me, however, the charm is lost.

"Endymion" seems to get mixed reviews, but for me after the brooding, meandering "Fall of Hyperion" the new directions and focused action of "Endymion" made for a nice change of pace without sacrificing the greater themes introduced in the earlier novels. Where the Hyperion books examine mankind's growing dependence on machines, the Endymion books add to this mankind's dependence on religion.

Simmons jolts the reader by showing the unintended consequence of Meina Gladstone's actions: instead of freeing mankind by severing its dependence on machines, she has indirectly created the opportunity for a new form of enslavement through the delightfully creepy cruciform that had played a minor but significant role in the Hyperion tales. The new characters breathe new life into the tale by introducing a new host of moral dilemmas (often seen through the eyes and experiences of Father Captain de Soya) and the old debate between free will and fate (enter Raul and the child-messiah Aenea). A number of familiar faces return--most notably the Shrike, which has undergone a Terminator-like conversion from foe to friend.

Although the story is criticized as not being as "complex" as the Hyperion novels, I disagree. While none of the books comes close to rivaling "Hyperion"'s nod to Canterbury Tales or its incredible depth and richness of character, plot, and themes, I find Raul's introspective and retrospective telling from solitary confinement under a cruel death sentence quite interesting and prevents the labeling of this tale as a simple adventure story. For me, I found this narrative technique more enjoyable than "The Fall of Hyperion"'s reliance on the somewhat ethereal Severn cybrid. Yet, while Raul is the narrator of events, it is the god-child Aenea who is the primary focus of the story. While the "child-messiah" theme has been done--and done quite well--in science fiction (Dune and Ender's Game come quickly to mind), I believe Aenea holds her own. She does not fully come into her own until The Rise of Endymion, but even here we start to get a sense for what she is capable of--and the moral dilemmas she will force all people she encounters to confront and conquer.

By jump-starting the Hyperion Cantos with a host of new philosophical dilemmas and characters, I put Endymion on par with (and perhaps even slightly surpassing) The Fall of Hyperion. Each of the novels in this series offers something different, yet there is a sense of coherence from beginning to end. As another worthy--but under-appreciated--addition to the series, I consider Endymion an underrated work in the Cantos.

I fell in love with Simmons when Hyperion, and this book does not disappoint. It's an interesting, exciting story that kept the pages turning. One bit of advice, however, is not to expect a mere continuation of the story from the first two books. They serve more as a background that is necessary to understand this book, and while they obviously influence everything about the book, this is a totally new story that, I'll admit, went a completely different direction than I imagined. But that is not a bad thing at all...

Just like Hyperion, the story doesn't wrap up in this one book, so be sure to have The Rise of Endymion ready to go when this one is finished. Otherwise, you'll be left with a lot of loose ends.

This is the finest SF book I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It rates up there with my top 5 books of all time. The characters are well thought out, the settings are amazing. Dan Simmons makes this far-future galaxy not only seem believable, but real. His ability to tie so much information together in such a seamless fashion is unparalleled.

De Soya is a personal hero of mine. I won't go into it here, I wouldn't want to ruin it for anybody.

As for people comparing the second 2 books in the series with the first, I'd have to say the second two are slightly better...but read them all.

I like Dan Simmons' writing style. He has a great imagination and makes you feel like you are there seeing things for yourself. This may seem like a book that is simply the good guys running away from the bad guys -it is - but in the process you get to really like the characters in the book. There are many unanswered questions that hopefully will be explained in the next Endymion book.

If you like science fiction where you get to read about different worlds and different variations of humans, this book is for you.

Disclaimer: I am a religous reader of Simmons on ESPN page 2 and absolutely LOVE his work.

However, I found this book only moderately entertaining as it is a collection of his old works leading up to 2004. The book I bought had added commentary, but I found some of the references to be dated (of course) and less entertaining than his current work.

I recommend this book for anyone who is a Red Sox fan or a fan of Simmons writing from ESPN Page 2.

I have read some of the articles before but not many of them. But I have followed him on ESPN and he is one of the most entertaining sportswriters that I know. I don't even like the Red Sox because I'm an Oakland fan, but he does make it very enjoyable. Definitely a must read if you like the Red Sox but a highly recommended one just based on his writing style!

Fun and entertaining read for those that like their sports with a little something extra. Funny, insightful, and best of all the type of book a normal fan would write if given the chance.

Those familiar will Bill Simmons' column on ESPN know that his writing style is highly entertaining and unique. Not a traditional sportswriter Bill writes from the viewpoint of the fan, putting in writing what everyone else is thinking. The book compiles all his Red Sox related columns over a 5 year period, leading up to their first World Series Championship in 86 years. Its fun to relive the emotions of being a fan in those years, and the steps the team made to get to the pinnacle of the sport. While the columns aren't anything new, the footnotes that are added offer a unique perspective into what Simmons was thinking or explanations for jokes he refers to in previous columns. The footnotes really bring his columns to another level. The book is a very easy and entertaining read. Personally its my old standby for long flights, because it never fails to make me laugh out loud.

If you're looking at this, you probably know who Bill Simmons is and what his writing style is like. He set a trend in sports writing, integrating pop culture and sports and introducing his readers to his circle of friends.
To witness all this, you can read any of his weekly columns on ESPN.com. Or, you most certainly can read this book which replays the events leading up to and including the 2004 World Series.
But as our memories tend to become rosier with time, it seems now, in hindsight, that the Red Sox were destined to win in our lifetime, and further, be a dominating force in baseball for years to come. This book actually transports you back to that emotional place you were in, when the Red Sox continued to fall prey to the likes of Lucy van Pelt and there seemed to be no end in sight.
Simmons' charm is his uniqueness, yet ability to describe what everyone else is thinking and going through. And so through him and through "Now I Can Die in Peace," you reboard the roller coaster that was Boston's baseball team for 86 straight years and cry all over again when the ride surprises you with a soft landing.
It's definitely the kind of book you break out from time to time like your high school year book, shake your head, and say "well, i'll be damned!" -- Andy Wasif, author Green Monster University: Creating Die-Hahd Fans Since 1901

If you're the type of person who likes to know how things work, this book will clearly be one of the most interesting books you'll read. Before reading this book, I'd just fill up at the pump and go...never really think about how the oil got to the gas station. Most Americans take this step for granted. Next time you're on the highway though, look around, and really think about all the people driving--just like you--and try to imagine how so much oil could be taken out of the ground now and in the past several decades to satisfy all the drivers out there---truly amazing. Matthew Simmons goes thorough this process--step by step--of how people tirelessly explore for oil, extract it--now with great technical difficulty, and process it. You will not look at the world in the same way after reading this book.

As Matthew Simmons points out here, the world's largest oil fields in Saudi Arabia (and other major oil exporting countries) have matured, and it is increasingly technically difficult and expensive to extract oil from the elephant fields there. We are probably nearing a time of historical importance--a time when the easy oil has been extracted--and only expensive oil remains in the ground for future use. The ramifications of this theory are immense--especially considering how growth in the Chinese and Indian economies could fuel increases in oil demand in the near future. Unfortunately, Simmons offers few practical solutions for dealing with the ramifications of his theory. Rather, T. Boone Pickens comes to the rescue on this point with his "Picken's Plan"--as described in his book "The First Billion is the Hardest." Picken's book is highly recommended after reading Twighlight in the Desert. Let us pray our politicians head the warnings of these two prescient authors.

Matt Simmons has done his homework, and this book will be sited and quoted for years to come. If you want to see what the future looks like as we sail into the energy "perfect storm", this book will take you there.

A very interesting book. A beautiful rendition of speculative thought. The possibilities are thought provoking.

Excellent book well researched by Mr. Simmons, who years ago predicted $100 oil when most of the major oil companies were selling properties and downsizing. They ignored his predications and now are smaller and less prepared for expansion while oil exceeds $100 per bbl. His style may be a bit repetitive and dry for the non engineer or person familiar with the oil and gas industry but he makes a very plausible case.

Mr. Simmons' purpose in writing this book was to assess how long Saudi Arabia will be able to sustain its present rate of oil production. His assessment required extensive detective work as well as "reading between the lines" of Saudi Arabia's official statements because the Saudi's are highly secretive about their oil fields and they do not make any of their production data available to the public. Mr. Simmons concluded that Saudi Arabia will not be able to sustain its current production rates much longer and will soon enter a period of rapid decline.

Mr. Simmons' thesis is that conditions experienced at individual oil wells can be extrapolated to determine the level of depletion of the entire oil field in which the wells are located. As background, Mr. Simmons used old, but comprehensive, data on Saudi oil fields that were compiled prior to when Saudi Arabia nationalized its oil industry. This data establishes which Saudi oil fields are the largest and most productive. Mr. Simmons then analyzed more recent papers written on individual wells within the most important Saudi oil fields to see if these wells were exibiting signs consistent with oil field depletion. For example, oil wells with problems such as "gas caps" or "high water cuts" can be an indication that the entire oil field is in an advanced state of depletion. Mr. Simmons concluded that problems indicative of depletion are occurring at wells in Saudi's most productive oil fields. Mr. Simmons also noted that production increases at smaller fields and the development of newly discovered fields have been barely sufficient to offset the declines at the older fields.

Mr. Simmons is a formidable researcher, but his writing skills leave something to be desired. Rather than condense the complex technical information into coherent conclusions, he simply repeats the same facts over and over, apparently hoping that the reader will "connect the dots" for himself. Because of this, I probably missed many of the points Mr. Simmons was trying to make. Better organization and summary of the complex material could have made the book half as long as twice as understandable.

Here's a collection of 20 short stories, a script, a poem, a parable and an article on...

Little League baseball.

Which is the best thing in the book, amazingly enough. You realise this after forgetting how long you had been reading it, wondering what the hell will happen to this motley team of kids. Personal interest in this situation obviously raised Mr. King's work to a championship level well above your average local sports reporter's scribblings.

There are three standout, excellent stories, and a bunch of other good work, to give this group of tales an average of 3.75.

An eclectic mix. You aren't going to have a King without horror - not unless some publisher goes crazy, anyway. However, odd science fiction, some crime stories, a fantasy or two of the not really horrific kind, as opposed to people rending vampires earlier on in the book, or batmen later. There's even a Sherlock Holmes pastiche.

I'd give this a 4.75 overall as a job extremely well done. The author even recounts at the end how each story came to be, and manages that rather well, too.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Dolan's Cadillac - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : The End of the Whole Mess - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Suffer the Little Children - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : The Night Flier - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Popsy - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : It Grows on You - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Chattery Teeth - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Dedication - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : The Moving Finger - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Sneakers - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : You Know They Got a Hell of a Band - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Home Delivery - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Rainy Season - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : My Pretty Pony - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : The Ten O' Clock People - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Crouch End - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : The House on Maple Street - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : The Fifth Quarter - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : The Doctor's Case - Stephen King
Nightmares and Dreamscapes : Umney's Last Case - Stephen King


Camouflage pit, large, for highway animal.

4 out of 5


Calm mind lost.

4 out of 5


Have to shoot the little monsters, don't interrupt.

3.5 out of 5


Invisible, and pisses blood. Not good. Piss myself the ordinary way, very likely.

4.5 out of 5


Kidnappers should pick the human ones.

4.5 out of 5


Castle Rock survivors.

3 out of 5


I'm taking you home, my chomping little hero.

4.5 out of 5


Spoof eater curse signing time.

3.5 out of 5


Digitus impudicus extendis dunnyus takeoverus.

3.5 out of 5


Music biz mule dunny ghost.

4 out of 5


I do not want to be just like Buddy Holly.

4 out of 5


Need a zombie plan.

3.5 out of 5


Toad-poppin bad time in town tonight.

3.5 out of 5


Time is fleeting, grandpaness takes its toll.

3 out of 5


Anti-smoking anti-batmen squad.

4 out of 5


Mythos scoffer mortality.

4 out of 5


Renovation liftoff.

3 out of 5


Treasure map crim gives 'em a bath.

3.5 out of 5


Watson works one out ahead of the master, but they have to decide what to do with the criminals.

3.5 out of 5


Private eye story life swap Peoria pivot.

4 out of 5

This is the book for you if you like short stories, actually "You know they got a hell of a band" is a good one. Not all the stories are good, but you can have a good time reading them. If you like long stories I would recommend you another books like "The Shinning" or "It".

Another excellent example of Stephen King's work. His short stories are as suprising and well done as his longer novels. From man eating amphibians to killer toys to finger tapping, King's imagination seems to open up. My two personal favorites are Chattery Teeth and Rainy Season but none were a disappointment. An easy and definite read for all the Stephen King lovers.

I love taking long drives, and when I take those long drives, I love listening to audiobooks. Let me set the stage: when I listened to Nightmares and Dreamscapes, I was on my way to 29 Palms from Texas, all by myself, via back roads. Dark, unlit, deserted back roads. Somewhat unwisely, I popped this tape in around 8pm, somewhere in New Mexico, just as the sun was starting to set and make everything shadowy. Needless to say, the stories were a bit scarier than they would have been had I read them safely in my own, well-lit house with the alarm system at the ready. I credit (blame!) the actors for this, for they were outstanding! For example:

Crouch End: read by Tim Curry, quite possibly the scariest man in existence. I was familiar with the Cthulu myth, but to hear it through the imagination of Stephen King and the excellent, creepy and threatening Mr. Curry was terrifying.

Rainy Season: the very idea of maniacal toads raining from the sky is absurd, and the voice of Lisa Simpson doesn't seem scary at all. But put the two together on a dark, deserted road and you have a recipe for real fear.

The rest of this volume of stories is very good, if thought-provoking rather than terrifying. Vengeance lovers, rejoice! Dolan's Cadillac is a must-read (listen), as is The House on Maple Street.

I would recommend this book just for the introductory essay (see below).

[Note: I made some Mormon angry because of my negative reviews of books out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews almost as fast as they are posted.]

So your "helpful" vote is greatly appreciated. Thanks

King is a master writer, and I enjoyed this collection. I loved "Umney's Last Case" (evocative of 1930s crime fiction). Also liked the "House on Maple Street" (it kept me turning the pages).

The book is worth it for the introductory essay by Steven King. Here are some of the great lines from that essay, and I hope they make my short review worth reading.

Steven King wrote:

"When I was a kid I believed everything I was told, everything I read, and every dispatch sent out by my own overheated imagination. This made for more than a few sleepless nights, but it also filled the world I lived in with colors and textures I would not have traded for a lifetime of restful nights. I knew even then, you see, that there were people in the world--too many of them, actually--whose imaginative senses were eight numb or completely deadened, and who lived in a mental state skin to colorblindness."

Robert McCammon said something similar his brilliant coming-of-age novel, "Boy's Life"

"See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic they knew made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in themselves."

When poet Bobby Luczak is asked to go to Calcutta in search of the poet M. Das, he ignores friends' warnings and of course, says yes. His wife and infant daughter accompany him on what is to be something less than the perfect family holiday. M. Das has been missing for eight years, but recent reports suggest that the man is still alive and that there are unpublished works to be found. Luczak begins to suspect that it may be a scam, but the truth of the matter is far more horrifying.

A haunting tale that will stick with readers long after it's finished. Highly recommended!

This is book for real horror/splatterpunk fans, not people like me who read fiction or combination of epic fiction and thrillers.

Book is set in India, where I have never been and I really don't know if morbid underground cults and human sacrifices described in book exist, but book just sucks you in those unpleasant places and you feel as if you are witness to them.

All in all, this book reminds me of Clive Barker's early story 'Midnight meat train' from 'Books of Blood' and is too scary for me!

After reading the Hyperion and Iluim novels, I approached Kali with high expectations and was frankly disappointed. Maybe I'm jaded by images of human sacrifice, but reading Kali was like reading the novelization of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," minus the comedy.

I picked this up to read on the plane during a recent vacation and couldn't put it down. Simmons' writing never fails to engage the reader. Song of Kali started off a little slow, but picks up the pace and drags you in; and down to places you probably don't want to go.

It would have rated 5 stars, but it seemed Simmons felt the need to soften the finale, which seemed a little out of place. Overall, this is an excellent story, and not one for the squeemish.

The strength of this book is its stunning power of setting: the misery and festering evil that is this version of Calcutta. The scenes live and breathe and are vicarious fun to drift through - just like a movie.

However, the hero is extremely unlikable, constantly exploding like a five year-old prone to tantrums and impulsive behavior. Also, the plot has real credibility problems. Why did the hero take his wife and baby to such an awful place as Calcutta? He knew he was inconveniencing his wife (a math professor who had work to do), and he also knew that she, while Indian, was not steeped in the right culture to serve as an effective interpreter and guide for him.

Why? Well, obviously to put them in danger as a clumsy plot device. Ultimately, the plot problems capsize the interest of the setting. I wouldn't recommend this one unless you want to try a library copy first.

Carrion Comfort is truly an epic horror novel that pulls no punches. The imagery, the characters (some dying unexpectedly), the action, the suspense...this book has it all!! Yes, the book could have been shorter, and yes, I'm not quite sure I bought into Saul Laski and his arc...but other than those minor nitpicks, I loved this book!!! Melanie Fulle, Willie Borden, C. Barent Fuller, Bobby Joe, and let's not forget the most despicable Hollywood producer of all time :) Truly memorable characters that engage in truly despicable acts of violence...exactly what one would expect from a true horror classic!!!! And I love the idea of these "mind vampires" and their abilities...creepy to say the least.
Highly recommended!!

I'd never heard of Dan Simmons until about four weeks ago. Based on what was said, I tried his first novel, Song of Kali, and was big time disappointed. But I figured there had to be SOMETHING good about him, so I picked up Carrion Comfort to give him another try. I didn't know it was his second novel, it was just the only book my bookstore had in stock. The first half of the book is a Wow!, exciting, scary, original. The second half is more exhausting than entertaining. While it is inventive and well written, Simmons escalates the story to the point it seems like a 1960s Bond film, with the super secret high tech lair on an island and enough plot reversals to fill another couple of books. Put me in the camp that thinks the book would have been greatly improved with a 100-200 pages knocked out. And despite its great length, there are a number of issues that are set up and then never dealt with. Still and all, it's worth reading and I'll definitely pick up more of his work. (And ignore those comparisons to The Stand on the cover; the books are nothing alike.)

If you like horror - get this book now. Years after I read it the book still comes up in my mind. This is Dan Simmons at his best! The possibilities of this book are endless.

Dan Simmons has produce a horror novel of the disturbing kind. The vampires in this book are of a different stripe, being mainly concerned with mental control and degradation, not your average bloodsucking.

A young man comes across them in a nazi concentration camp, and decades later is still hunting them down.

The are more than one of these mindsuckers, and they have an annual gathering to indulge their horrific appetites.

The protagonist of the piece wants to get in and put an end to it.

I bought this book based up glowing reviews and the fact that it had won the Bram Stoker award.

The author introduces far too many characters at once and too quickly at that. No development or backstroy is given due to this. The description are overly detailed regarding the most mundane and pointless things

The characters are dull flat, and boring. They speak as if they were high class sophisticated nobles and because of this I was unable to relate to or even care about any of them. He tries so hard with cliches and sobstories to make us care about them but it's too easy to see through it.

The plot was much too predictable and only now do I see why it was about 900 pages. Simmons goes on and on without getting to the point or even having one in the first place. It could have been done in half the length and been better off for it.

This book is what books were made for. Conrad's gift to build a scene that comes alive in the mind is unsurpassed as far as I am concerned. His characters are imperfect and all too human. Their inner struggles are the same as those we have today. For the novice, this book may seem a little tedious but once you get into the flow of his imagery you are in for a treat.

I did not expect to enjoy this book, and it took a little while to get into it, but I found myself enthralled--and by the conclusion, moved--almost against my will.

Conrad's style here is a bit moody for my personal taste, but beautiful nonetheless. He makes brilliant use of the English language and is a master of the judicious metaphor. He draws you in as he slowly unravels his tale of an "overly romantic" man and his "exquisite egoism."

While Conrad doesn't quite compare with the great romanticists like Hugo and Dostoevsky, Lord Jim is one of the last great romantic novels, certainly far superior to almost any fiction being written today.

Joseph Conrad's tale of Lord Jim is a warning against taking yourself too seriously, expecting too much of yourself, failing to forgive yourself.

Jim is such a noble character but is he just another manifestation of Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot' - too honourable to be a survivor. Of course Conrad conspires greatly against Jim. With Jim's first great mistake - the one that, in his eyes, blighted him forever, it is as if God himself pardoned Jim, absolved him of any blame because there were no victims. And yet Jim cannot put the unfortunate aside push on with an effective life. But that's not quite true - eventually he does find a place for himself and the rest was up to Conrad's masterful plotting.

I also enjoy immensely the method Conrad uses of telling a tale through the eyes of an observer - Marlowe. While we are all participants in life, we are also very much more observers - if we care to observe.

other recommendations:

'Victory', 'Chance' - Joseph Conrad
'Virgin Soil' - Turgenev

The best book on the nature of courage I've ever read. Unfortunately, to appreciate it (and many other Conrad novels), you need to have a fair bit of experience in life. I tried to read Conrad at 13, then at 20. It seemed boring and I could not quite relate to his heroes, but now, when I am a bit older, I found his books and this one in particular, really interesting. This is not a page turner. I found myself reading pieces of 10-20 pages, then putting the book aside and taking some time to think. All in all, this is a really good book.

When I read Lord Jim for the first time as a teenager I found it boring. Many years later I now find it an amazing book. Conrad himself spent sixteen years at sea in the late 1800s, so this book is to some degree autobiographical. The version of this book that I have even quotes Conrad: "Every novel contains an element of autobiography." In this book, the protagonist, Jim, travels to a remote region of the world, far from Victorian England. In this sense, the plot is similar to that in one of Conrad's other famous works, Heart of Darkness. Other than that book, I'm not familiar with Conrad's other works, nor am I an expert in Victorian literature, so I can't place this in its proper historical context. However, it seems like an amazingly well written story in and of itself. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

Gene's 2nd book is not nearly as interesting as his first one, Kiss and Make Up. While his previous book is more of an autobiography and history of his band, Sex Money Kiss focuses on his love of cash and hatred of marriage. There is nothing really new or exciting to be found here, just rehashing in more detail his opinions regarding women and money. This book is for the true Kiss die-hrad fan or Gene Simmons fanatics only.

Great book, by someone that loves money. It is a raw and honest point of view that no wonder has been useful for Gene Simmons. You may not like it and as a musical idol, may sound deceptive, but it is mostly true and although it may be some exaggerated, may still work for those of you who deep inside know that money is everything. It is not a business plan, but has some interesting ideas here and there that are surely useful if you are doing financially fine. I highly recommend it.

WOW !!! I am reborn again. This book is my bible. I have hundreds of books on audio and I listened most of them. One day I wanted to walk in the park for twenty minutes and listen something, so I loaded Sex Money Kiss on my MP3 Player. I was so into the book that I did not realize I have been walking for two hours. I came back home and closed myself in a room till I hear the rest of the book. This is something that I have been waiting to hear for a long time. I am not a believer, but now in Gene Simmons I trust. To be clear I am not influenced by Gene as a Kiss member, because I am not a Kiss fan. I have listened hundreds of books and usually I rate my books between 0 and 3 for future reference, but this book I will rate 10, so I can go back to it again. Very true book although no woman will confirm it. I would suggest readers to ignore all female ratings, since the book exposes truths that women will not want men to even think about. Gene is a true messenger of all men and he found a new follower to admire him. Thank you for your honesty Gene and understand that you really created a masterpiece.

I didn't know much about Gene Simmons or Kiss. I found this book enlightening, entertaining, and worth reading. He gives sound financial advice, as well a look into his life, philosophies, and the business and history of KISS.

This was an entertaining insight into the life of Kiss frontman Gene Simmons. From his humble beginnings on coming to America to his rise to stardom and all the ideas and insights along the way. Definitely worth a read for both Kiss fans and anyone interested in how to make money and enjoy life to the fullest.