Olympos

by Dan Simmons

Reviewed by Coral

Since the fall of the Firmary, life on Earth has changed drastically. The voynix are no longer silent servants, instead they have became ruthless killers. Ada, Harmon, Daemon, Hannah and Odysseus tried to prepare the old-style human communities as best they could, but now that war is actually upon them, have they really learned enough to survive?

Back on Mars (and Troy) the alliance between Achilles and Hector has seen an end to the Trojan war, as now both Trojan and Greek forces make war on the gods of Olympos. But with the gods still looking to meddle in the lives of their favourite toys, and hatred simmering in both camps,  it may not be long before the Trojans and Greeks are making war on each other once again.

The Moravecs have been helping with the war against the gods, but all of the quantum teleportation on Mars has made it too unstable for them to stay. Instead they decide to head for Earth, to see if they can find any answers there. Unknowingly, they are about to, once again, fly right into the middle of a war zone.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first one. It felt like there was too much time wasted with needless subplots (at least in Harman's story). And I still felt like the characters from the three storylines spent too much time apart instead of interacting with each other.

Some parts of it are still confusing; I think I might have to read it again to fully understand it.

But, all in all, it wasn't a horrible book. It had an interesting concept and characters that I cared about.

Grade: B