Deep and moving
I thought Dan Simmons had written himself into a corner with "Ilium," his mind-bending, classic literature sampling, time hopping saga of future Earth and Mars, genetically improved humans, post-humans, cyborgs, and alternative universes.
Luckily, it turns out that Mr. Simmons is a nimble author, and he knew what he was doing when he spun himself a narrative web this complicated.
While "Olympos" was in itself an engaging read, with plenty of action, emotion, and tragedy, I was especially pleased to find that the story went beyond these surface pleasures, and the author had a deeper point to make about the power of human creativity and history and consciousness.
I will probably add these two books to my permanent collection.