Ahira's Hangar

The next science fiction book from Dan Simmons, Illium, will be published in April, 2003. It is the first of a duology, the second book to be named Olympos. If you wish to read a bit of Illium, please click on the gray banner to access the author's website and then click on extras. And let us know what you think! my sister, o my sister! There's the cause on 't. Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust -- John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi", first performed in England in 1614<i></i>

The new release date is July 22, 2003 and will be supported by a tour by the author. He will be in Chicago , but not Detroit , and will be in several cities in the mountain states and the west coast. Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi  at: 7/25/03 12:55 pm
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Here is his touring schedule, as copied from his website. Dan Simmons will be about 10 miles from my house and about two from my work, when he is Ann Arbor, but I will not be able to go to his booksigning, since I will be at work.

2003 Book Tour Itinerary for ILIUM

Tuesday July 22, 7:30 PM -- Tattered Cover, Cherry Creek, Colorado
Wednesday, July 23, 7:30 PM -- Boulder Bookstore, Boulder, Colorado
Thursday, July 24, 7:30 PM -- Kepler's, Menlo Park, South San Francisco Bay area.
Friday, July 25, 12 Noon -- M Is For Mystery, San Mateo, CA
Friday, July 25, 7:30 PM -- Cody's, Berkeley, CA
Sunday, July 27, 2:30 PM -- Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA
Monday, July 28, 7:00 PM -- Vroman's, LA (Pasadena) CA
Wednesday, July 30, 7:00 PM -- Powell's, Portland, Oregon (Beaverton store)
Thursday, July 31,7:00 PM -- University Bookstore, Seattle, Washington
Friday, August 1, 7:00 PM -- Bookpeople, Austin, Texas
Saturday, August 2, 2:00 PM -- Borders, Schaumburg, (Chicago) Illinois
Sunday, August 3, 7:00 PM -- Borders, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, August 4, 7:00 PM -- Books & Company, Dayton, Ohio
Wednesday, August 6, (Time TBA, evening) -- Joseph-Beth, Lexington, Kentucky
Thursday, August 7, 7:00 PM -- Barnes & Noble, Chelsea (6th & 22nd), NYC
Saturday, August 9, 2:00 PM -- Barnes & Noble, Ft. Collins, Colorado
Sunday, August 10, 2:00 PM -- Barnes & Noble, Golden, Colorado

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i></i>

Lucky U! He could have just popped down 2 Albq..it's jus down the road from Boulder!!! And now Danlo looked in that direction, too. He remembered that snowy owls mate in the darkest part of deep winter, and so along with this beautiful white bird perched in a tree a hundred feet away, he turned to face the sea as he watched and waited.

Ahira, Ahira, he called out silently to the sky. Ahira, Ahira<i></i>

I guess I can try to see if they will let me have "lunch off station" that night, but will not be holding my breath.
God forbid we have lives outside of work. Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i></i>

Amazon delivered my copy of Illium today! I can't wait to get started! Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i></i>

u go girl! And now Danlo looked in that direction, too. He remembered that snowy owls mate in the darkest part of deep winter, and so along with this beautiful white bird perched in a tree a hundred feet away, he turned to face the sea as he watched and waited.

Ahira, Ahira, he called out silently to the sky. Ahira, Ahira<i></i>

Well, I have to finish Earth by David Brin first, I have been distracted by other things lately from my reading...

Here is the dust jacket description.

Quote:From the multiple award winning author of the Hyperion Cantos -- one of the most acclaimed and popular series in contemporary science fiction -- comes a huge and powerful epic of high-tech gods, human heros, total war, and the extraordinary transcendence of ordinary beings. Ilium. From the towering heights of Olympos Mons on Mars, the mighty Zeus and his immortal family of gods, goddesses, and demigods look down upon a momentous battle, observing -- and often influencing -- the legendary exploits of Paris, Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, and the clashing armies of Greece and Troy. Thomas Hockenberry, former twenty-first-century professor and Iliad scholar, watches as well. It is Hockenberry's duty to observe and report on the Trojan War's progress to the so-called deities who saw fit to return him from the dead. But the muse he serves has a new assignment for the wary scholar, one dictated by Aphrodite herself. With the help of fortieth-century technology, Hockenberry is to infiltrate Olympos, spy upon its divine inhabitants...and ultimately destroy Aphrodite's sister and rival, the goddess Pallas Athena. On an earth changed since the departure of the Post-Humans centuries earlier, the great events on the bloody plains of Ilium serve as mere entertainment. Its series of unrivaled heroics and unequaled carnage add excitement to human lives devoid of courage, strife, labor, and purpose. But this eloi-like existence is not enough for Harman,a man in the last year of his last Twenty.That rarest of post-postmodern men -- an "adventurer" -- he intends to explore far beyond the boundaries of his world before his allotted time expires, in search of a lost past, a devastating truth, and an escape from his own inevitable "final fax". Meanwhile, from the radiation-swept reaches of Jovian space, four sentient machines race to investigate -- and perhaps terminate -- the potentially catastrophic emissions of unexplained quantum-flux emanating from a mountain-top miles above the terraformed surface of Mars...The first book in a remarkable two part epic to be concluded in the upcoming Olympos, Dan Simmons's Ilium is a breathtaking adventure, enormous in scope and imagination, sweeping acrosss time and space to connect three seemingly disparate stories in fresh, thrilling, and totally unexpected ways. A truly masterful work of speculative fiction, it is quite possibly Simmons's finest achievement to date in an already storied literary career. Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i></i>

I ran out to Borders today to pick it up. Since there is nothing on deck for me to read, I'm going to start on it tomorrow. <i></i>

Please let me know how it is! Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i></i>

I saw Dan Simmons today at the Borders in Schaumberg. He gave a wonderful little talk that lasted about 1/2 hour.

- He read the first chapter from Olympos, what he said was all that he had written at this time. He was going to write the rest after the book tour.

- He said that he was through with writing Hyperion series, but that a big producer and actor were interested in the story... Simmons couldn't say the name but hinted that the producer was involved in a big movie last year about gangs in a major city. and that the actor was interested in playing Raoul Endymion.

He seemed a genuinely nice man, and it was a pleasure to go and meet him. <i></i>

Oh Damelon -- it sounds as if you had a wonderful time!
And the actor, according to rumor, who wants to play Raul Endymion also appeared in a little movie called Titanic Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i></i>

That's SO cool !!! Leonardo is turning in2 a really good actor...so good things might b happin' And now Danlo looked in that direction, too. He remembered that snowy owls mate in the darkest part of deep winter, and so along with this beautiful white bird perched in a tree a hundred feet away, he turned to face the sea as he watched and waited.

Ahira, Ahira, he called out silently to the sky. Ahira, Ahira<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 8/3/03 6:23 am
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I finally got to start Ilium yesterday, and Simmons grabbed me by the throat on the very first page and won't let me go!
Quote:Rage. Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles, of Peleus' son, murderous, man-killer, fated to die, sing of the rage that cost the Achaeans so many good men and sent so many vital, hearty souls down to the dreary House of Death. And while you're at it, O Muse, sing of the rage of the gods themselves, so petulant and so powerful here on their new Olympos, and of the rage of the post-humans, dead and gone though they might be, and of the rage of those few true humans left, self-absorbed and useless though they may have become. While you are singing, O Muse, sing also of the rage of those thoughtful, sentient, serious but not-so-close-to human beings out there dreaming under the ice of Europa, dying in the sulfur-ash of Io, and being born in the cold folds of Ganymede. Oh, and sing of me, O Muse, poor born-again-against his will Hockenberry - poor dead Thomas Hockenberry, Ph.D., Hockenbush to his friends, to friends long since turned to dust on a world long since left behind. Sing of my rage, yes, of my rage, O Muse, small and insignificant though that rage may be when measured against the anger of the immortal gods, or when compared to the wrath of the god-killer, Achilles. On second though, O Muse, sing of nothing to me. I know you. I have been bound and servant to you, O Muse, you incomparable bitch. And I do not trust you, O Muse. Not one little bit.

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i></i>

I should have named this emote: Silenus! And now Danlo looked in that direction, too. He remembered that snowy owls mate in the darkest part of deep winter, and so along with this beautiful white bird perched in a tree a hundred feet away, he turned to face the sea as he watched and waited.

Ahira, Ahira, he called out silently to the sky. Ahira, Ahira<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 8/11/03 4:50 am
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