History Literature / Illium

[[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dan_Simmons_Ilium_2433.jpg]]

''Ilium'' is a SpeculativeFiction novel by writer Creator/DanSimmons. It's a sprawling epic story that is conveyed through three seemingly disconnected but intertwining narratives. Though it touches on many topics, the story is perhaps best described as a [[RecycledInSpace high-tech reenactment]] of UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar.

* {{Doorstopper}}: The novel clocks in at 573 pages, which is fair, as it is really two stories cut in half for readability. The continuation of the story happens in ''Olympos'', and that companion novel takes the {{Doorstopper}} element of the books UpToEleven - it clocks in at '''690''' pages.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: This is what happens when the entire cast of ''Literature/TheIliad'', a resurrected scholar from the 21st century, several sentient robot creatures, and a band of five old style humans on Earth in one story. It's no wonder that the novels are ''huge.''

* JerkassGods: almost all of them, except for The Quiet and [[OnlySaneMan Hephaestus.]] If they're not playing toy soldiers with actual people, they're plotting and scheming among themselves, or in some cases, doing both, though in Hephaestus' case, he's actually plotting to ''stop'' the war and keep his fellow gods from destroying all of existence.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: This is what happens when the entire cast of ''Literature/TheIliad'', a resurrected scholar from the 21st century, several sentient robot creatures, and a band of five old style humans on earth in one story. It's no wonder that the novels are ''huge.''

* EldritchAbomination: Setebos

* GreekChorus: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Thomas at the very beginning of the, since he is supposed to ''be'' the GreekChorus to the Gods who resurrected him. [[PlayingWithTropes Played with]], since the intro stylistically hews close to actual actual Greek Choruses ("Sing, O Muse..."), but then he actually lampshades the trope:

!''Ilium'' and its sequel ''Olympos'' contain examples of the following tropes:

* CoolOldLady: Savi.
* CoolOldGuy: Harman and Odysseus.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: The ending of ''Ilium.''

* AuthorTract: The second half of Olympos is home to several dozen pages of the author expounding on how awesome writing is - fictional writing, non-fictional writing, etc. Taken as a whole with his comparisons of pre- and post-literate societies, can become somewhat {{Anvilicious}} after awhile.

* AchillesInHisTent: Hockenberry subverts this trope deliberately in-story, motivating Achilles to rouse himself against the gods by disguising himself as Athena and abducting Patroclus.

* NoBisexuals: Hockenberry almost blue screens when he sees Achilles and Patroclus snuggle up together after they have just had sex with women. Apparently he somehow missed the part about them being from AncientGreece.

* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler:A vengeful Zeus invokes this after realizing Hera drugged him to take him out of the picture while she tried to restore status quo on Ilium-earth. Helen, when later recounting the scene to Hockenberry, explicitly uses the word ''destroyed'' to describe Hera's fate, and mentions that the [[ChunkySalsaRule pieces of Hera and her chariot that fell from the sky]] continued burning and sizzling for days.]]

* JerkassGods: almost all of them, except for The Quiet. If they're not playing toy soldiers with actual people, they're plotting and scheming among themselves, or in some cases, doing both.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The situation of the Greek gods can be seen as one of ClarkesThirdLaw. They plunged headlong into TheSingularity and came out on top with an almost ''unfathomable'' level of technology, including but not limited to effective immortality, instant travel, and transdimensional portals, but humans will still be [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]] and they use their powers to literally play ''gods'' and reenact the Battle of Troy as their own personal LARP session, uncaring of the actual human suffering they're causing along the way. Not only that, but the Laws of Conservation of Energy are in full effect here, and the sheer ''amount'' of energy exchanged that the gods use to play their giant game session is literally ''tearing the universe apart at the seams.'' At the same time, there are also moments that ''can't'' be explained by even the most advanced of technology in the book, implying that there's something more than just sufficiently advanced tech going on behind it all.

* NobleDemon: Hephaestus, who is far more likable than the rest of the Olympians.

* OnlySaneMan: Hephaestus is the only Greek god who remembers being a human, as a result he is much more stable than the others.

* LovePotion: The leader of the Amazons uses a perfume variant in an attempt to infatuate and immobilize Achilles so she can kill him. Unfortunately for her, she underestimates Achilles' fighting ability (and the direction of the wind) and she and her comrades are slaughtered. Unfortunately for ''him,'' he catches a whiff of the perfume after the fact, and finds himself hopelessly and permanently in love with a ''corpse.'' His journey to find a way to revive her actually becomes a vital part in Hephaestus' plot to overthrow Zeus and end the war.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The situation of the Greek gods can be seen as one of ClarkesThirdLaw. They plunged headlong into TheSingularity and came out on top with an almost ''unfathomable'' level of technology, including but not limited to effective immortality, instant travel, and transdimensional portals, but humans will still be [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]] and they use their powers to literally play ''gods'' and reenact the Battle of Troy as their own personal LARP session, uncaring of the actual human suffering they're causing along the way. Not only that, but the Laws of Conservation of Energy are in full effect here, and the sheer ''amount'' of energy exchanged that the gods use to play their giant game session is literally ''tearing the universe apart at the seams.'' At the same time,
there are also moments that ''can't'' be explained by even the most advanced of technology in the book, implying that there's something more than just sufficiently advanced tech going on behind it all.

The sequel, ''Olympos'', continues the story: The "Trojan War" has been derailed completely by the arrival of the Moravecs, and now they fight along side the [[EnemyMine uneasily allied]] Trojans and Greeks against the "gods" that once used them as playthings. On Earth, humanity's peace has been completely upended as the once-docile Voynix, which once served and protected humans have suddenly become murderous killing machines that kill all humans on sight, and have already overrun several human settlements. As Ada, Daeman, and Harman search for a way to stop the Voynix, they find themselves hunted by a terrifying monster that serves a mysterious, even more terrifying master...

At the same time, near Jupiter, two "[[StarfishRobot moravecs]]" named Mahnmut and Orphu spend their time, when not mining the seas of Europa or flying around the Jupiter system, [[ConversationalTroping discussing ancient literature]], [[AuthorAppeal the likes of Shakespeare and Proust]]. Eventually, they notice [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale strange readings emanating]] from Mars, and determine that something there is [[RealityWarper warping reality]] to a degree which [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt could destroy the universe]]. Mahnmut and Orphu begin to journey towards Mars with a small team to investigate, unaware of the dangers that lurk on the mysterious Red Planet...

The sequel, ''Olympos'', continues the story.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The situation of the Greek gods can be seen as one of ClarkesThirdLaw. They plunged headlong into TheSingularity and came out on top with an almost ''unfathomable'' level of technology, including but not limited to effective immortality, instant travel, and transdimensional portals, but humans will still be [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]] and they use their powers to literally play ''gods'' and reenact the Battle of Troy as their own personal LARP session, uncaring of the actual human suffering they're causing along the way. Not only that, but the Laws of Conservation of Energy are in full effect here, and the sheer ''amount'' of energy exchanged that the gods use to play their giant game session is literally ''tearing the universe apart at the seams.'' At the same time, however, there are moments that can't be explained by even the most advanced of technology in the book, implying that there's something more than just sufficiently advanced tech going on behind it all.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The situation of the Greek gods can be seen as one of ClarkesThirdLaw. They plunged headlong into TheSingularity and came out on top with an almost ''unfathomable'' level of technology, including but not limited to effective immortality, instant travel, and transdimensional portals, but humans will still be [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]] and they use their powers to literally play ''gods'' and reenact the Battle of Troy as their own personal LARP session, uncaring of the actual human suffering they're causing along the way. Not only that, but the Laws of Conservation of Energy are in full effect here, and the sheer ''amount'' of energy exchanged that the gods use to play their giant game session is literally ''tearing the universe apart at the seams.''

* UnrealisticBlackHole: Really badly abused in one of the more ridiculous side plots in the novels. [[spoiler: The Global Caliphate, having finally become so crazed as to want to destroy the world, somehow find the mass to create bowling ball sized black holes, then load them onto missiles somehow, and plan to launch them from a submarine. The plot fails of course]]. The [[ArtisticLicensePhysics bad science]] here is just so extreme that it breaks right through the boundaries that have already been pushed in the storyline.

* {{Expy}}: Savi [=/=] [[spoiler: Moira]] is essentially [[spoiler: Rachel Wintraub of the ''Literature/HyperionCantos'']] placed into a new setting. Much like [[spoiler: Rachel, she can travel back and forth in time and her death brings rebirth for herself as "Moira" and the others of humankind. Heck, once Prospero even refers to her playfully as "Moneta", Rachel's nickname in the ''Cantos'']]It is, however, explicitly stated that [[spoiler: Moira is a post-human who took over Savi's appearance, and is not actually Savi.]]

* DoomedHometown: [[spoiler: Ardis Hall for Ada. It survives the first book, but halfway through the second, it is burned to the ground by the Voynix in the second.]]

* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler:A vengeful Zeus invokes this after realizing Hera drugged him to take him out of the picture while she tried to restore status quo on Ilium-earth. Helen, when later recounting the scene to Hockenberry, explicitly uses the word ''destroyed'' to describe Hera's fate, and mentions that the [[ChunkySalsaRule pieces of Hera and her chariot that fell from the sky]] continued burning and sizzling for days.