Customer Reviews

Worlds Enough & Time: Five Tales of Speculative Fiction

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There isn't a single thing Simmons isn't capable of writing. His novels have touched nearly every single genre - horror, dark humour, sci-fi, fantasy, action, hard-boiled crime... Simmons is able to dip his pen in every type of story that fancies him, and always excels at it. His new collection, Worlds Enough and Time, contains five science-fiction stories. But Simmons isn't able to simply write the typical sci-fi yarn. What he does is go deeper than most authors do to get a meaningful, powerful and always affecting final product.

The collection's best story is also its opener. Looking For Kelly Dahl is a ghost story in which a man is confronted by one of his old students. After a suicide attempt, the narrator awakens in an empty world where the only two inhabitants are himself and Kelly Dahl, a disturbed young woman who wants something out of him. What that is, however, isn't clear until the last pages of the story. Affecting, touching and often terrifying, Looking For Kelly Dahl is an amazing story that fully displays Simmons at his very best.

I also really enjoyed the stories The Ninth Av and On K2 with Kanakaredes. In the first story, history repeats itslef with the earth's distant Jewish descendents are faced with yet a new period of assimilation and darkness. In the second story, three men who are set on climbing to the top of K2 are forced by the government to bring an alien ambassador along for the ride. Both stories are widly original and thought-provoking.

Fans of Simmon's amazingly popular Hyperion series will be happy with the story Orphans of the Helix, which takes place in the Hyperion universe. Although a little slow moving, the story pushes just the right buttons. And the final climax is just perfect.

The only story that truly disappointed me is the closing piece, called The End Of Gravity. Well, it's not really a story, but really a film scriptment. And that's exactly how it reads: like an outline. I'm not a big fan of present-tense narratives, like this story makes the use of. And I can't say that the story itself provoked the same feelings the other four stories in this collections unearthed in me.

All in all, Worlds Enough and Time displays Dan Simmons at his very best. These stories, although all falling in the sci-fi genre, should please fans of the genre but also the people who do not particularly like science fiction. Because these stories are very litteray. If you read between the lines, you'll always find more than is displayed on the page. And that is what makes an author stand above all others.

Overall, if you are a fan of Simmons, this book is a must have as 2 of the stories touch upon worlds seen in his larger works. Specifically "The Ninth of Av" is a prequel to Ilium, and "Orphans of the Helix" is a sequel set in the Hyperion universe. I was not overly impressed by the opening story of "Kelly Dahl" about a man trying to kill himself and an enigmatic former student of his with world changing powers. I never felt for the main character nor did I care if he killed himself or not. "Orphans of the Helix" was a nice revisiting of a far flung colony of Ousters and Templars set many years after the events in the Endymion duology. I thought the resolution of the dilemma in the story was a little forced though, abrupt even. "The Ninth of Av" was a mildly interesting story set just before the Final Fax that is mentioned in Ilium. It sheds some light on those events and flows a little better into its parent universe than "Orphans" which was more of a stand alone story just happening to appear in the Hyperion universe. It made me want to re-read Ilium. "On K2 with Kanakaredes" was a great story about a company of climbers on the slopes of K2 (go figure) who for political reasons must take an alien with them. This was my favorite story out of the 5. I must have missed the point of "The End of Gravity" because it was only average to me. An american writer is sent to Russia for a story on the russian interests in the International Space Station. It shows the russians as proud of their space achievements in a way that America has not been for a long time. More interesting to me and a high point of this book were the anecdotal introductions to each of the stories. They give a glimpse into the life of Simmons that I enjoyed more than some of the stories. I will admit though I am not a huge fan of the shorter fiction. I prefer novel length stories so take this review that that grain of salt. Every once and a while a story really captivates me and makes me remember it, but I can't say that any story in this collection had that effect on my except "K2". So I will agree with a previous reviewer and recommend this to any Simmons fans for sure, but if you are new to him, start with some of his novels which I think are much better (at least the 5 I have read are). I would rate this as 3.5 out of 5.

Dan Simmons' WORLDS ENOUGH AND TIME didn't receive quite the fanfare it deserved when it was published late last year. WE&T, which collects five of Simmons' best recent sci-fi (or speculative) novellas, was originally put out in hardcover by a small press, in a relatively small run. It wasn't made readily available to the readers who would have eaten it up until its large-size paperback publication earlier this year, which means it unfortunately missed its window of window time at the front of the major chain bookstores, where bestsellers get stacked like Aztec pyramids.

It's too bad, because WE&T contains some of Simmons best work. Some of the best work from a guy who has been writing consistently for over twenty years now without hardly ever compromising the intelligence, emotion, and spontaneity of his output.

If you like Dan Simmons' work, but haven't read this one (or haven't even heard of it until you clicked on this page) don't waste any time...click on the add to your cart button, or run out to your local bookstore or library and hope they have a copy. It's a short, but consistently good collection that'll keep reminding you over and over again what a good writer Simmons is.

The collection includes two pieces that tie into Simmons' larger Sci-Fi opi (let's pretend I didn't use that phrase): THE HYPERION CANTOS, and the recently begun ILIUM-OLYMPOS saga. "Children of the Helix," probably the tightest plotted and most thrilling story included in WE&T is drawn from the HYPERION universe, though, as Simmons explains in his introduction for the tale, he originally wrote it as a STAR TREK episode. "The Ninth of Av," an obscure and yet strangely moving look into the far-future, serves as the seed for the new Homeric saga that Simmons has just begun this summer with the excellent ILIUM and will continue next year with OLYMPOS.

Also included is "Looking for Kelly Dahl," a great first narrative detailing a truly bizarre relationship that reads half non-fiction of Tracy Kidder and half like Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND. The writing is this tale is probably the best in the collection and nearly the best in Simmons' career. He hits all of the right emotional notes so that they resound like echoing memories in an empty house. It's just beautiful.

Rounding out the collection are a thrilling adventure story about a team of rogue mountaineers that must climb K2 with an alien. Definitely a journey a discovery. Also, Simmons includes an interesting treatment for a movie that he wrote, which if made, might star Dustin Hoffman.

At the end of the day, WE&T is a great bite-size sampler of Simmons at his best. It's either a great introduction for those unfamiliar with the work of this amazingly talented writer, or a great unexpected treat for those Simmons fans who may have missed this one when it initially fell through the cracks.

Dan Simmons has written a masterfull work. I have marked down four stars when I really give it 4 1/2. This is wonderfull to read. Simmons also writes an anecdote to each story about the story or his connection to writing the story. In his anecdotes, you find that he loves where he lives and loves the annual neighborhood get togethers. He also loves writing, but not necessarily the business of writing. Taken together, they add a nice depth to his writing and gives you a greater appreciation to his stories. There are five here and not one of them is a dud. He returns to Hyperion in one of the stories and the reader would enjoy the story more if they had read the series, but the story still stands on its own legs. He also writes about mountain climbing with aliens and the brotherhood that develops with such an activity whether you are human or not. The "End of Gravity" is about an American writer going to Russia to look at their space accompishments. The "Ninth of Av" is about Jewish decendents going through another dark period of history.

If you are new to Dan Simmons, then this is a good book to start with becasue you get a wide variety of his style and abilities. Highly Recommended.

If you like Dan Simmons, then this is a book I highly recommend. If you don't or haven't read his work before, I'd recommend other novels (such as the Hyperion series) before reading this collection of short stories. Some of the stories were better than the others, 'Orphans of the Helix' for example, but in general a good read and thought provoking. One complaint: I didn't care for 'The Ninth of Av,' as I felt it to be rather obtuse and muddling, and assumed a bit too much about the reader's perceptions and interpretations.

Like nearly everything Simmons has written after 1999 (the exception being A WINTER HAUNTING, which rates at least three or four stars), this collection is filled with stories that either have too much verbiage, or too little plot, or both.

The exception is the first story:
1)"Looking For Kelly Dahl": This is the very last story Simmons has managed to write (thus far) which didn't get bogged down by didacticism, strident politicism, or (more sadly) a third act that wasn't given enough thought. It reads as if it is part ghost story, part science fiction (quantum physics -- two souls popping up in an alternate reality, ala THE HOLLOW MAN). And the narrator -- a teacher who suffered from alcholism -- is a suitably flawed man. As he traverses the strange, almost otherwordly landscape -- which seems to have been created by both himself and his former student, Kelly -- it becomes apparent that there may have been something going on between himself and the teenage girl (there's even a sort of homage to "The Most Dangerous Game").
Dynamite story, in which Simmons proves that he was still able to tug the heart strings of the reader while telling a fantastic tale.
2)"Orphans of the Helix": actually a pretty fun, space opera story. And it has a _great_, scary machine-thing (shades of Star Trek -- 1960s version) that threatens the space ship on which the "intersellar pilgrims" are travelling. But it stutters in a few places, and one gets the sense that it's because the author cobbled up this "sequel" (to his "Hyperion" and "Endymion" novels) due to the clamor of his fans, and a desire to be included in a really cool anthology (FAR HORIZONS).
3) "The Ninth of Av": This one is interesting solely because it is a sort of prequel to ILIUM and OLYMPOS (the first of which was terrific; the second, well...). Mostly, this story seems to exist for one reason and one reason alone: as polemic. Jews good, muslims bad. That's as deep as the thought behind this piece gets. Sort of a precursor to the extraordinarily wrong-headed dreck that Simmons eventually turned out on his website during the height of Bush/Cheney popularity. Yeech.
4) "On K2 With Kanakaredes": A bit of sci-fi fluff cobbled up to fill yet another slot in yet another anthology. The sad thing is: the author wants us to believe that an advanced race which travels across great expanses of space and time can't find a good mountain of their own to climb back on their home world. Oy.
5) "The End of Gravity": This is a good outline in search of some prose. Basically: filler material.

"Kelly Dahl" is excellent, and thus rates one star. But of the other four, only "Orphans" rated half a star (the others, not so much). Still can't do half a star in these ratings, so I'm going with the one.
**FINALLY NOTE, added long after ther review was written: This regards the story,"The Ninth of Av" and an polemic essay that Simmons wrote around 2003, 2004 or so (about a "time traveler" who comes from the future to warn the author of a time when Muslims control the world, or some such craziness): I've seen endless speculation on discussion forums by fanatical followers of Dan Simmons's writing, and in all of them (that I checked a while back -- maybe someone has wised up), ALL of his devoted readers had NO CLUE as to the what the three words Simmons mentions in his crazy "essay-cum-story". Given that they are so devoted to his fiction, it's surprising none of them (at least when I last stumbled across one of those slavish "gatherings") never noticed that the answer to their query lies within "The Ninth of Av": the three words, spoken in arabic, are even mentioned in Simmon's introduction to this story. Perhaps it speaks to how little some of them really understand what it is, exactly, that they are reading. Sad days.

Dan Simmon's writing is always great, even in disposable pulp fiction like his Joe Kurtz novels, and in this volume he's got the goods when it comes to the stories. He chose to include the commentaries for all stories as well and he makes his short and lucid entries interesting and relevant.
Stylistically and thematically the stories are varied- in "Looking for Kelly Dahl" Simmons is looking for Philip K.D. but even with the shades of Ubik, this is a good one; The End of Gravity didn't make any particular impression on me, but it's not bad either.
What is more interesting is the other three stories: The Orphans of Helix, set in the post-world of Simmons' Hyperion series- nice work and a useful thing if you have just finished reading/emerged breathless from Hyperion world and need a fix. The "The Ninth of Av" was at first a strange and confusing tale when I read it, but now, with a benefit of hindsight, I see that it is an essential reading before delving into the world of Illium and Olympos, Simmons' latest saga. And finally, "On K2 with Kanakaredes" is a sci-fi gem, with a big emotional punch; stories don't come better than this.
This collection is a must for Simmons fans, but it works just as well as a standalone, excellent introduction to one of the best writers in the field- though after his excursions into horror, thriller and such, exactly which field it is, it's hard to say at his point. In hard core sci-fi, Simmons holds steady as one of the biggest stars. Even his cover art is slightly improved here- this galactic picture was used in hundreds other works, on a Pearl Jam album cover recently, but it's better than the usual cheapo paintings of the lurid sci-fi nature that the publishers love to slap on Simmons. Put some duck tape on these and keep reading...

Simmons has concentrated most of his efforts on novels (for obvious reasons) so it's always a delight to find a collection of his shorter work. He's a master of both forms but there's something distinctive about his shorter works. Perhaps it's because there are so few masters of the form. Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury and Nancy Kress are some of the dozen or so authors that are worthwhile (besides Simmons)investigating that are masters of the form. Two stories of note for fans who have read Simmons' novels.

Orphans of the Helix takes place in the Hyperion Universe but without any of the characters from any of the novels. It's a well written story that might have ended up on Star Trek Voyager if not for the ignorance of one of the show's producers.

The Ninth of Av relates to Illum (Simmons' latest novel). It's a prequel involving one of the characters from the novel and takes place prior to the disappearence of most of humanity.

All the stories are interesting particularly the mysterious Looking for Kelly Dahl. This marvelous story (which opens the book) concerns a character who has lost the will for living. He rediscovers it when he becomes involved in a variation on The Most Dangerous Game.

Worlds is well worth picking up. I know there are a number of readers who don't care for short stories (it seems to be a dying art form with less and less magazines publishing them). Worlds will be just as rewarding and more varied than most novels and is comparable in quality to Simmons' fine novels. I'd highly recommend it.

Those even marginally familiar with Simmons work should know that he can write in many different genres quite well, but that his first pieces that really attracted attention were science fiction, and for my money, this is still the genre where Simmons is at his best.

This is a collection of some of his shorter science fiction works, of a length that often gets relegated to the 'magazine publishable only' pile; too short for a stand alone book, too long to be included in most short story collections. So this collection is a nice treat, allowing you to see multiple samples of his writing at a length that gives enough room for full development of his ideas without having to slog through several thousand pages of an equivalent number of novels.

"Looking for Kelly Dahl" is probably the best piece here, a strongly imagined tale of an alcoholic suicidal teacher who has a very odd meeting of the minds with one of his former students. The story highlights Simmons' skills at characterization while maintaining a very literary air, a deeply psychological story that emphasizes just how great the rift is between two people really trying to know each other.

"On K2 with Kanakaredes" is another excellent piece, taking a standard mountain climbing story and elevating it to a story of earned respect for all intelligences. Some very strong characterization for both the narrator and the alien, and Simmons' own respect for the great mountains of this world comes through very clearly.

"The Ninth Av" is a rather chilling story, as the remaining 'humans', all of Jewish descent, wait for the 'final fax'. Interspersed with a re-telling of the final days of Scott polar expedition, the net result is very depressing, a tale that mines the dark places of the human spirit.

"Orphans of the Helix" and "The End of Gravity" I found to be rather minor pieces, not on the same level as the other three stories, though still enjoyable reads.

Simmons' style in all of these stories is probably quite a bit more literate than is common in science fiction, with layered themes and a mosaic feel of more being present than meets the obvious eye. This is strongly reinforced by Simmons' introduction to each of these stories, which often give some of their genesis and his thoughts on what he was trying to achieve in these works. But in this case, I think the introductions are somewhat superfluous, and in some cases actively detract from the ability to read these stories and see just what images and thoughts the stories evoke, unsullied by prior conceptions. I'd definitely recommend reading the stories first, and only reading the introductions afterwards if you feel the need.

A strong collection, with three of the stories belonging in 'excellent' class, and a fine showcase for the diversity of ideas that Simmons brings to the field.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Clearly, Mr. Simmons is talented, very bright and hard to peg into any specific genre. Although all five tales have a sci-fi feel to them, they are not stories for the comic book, Star Wars kind of crowd. Forget about hoping that these are edge-of-your-seat pieces that will compel you to keep turning the pages. I find Mr. Simmons' work to be enjoyable simply because of his writing style. If you're looking for a Wild West, shoot-'em-up, political intrigue collection... BOY!... have you picked up the wrong book. The major problem with this volume had to do with the introductions before each story. I enjoyed seeing a little behind the author's curtain on how each story came to fruition, but it did take away some of the element of surprise and wonder that I find important in reading any story. Also, I'm a pretty well-read individual, but with the exception of a few people like Stephen King and Shakespeare, Mr. Simmons' interspersion of various authors he has read or admires were strangers to me. If you are a huge fan of Mr. Simmons, you'll probably like the book. Otherwise, pick up something else.