Dan Simmons "Olympos" and "Ilium" Signed Limited Edition 2-Volume Matching Numbers Set No. 343 of 724

Personally signed by Dan Simmons (2x), The Hugo Award-winning author. A Rare Signed Collector's Matching Numbers Set of "Olympos" and "Ilium".

Subterranean Press (2003, 2005). Dan Simmons "Ilium" and "Olympos". Signed Limited Edition set of only 724 produced (matching numbers). Personally signed by the author Dan Simmons directly onto each limitation page. Hardcover books with no dust-jackets as issued. Ilium: 681 pages. Olympos: 899 pages. Ilium has been illustrated by Barry Moser.

Two volume set in one shipment: 

1. "Olympos" - Signed Limited Edition No. 343 of 724
2. "Ilium" - Signed Limited Edition No. 343 of 724 

Dan Simmons is the Hugo Award-winning author of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and their sequels, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. He has written the critically acclaimed suspense novels Darwin's Blade and The Crook Factory, as well as other highly respected works, including Summer of Night and its sequel A Winter Haunting, Song of Kali, Carrion Comfort, and Worlds Enough & Time. Simmons makes his home in Colorado.

Ilium

Ilium is a science fiction novel by American writer Dan Simmons, the first part of the Ilium/Olympos cycle, concerning the re-creation of the events in the Iliad on an alternate Earth and Mars. These events are set in motion by beings who have taken on the roles of the Greek gods. Like Simmons's earlier series, the Hyperion Cantos, the novel is a form of "literary science fiction" that relies heavily on intertextuality, in this case with Homer and Shakespeare, as well as periodic references to Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (or In Search of Lost Time) and Vladimir Nabokov's novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle. In July 2004, Ilium received a Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2004.

From the publisher:

Ilium is Dan Simmons' first full-length science fiction novel since The Rise of Endymion in 1997. A work of epic scope, audacious intelligence, and imaginative grandeur, it is the opening movement of a projected two-volume sequence, and is an authentic masterpiece in its own right.

The intertwined narratives that comprise the novel take place nearly 2,500 years from now, in the "post-human" universe of "The Ninth of Av." On Earth, the eloi-like remnants of the "old style" human race pursue painless, pointless existences, largely unaware of the history of their species, or of the nature and geography of the planet they inhabit. In Jupiter space, a pair of Moravecs -- partially organic robots with an affinity for Proust and Shakespeare -- agree to investigate a quantum anomaly recently discovered on the surface of Mars. And on the Plains of Ilium, a scholic named Thomas Hockenberry observes what appear to be the gods of the Greek pantheon -- Zeus, Ares, Apollo, Athena, and literally hundreds more -- as they preside over the bloody spectacle of the Trojan War, a once familiar conflict that will evolve -- and escalate -- in unexpected ways.

Looking backward toward the epic glories of Homer's Greece and forward toward the marvels -- and terrors -- of the distant future, Ilium is a novel of heroic proportions that stands at the intersection of quantum physics and ancient myth. Funny, moving, startling, enlightening, and endlessly entertaining, it is the most astonishing accomplishment to date by one of the most gifted, ambitious, and unpredictable storytellers of the modern era.

Review

“[Ilium] will leave most readers waiting breathlessly for the next installment...utterly addictive.”

Olympos

Beneath the gaze of the gods, the mighty armies of Greece and Troy met in fierce and glorious combat, scrupulously following the text set forth in Homer's timeless narrative. But that was before twenty-first-century scholar Thomas Hockenberry stirred the bloody brew, causing an enraged Achilles to join forces with his archenemy Hector and turn his murderous wrath on Zeus and the entire pantheon of divine manipulators; before the swift and terrible mechanical creatures that catered for centuries to the pitiful idle remnants of Earth's human race began massing in the millions, to exterminate rather than serve.

And now all bets are off.

Reviews

“Explores the relationship of history and culture to the idea of humanity. An exceptional creation.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“[OLYMPOS] manages to mix great literary pastiche with some highly original storytelling...thoughtful, inventive, clever and action-packed.” — Sunday Denver Post

“Ambitious, witty, moving: Simmons at his best.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Insanely ambitious . . . Ilium and OLYMPOS together solidify [Simmons’s] reputation as one of science fiction’s genuine modern masters.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“A thoughtful but fast-paced tale that will leave heads spinning and hearts racing.” — Newark Star Ledger

“Philosophy, physics and literature 101, wrapped up in the trappings of Buck Rogers-style space opera: great fun.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Fans of epic, action-driven science fiction will talk about this inventive and highly-addictive thriller for years.” — School Library Journal

Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons, a full-time public school teacher until 1987, is one of the few writers who consistently work across genres, producing novels described as science fiction, horror, fantasy, and mainstream fiction, while winning major awards in all these fields. His first novel, Song of Kali, won the World Fantasy Award; his first science fiction novel, Hyperion, won the Hugo Award. His other novels and short fiction have been honored with numerous awards, including nine Locus Awards, four Bram Stoker Awards, the French Prix Cosmos 2000, the British SF Association Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Award. In 1995, Wabash College presented Simmons with an honorary doctorate in humane letters for his work in fiction and education. He lives in Colorado along the Front Range of the Rockies.

Dan Simmons grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.

Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years—2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York—one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher—and 14 years in Colorado.

ABOUT DAN

Biographic Sketch

His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.

Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."

Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado—in the same town where he taught for 14 years—with his wife, Karen, his daughter, Jane, (when she's home from Hamilton College) and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Fergie. He does much of his writing at Windwalker—their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike—a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels—was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.