Talk:Dan Simmons

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Fulsome praise[edit]

"From the beginning, Simmons showed himself to be one of the few genre authors who possessed plot developing abilities, and he proved able to write high-level prose that is derived from his familiarity with the classics."

The first part of the sentence strikes me as rather excessively POV, both towards Simmons and against all the other genre authors. The second part seems complimentary but not particularly meaningful; what is the definition of "high-level prose"? I'm not familiar with his work, could someone who is revise the sentence in question? —Clement Cherlin 04:52, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Better now? --maru (talk) contribs 05:06, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Olympus vs Olympos[edit]

I noticed that in the header rows, Simmons' latest duology is referred to as Ilium / Olympus.
Since the book itself bears the titel Olympos I think the headers should be adjusted.
I will do this if there are no objections. If so, I'd be interested why the -us variant is preferred.

"Time traveler" thing[edit]

Do we consider this thing to be worth mentionning ? There were some reactions over the Internet, and Simmons has defended it [1] later. Rama 08:38, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is some hostility towards foreigners through his early authorship, Indians in Song of Kali, Romanians in Children of the Night, although in both cases there is a "good" representative of both people, and since they are horror stories focusing on the bad side is understandable. The hostility towards Islam (especially arabic) in Ilium/Olympos is more clear cut, and clearly influenced by the 9/11 attacks (which are referenced in the books). The blog message above falls perfectly in line with this.
However, unless it has been been a subject of analysis outside of Internet fora, it is not really something we can mention here. No original research. --Per Abrahamsen 17:08, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Conceptually relatedly... The WaPo had a piece "Book review: Flashback, by Dan Simmons" by Patrick Anderson on July 31, 2011, whose analysis wanders in this direction. He states it's "an abundantly entertaining, often outrageous right-wing fantasy", and "With any luck, Simmons could be the Tolstoy of the tea party". 109.255.211.6 (talk) 03:38, 28 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Vagina Dentata[edit]

I've read in a book, and I'm fairly sure that it's either Neil Stephenson, Greg Bear or Dan Simmons, a Native American legend involving vagina dentatas belonging to three "spider women". I wanted to add this to the Vagina Dentata article. Does anyone know if this comes from Simmons? Tomandlu (talk) 09:32, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The short story you're looking for is called "Sleeping with Teeth Women" and it's available in his short story collection "Lovedeath." Kryptography (talk) 05:32, 18 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:Hyperion omnibus.jpg[edit]

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BetacommandBot (talk) 17:44, 2 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Author recommends genocide[edit]

The book 'Song of Kali' by this author isn't just the usual Christian trashing Hindu goddesses but it goes further and advocates nuclear bombardment of Calcutta and killing millions of Indians. Such racist genocide recommending authors should be boycotted by all those who love peace. Note: I am not objecting to making fun of Kali or Corpse of Christ or whatever, but I definitely object to authors who favor and recommend genocide. 121.247.49.9 (talk) 14:10, 3 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you think that's what he was doing you have no knowledge or understanding of Simmons whatsoever. Apart from having read all his books, several times, I have been a participant on his message board (now closed, alas) for the past three years. He regularly appeared there, interacted with fans and shared his views on numerous topics. He is the last man in the world to advocate genocide.

86.159.144.186 (talk) 10:10, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Pseudonymous?[edit]

The article alleges that Simmons' Hard Case books were published under the pseudonym Joe Kurtz. Kurtz is the lead character, the books were published under the name Dan Simmons. He has never as far as I know used a pseudonym for any of his writings. If no one objects I will change the article accordingly.

86.159.144.186 (talk) 10:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Since no one did object, now done.

86.159.144.186 (talk) 11:06, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Some Suggestions for Developing Article[edit]

  • The biography could be expanded somewhat
  • The science fiction section might benefit from a summary of his major arcs, Hyperion etc, the reference to literature section could be condensed into a prose format and reference to Hyperion sit in the arc summary
  • Perhaps a section on his short stories and collections thereof
  • The horror section focuses on two books, but does not really provide general information on his horror writing. It does not mention Song of Kali - though perhaps it is debatable if this is horror, fantasy or some kind of magical realism, from my recollection the book does not really commit to actual fantasy elements, rather uses them as a psychological projection (read it 15 years ago though, so could be wrong)
  • Some reference to his common themes
  • The movie section is out of date, I am now sure if the Illium project has gone anywhere, I have not been able to find any reference to its further development on the web (happy to be corrected). I understand Hyperion has now been given a green light for production as a major Hollywood production
  • I understand he has had a lot of interaction with fans through sites, and also uses his website to provide information on the publication industry, perhaps this is worth mentioning somewhere
  • His interaction with the conference/convention circuit? Just a thought
  • I think he has written general fiction/thrillers too (wasn't there a book using the Darwin Awards as a context for a thriller about a former sniper). There may have been others
  • He has done screenwriting work, there is not mention of this here, not sure how much input on this front he has had to the movie projects, but I know he did a script for a TV production of one of his short stories, and may have done more —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mesmacat (talk • contribs) 04:41, 26 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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Official Website[edit]

Link to Simmons Official Website is now dead. Should it be removed permanently? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.112.43.168 (talk) 21:59, 8 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Awards subsections[edit]

@Create a template: thanks for updating Simmons' and other authors' awards. Just a note about the subsection headings: I think labeling all awards as "Minor" or "Major" this way is problematic, because it is the opinion of just one source, and may not represent consensus in all cases. Also, a separate section for Locus alone is odd. (SFADB does it that way, but that website is managed by Locus, so they highlight their own awards; we should probably be more neutral.) Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 06:43, 25 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

ah I see. I might agree with you regarding the minor/major sections. you make a good point about a single source describing what's should get classified as "major" without particularly supporting, with neutral dividing factors, in distinguishing one from the other. while it's pretty obvious that the hugo and nebula awards are regarded more prestigious than say the mythopoeic award in scifi communities, we'd need to establish with more evidence that this is the case.
as for the locus award, the reason I treat it separately is because they are popularly voted instead of bestowed by societies or panels. the question is more about whether we should partition general audience voting from the bestowed awards by societies and professional critics. Then again, now realizing it, Worldcon members vote to nominate and select Hugo awards. so you're probably right that they should all go in a single table. Create a template (talk) 00:05, 26 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I sympathize with wanting to highlight major awards, as SF has just too many of them. No argument about Hugos and Nebulas being the big two. Some sources also add Locus (e.g. [2]), World Fantasy and Arthur C. Clarke Awards to the top of the food chain. But beyond those, I think the hierarchy is less clear. See the list of 10 awards covered in Jo Walton's An Informal History of the Hugos#Synopsis, for example – when compared to SFADB's list, Walton drops British Fantasy and BSFA, but adds Mythopoeic and Prometheus. So yeah one big table is probably for the best. If there's a prose summary above the table (e.g. "won five Hugos and two Nebulas"), it can be limited to the major ones. Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 03:16, 26 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Omega Canyon[edit]

It seems that Omega Canyon, a novel that had been scheduled for release back in 2017 and pushed back several times, is no longer scheduled for release. The publisher's website makes no mention of it, and the author's website hasn't been updated in several years. I've removed this novel from the list of works Golden122306 (talk) 02:53, 27 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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