Ilium was published by Eos (HarperCollins) in 2003. The novel operates on three wildly disparate narrative tracks: on a terraformed Mars, post-human beings calling themselves Greek gods are reenacting the Trojan War using resurrected “classics scholars” as observers (Thomas Hockenberry, a 20th-century academic, narrates this strand); on Earth, a diminished humanity of fewer than one million people lives in pampered ignorance, served by machines, unable to read, and teleporting between “faxnodes” without understanding the technology; and in the outer solar system, sentient moravec robots — literary scholars themselves, passionate about Shakespeare and Proust — detect dangerous quantum activity near Mars and send an expedition to investigate.
The novel’s structural conceit is that the Iliad is being literally reenacted, and that the observers (who know how the poem should go) begin to notice deviations from Homer’s text. Hockenberry, given the power to quantum-teleport by the “goddess” Aphrodite, begins to interfere with the plot — eventually inciting Achilles and Hector to ally against the gods themselves.
Collecting Ilium
First edition (Eos, New York, 2003): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $30–$80
- Signed first: $100–$200
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
The Literary Science Fiction
Ilium is Simmons’s most literarily ambitious novel, weaving Homer’s Iliad, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time into a science fiction narrative of staggering complexity. The conceit — that post-humans are literally re-enacting the Trojan War on a terraformed Mars while resurrected scholars observe and verify accuracy against Homer’s text — is one of the most audacious premises in modern science fiction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to know the Iliad to read Ilium? It helps enormously. The Mars storyline follows the events of Homer’s Iliad closely, with Simmons’s resurrected scholars annotating deviations from the original text. Readers familiar with Homer will appreciate the parallels and divergences; those who are not may find this storyline bewildering.