And elsewhere and elsewhen, a group of human beings enjoy an apparently carefree existence on a largely depopulated Earth, tended by machines and creatures whose benign intentions they take for granted.
Meanwhile, sentient robots from the moons of Jupiter, worried about the long-range effects of such profligate energy use, have arrived to monitor the monitors and, if necessary, intervene in the intervention. For so far incomprehensible reasons, they have chosen to observe, and intervene in, the very siege of Troy that Homer wrote about. By virtue of a superscientific technology known as ''quantum teleporting,'' these self-proclaimed gods can move around in time and space at will. but the actual volcano on Mars that is the tallest mountain in the solar system. Wielding energy-hungry devices of unknown provenance, they have established a base on Mount Olympos, not the mythical abode of Zeus et al. This time, the threat comes from beings who literally cloak themselves in the guise of Greek gods. Once again, the fabric of the universe is threatened by ill-considered use of godlike powers. But whereas the Hyperion books were deadly serious, wrestling with end-time issues of sin and redemption, ''Ilium'' takes a more playful approach to apocalypse.
With ILIUM (Eos/HarperCollins, $25.95), he returns to science fiction on a grand scale. In the massive four-volume space opera that he has retrospectively called the ''Hyperion Cantos,'' Dan Simmons not only created a galaxywide civilization of plausible complexity but filled it with characters whose fate we came to care about.
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