In Olympos, Dan Simmons returns to the ambitious vision of the future he presented in Ilium, a tale that loosely followed Homer's epic poem, The Iliad, adding elements from The Tempest and hard science fiction. Olympos throws us right into the thick of things, and where the first book broadly followed the events of The Iliad, events in this tome set their own course.

In the first book, Mars had been mysteriously recreated to simulate the Trojan War, complete with gods.

Thomas Hockenberry, an early 21st-century professor of classical literature, was resurrected by the gods to monitor how closely the unfolding war mirrors that recorded by Homer. Between compiling his reports, Hockenberry was recruited by the goddess Athena to take part in a devious plan that threatened to overthrow all of Mount Olympos.

Meanwhile, a group of carbon-based robots detected enough quantum activity on Mars to tear a hole in the universe. They negotiated to reduce the threat but also had planetbusting bombs … just in case.

We return to the plains of Ilium, where the ancient Greeks and Trojans have united to battle the gods. Sworn enemies Achilles and Hector must put aside their differences to battle Zeus. But this uneasy alliance is broken as the gods again involve humans in their plans.

This time, however, the goddess Hera and her allies are planning to overthrow Zeus. Their plans could destroy the universe.

Simmons shows his skill as a writer by creating a seamless tale from these diverse storylines. He avoids the mythology-meets-science idea becoming a one-trick pony by fleshing out the world and ideas; by the end, his literature-loving robots seem as real as the Trojan War. Like Homer, Simmons questions the idea of destiny, as well as human nature.

Ilium and Olympos are ambitious books that could easily have failed to fulfil their potential. Instead, together they are destined to become modern classics of science fiction.