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Slow Gods by Claire North

Mawukana na-Vdnaze is an unusual man. Born in the Shine, an autocratic multi-planetary government noted for its brutal repression of dissent, he escapes in the most astonishing manner possible, via an FTL jump that goes...weird. Given refuge on another world, he is drawn back into interstellar affairs when a twin star goes supernova, generating an explosion that will render dozens of worlds uninhabitable, including some in the Shine.

Catherine Webb has consistently been one of spec fic's most interesting voices since they launched their career almost a quarter of a century ago. The Matthew Swift sequence (four novels plus two spin-off books), under the Kate Griffin pen-name, was notable as an urban fantasy series with terrific prose, but it's been their long streak of stand-alone novels under the Claire North pen-name which has attracted a much wider audience. The million-selling, John W. Campbell Memorial Award-winning First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was one of the most striking genre novels of the 2010s (and it remains a mystery why it hasn't been adapted for the screen), and the World Fantasy Award-winning A Sudden Appearance of Hope was also very accomplished.

In the 2020s they've shifted gears away from supernatural-tinged time travel and identity-bending fiction into a more heartfelt embrace of genre: the Songs of Penelope trilogy has been a full-bored fantasy-historical sequence, an interrogation of Homer, and now Slow Gods is a full-on, take-no prisoners space opera, the kind of shift in genre and approach that could give other authors whiplash.

Slow Gods starts slow, perhaps fittingly, and takes its time to spool up. Early chapters establish the Shine and the imminent threat of the twin supernova, a threat which is dismissed by some since its consequences will take decades or even centuries to become apparent, and all the people who'd have to make the hard and unpopular decisions to deal with it will be long dead by then, so why bother? Other, less psychotic civilisations swing into action much more dynamically, and how the different species and polities confront this massive existential threat is most interesting.

This is contrasted against Maw himself, whose travel through jump space has rendered him...other. Not quite human any more, capable of unusual acts, possibly dangerous, but also essential for certain tasks. FTL travel in this setting is dangerous, with most starship pilots going insane after just a few jumps, but Maw's condition has given them a very different reaction, potentially highly useful. In the wrong hands this could turn into another superhero story, with Maw's amazing skills spelled out in neon five-mile-tall letters, but Webb uses their formidable experience in crafting damaged, special characters to give Maw a lot more subtlety than that. Maw himself does not know what he's capable of and is not always that interested in finding out. At one point he ponders some experiments to determine the limits of his abilities and concludes he just can't be bothered to try. Maw's characterisation is of someone driven by instincts and goals but whom also finds the idea of fame abhorrent. Maw is simultaneously the most special and ordinary person in the galaxy, which is an interesting take.

The characters around Maw, from quans (quantum intelligences) to members of a telepathic hive-race to more or less baseline humans, are fascinatingly-drawn, and come and go through the story as Maw's travels through space separate them from friends and allies (but also enemies) for decades at a time. The novel is somewhat episodic, with several distinct storylines that sequentially follow before combining into a satisfying narrative whole, bringing the story back to where it began.

The novel is highly accomplished but the opening chapters feel a little hesitant, as if the author was not entirely committed, but this feeling vanishes pretty quickly and instead we get a wide-ranging, human story about identity, loss and hope, driven by Webb's firm grasp of prose and pacing. It's a quiet, sometimes melancholic novel, with occasional bursts of action and moments of vast, profound tragedy.

Slow Gods (****½) is a quietly powerful science fiction novel about the death of worlds that starts slow and acquires an unstoppable, powerful momentum as it goes. It's a highly successful shift in tone and genre for one of our most consistently talented, if perhaps underrated, authors. The book is available worldwide now.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

Person of Interest: Season 1

A decade ago, a genius computer programmer named Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) created the Machine, a powerful AI capable of detecting crimes before they happen. The US government wanted to use the Machine solely to forecast large-scale threats, like terrorism, whilst Finch wanted to use it to help solve everyday crimes as well. Finch still has a line to the Machine, which feeds him the social security numbers of people who are about to be the victims - or sometimes the perpetrators - of crime. With an old injury inhibiting his ability to work in the field, Finch recruits ex-CIA operative John Reese (Jim Caviezel) to assist. Reese, living off the grid and suffering trauma after the death of his girlfriend while he was overseas, reluctantly agrees and finds the work is giving him a sense of purpose again. But their laudable actions soon attract the wrong kind of attention from the police...and Reese's old bosses.

Back in 2011, Jonathan Nolan, brother of director Chris and co-writer on many of his movies, went solo to work on a new procedural TV series, with J.J. Abrams producing. Person of Interest eventually ran to 103 episodes airing over five seasons, attracting significant critical acclaim and wider popularity in the process. It also gave Nolan the springboard to work on Westworld for HBO and now Fallout for Amazon.

This first season gradually eases the viewer into the world and premise. In fact, it might be a bit too gradual. The show spend a lot of its time on its mystery of the week format. The Machine spits out a social security number, Finch does some data-searching and Reese then saves/neutralises the person accordingly. Finch's seemingly infinite hacking skills and Reese's one-man army combat skills overcome almost every obstacle with ease. Complicating matters are Reese being hunted by both the police (represented by Taraji P. Henson's Detective Carter) and various former CIA colleagues.

The show does start to mix things up by bringing in serialised elements, with the hunt for the mysterious criminal mastermind "Elias" and the hacker "Root" forming key story arcs in the latter part of the season, along with the well-meaning Carter getting closer to Reese and Finch meaning they have to consider the risks vs reward of bringing her onto the team. This also leads to the development of the main cast. Just having Reese and Finch with Carter pottering around in a B-plot in the background risks getting a little claustrophobic, hence bringing in recurring characters like Kevin Chapman's Detective Fusco (a dirty cop Reese blackmails into helping him, but later decides to go straight) and Paige Turco's Zoe, a con-artist and political operator, is a good idea. Brett Cullen also recurs as Nathan Ingram, Finch's partner in the creation of the Machine and the public face of its design (hence how Finch is able to operate undercover). Ingram only appears in flashback, in an occasionally surfacing storyline about how the Machine was created.

These ongoing storyline elements make the show more interesting, but are treated with a light touch. From start to finish, the season is primarily concerned with its person-of-interest-of-the-week format and everything else is subservient to that. This means the serialised storylines are usually held off at arm's length which can be refreshing - arguably too many other shows ditch their interesting format too quickly to embrace serialisation, which can devolve into soap opera if the writers are not careful - but also frustrating. Whenever Person of Interest's main story arc starts building any momentum, the show kills it stone dead for another 3-4 episodes of self-contained adventures.

It's fortunate that the self-contained stories are usually pretty good. Reese's one-man army/Batman-without-the-mask spiel and Finch's savant-like IT skills are toned down a bit and complicated by increasingly effective and smarter opponents as the season goes on, to keep things fresh throughout. The serialisation does return with a vengeance in the last few episodes, leading to a hell of an effective cliffhanger that paves the way for the wider-scaled and scoped second season.

The performances of the leads are effective, with Michael Emerson (Lost) especially sympathetic and engaging as the stiff-upper-lipped Finch, whom we learn has made some questionable decisions and is now trying to atone for them. Kevin Chapman makes Fusco likeable and loathsome by turns, and Taraji P. Henson is engaging as Carter, at least after some initial abrasiveness in the character is toned down a bit. More of a mixed bag is Jim Caviezel as Reese. Caviezel seems to have trouble settling on a tone for the character, which to be fair is reflected in the writing. It's very easy to take a character who's supposed to be reserved, analytical and stoic and make them just dramatically inert instead, and the writers and Caviezel make that mistake a few too many times. Whenever Caviezel is stretched with material delving into his character's past or requiring more emotion, he can be quite good, but there's a few too many episodes where he comes across as checked out. Still, he's never terrible.

The show is often mentioned in the same breath as another Abrams project from the same time, Fringe. Both shows are contemporary dramas with science fictional themes laced into them (Fringe much more obviously so, and more upfront), and both shows start off as almost rote procedurals until the creators feel confident to slam down the accelerator on the main story arc, where the shows promptly improve and become more compelling. Both shows also last for five (well, four-and-a-half) seasons. Interestingly, whilst Fringe only ever did okay at best and was on life support for at least its last two seasons, Person of Interest was a much bigger crossover hit and enjoyed a larger viewership, which tailed off significantly towards the end. Both shows are also have a reputation for being somewhat underrated, and have pretty well-regarded endings. The similarities end there, as their stories and aesthetics are quite different, and I do have to say that Fringe after its first season felt like its main story arc had engaged more decisively and interestingly than Person of Interest's.

Still, Person of Interest's first season (***½) starts okay and quickly becomes quite strong, even if Caviezel's performance and the writing can be a little uneven throughout. Both the serialised plots and the stories-of-the-week can be quite good, and the other castmembers are excellent. The tail end of the season hints at a much bigger, more epic story unfolding behind the scenes as well, providing a good impetus to carry on. The show is available on physical media and streaming worldwide.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

RIP Nicholas Brendon

News has sadly broken of the passing of Nicholas Brendon, who was best-known for playing the role of Xander Harris on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Brendon was born in Los Angeles in 1971 and was an identical twin. As well as his slightly older twin brother Kelly Donovan, he had two younger brothers. He developed a stutter as a child, which badly impacted his self-confidence, and pursued acting as a way of managing the condition, abandoning plans to become a professional baseball player. His initial attempts to break into acting ended in failure, so he considered retraining in medicine.

A second attempt at acting saw Brendon audition for the pilot for Buffy the Vampire Slayer in late 1995. Cast as Xander Harris, the high school nerd who develops a crush on newly-arrived Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) only to discover she is the Slayer, the prophesised destroyer of vampire-kind, Brendon retained the role when it went to series, entering production in 1996 and finally airing (as a mid-season replacement) in 1997.

Nicholas Brendon appeared in all seven seasons of Buffy, until the show ceased airing in 2003. His character was notable for not possessing any special powers or skills, instead presenting the "ordinary guy" perspective on events. He was also somewhat the stand-in for creator Joss Whedon, sharing Whedon's interest in comic books and movies. Xander's nerdish persona was somewhat at odds with Brendon's tall good looks, so the show pivoted with Xander dating the popular Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) in the second and third seasons before hooking up with immortal ex-demon Anya (Emma Caulfield) in Season 4. Xander also became an effective fighter against the forces of evil. Several episodes focused on his character development, arguably the most notable being in Season 3's The Zeppo when he saves the day whilst his super-powered friends, busy with a world-ending threat, are otherwise occupied. In later seasons he gets an ordinary job (in construction) and develops impressive skills in carpentry and design. One episode also saw Xander split into two identical people, which allowed Nicholas and his twin brother Kelly to work together (some fans, unaware that Brendon was a twin, thought the show had demonstrated amazing vfx skill instead). Xander's crowning moment of glory comes in the Season 6 finale when he saves Sunnydale and possibly the world from Willow (Alyson Hannigan) after she is consumed by darkness. The show ends with Xander recovering from Anya's death and his loss of an eye in the final battles against the forces of evil.

Brendon went on to play the recurring role of Kevin Lynch on Criminal Minds, appearing from the third through tenth seasons from 2007 to 2015 in 21 episodes. He also played the main role of Seth Richman in Kitchen Confidential in 2005-06, and the recurring role of Lee McHenry in four episodes of Private Practice in 2010-11. He chalked up multiple film roles, the most notable being in comedy-horror film Psycho Beach Party (2000) alongside Amy Adams and Lauren Ambrose.

Nicholas Brendon also toured on the Buffy convention circuit, but struggled with depression and alcoholism, attending rehab several times. He married and divorced twice, and was arrested several times. He went on Dr. Phil twice to discuss his issues. He also had other health issues, requiring spinal surgery in 2021 and suffering a heart attack in 2022.

There's no denying that Nicholas Brendon had a troubled life, and had a lot of problems after his brush with fame on Buffy in trying to further his career. However, his family reported that new antidepressant medication seemed to be working in the last few years of his life, he had avoided some of the problems that earlier afflicted him and he had found a new career as an artist. It appears he may have found some peace in his last few years.

FIREFLY animated TV series in development

An animated TV series based on cult SF classic Firefly is in "advanced development," according to star Nathan Fillion. Most of the cast is expected to reprise their roles. Joss Whedon is not involved in the project but has given it his blessing.

The news was announced at a Firefly panel at WonderCon today. The animated series will be set between the events of Firefly (which aired one 14-episode season in 2002) and its movie sequel, Serenity (2005). Fillion (Mal), Alan Tudyk (Wash), Gina Torres (Zoe), Jewel Staite (Kaylee), Morena Baccarin (Inara), Sean Maher (Simon), Summer Glau (River) and Adam Baldwin (Jayne) will all reprise their roles from the TV series. It is unclear if a new actor will replace Ron Glass, who passed away in 2016, as Shepherd Book. Book departed the Serenity ship between the events of the series and movie, so he may not feature in the new project. The timeline was chosen to allow actors who characters died during the events of the movie to return.

The project is being developed by Fillion's company Collision33 with 20th Television Animation. Writer-producer team Marc Guggenheim (Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow) and Tara Butters (Agent Carter) will serve as showrunners, and have completed a first script. Animation studio ShadowMachine is producing concept art. Whedon, who created Firefly and wrote and directed multiple episodes (including the movie) but has since fallen from grace in Hollywood, will not have an involvement but Fillion has got his blessing to move forwards.

During an video addendum to the announcement, it appears that the project has the working title Firefly: Still Flyin' (or at least that's the logo), with a pilot episode entitled Athenia.

The news comes only a day after Sarah Michelle Gellar confirmed another attempted revival of a Joss Whedon property, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, was dropped after a pilot was shot for Hulu. That project may be remounted in a different format.

Hulu passes on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER sequel series after shooting a pilot

Actress-producer Sarah Michelle Gellar has confirmed via Instagram that Hulu has passed on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer legacy sequel series, New Sunnydale. The proposed series filmed a pilot last year with Gellar reprising her role as Buffy Summers and directed by Chloe Zhao.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired 144 episodes across 7 seasons from 1997 to 2003 and had a successful spin-off show, Angel. The show also spawned numerous spin-off novels and comic books. Gellar had always resisted attempts to revisit the show, but changed her mind after rewatching the show with her daughters during the COVID lockdown.

New Sunnydale was going to see the town of Sunnydale, destroyed in the original series finale, rebuilt in proximity to the Hellmouth, the old gateway of evil that caused most of the trouble in the original show. A new Slayer would be called in the form of Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Star Wars: Skeleton Crew), with Buffy on hand as well. It was unclear if Buffy was going to act as a mentor to the younger Slayer or what the precise format would be, but Armstrong's character would still be in school and would have a network of friends, allies and frenemies similar to the original show.

Only Gellar was contracted to reprise her role from the original show, but if it had gone to series, there were plans to bring back other characters as well.

Possibly in the future a different pitch might have better luck at getting off the ground.

Two missing DOCTOR WHO episodes recovered

As had been hoped for a while, the BBC has announced the safe return of two previously missing episodes of Doctor Who to their archive. "The Nightmare Begins" and "Devil's Planet" are the first and third episodes of the epic Daleks' Master Plan arc, both written by Dalek creator Terry Nation and originally airing in 1965. The episodes had been missing since the BBC junked a large number of episodes to make space in their archives.

The two episodes were recovered by the Film is Fabulous charity. The episodes had been in the hands of a private collector for some years, who had recently passed away. The Doctor Who episodes are part of a larger haul of vintage film. Film is Fabulous is assessing the rest of the collection to see if there are any more rare gems.

The find is quite significant. It's the first time any missing Doctor Who episodes have been found since nine episodes were located in 2013. The gap without any missing episodes being recovered was the longest since the hunt began in 1978, leading some to fear that no more episodes would be ever be found.

The episodes are quite significant. The Daleks' Master Plan is - arguably - Doctor Who's longest single story (The Trial of a Time Lord from 1985 is two episodes longer but is also sometimes counted as four stories combined into one) and one of its most epic, pitching the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his companions Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and Katarina (Adrienne Hill) against the Daleks in the year 4000. Selling the story overseas was problematic due to its length, meaning only a few copies were made and none distributed abroad, making the recovery of further episodes doubtful. However, the new discovery means that five episodes from the serial now exist in the archive, including the first three in a row. The find means that fans can also see more of Katarina, previously the companion with the least-surviving number of episodes in the archive. The find is also historic because it features, in "The Nightmare Begins," the very first appearance in Who of fan-favourite actor Nicholas Courtney. Courtney is better known for playing Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the franchise's most enduring recurring character, but in this story he plays space agent Brett Vyon.

Peter Purves, now 87, was treated to a special screening of the two episodes out of the blue and was reportedly flabbergasted by their return.

The episodes will be made available on the BBC iPlayer at Easter, and will be included when Season 3 eventually hits Blu-Ray (although that's a way off at the moment).

The Film is Fabulous initiative is pursuing several further leads which hopefully will turn up further missing episodes. This discovery drops the number of missing Doctor Who episodes to 95, all from the first six seasons of the show.

UPDATE: It's now been suggested that these two recovered episodes were not part of any previously known initiative, and are not the episodes Film is Fabulous have been trying to recover since last October. That initiative remains ongoing. This makes it more likely that at least one more missing episode could be recovered in the near future.

Cast of FIREFLY tease possible reunion

The cast of cult 2002 science fiction drama Firefly are teasing a reunion of the surviving characters in some form. Star Nathan Fillion has spent the last week or two "recruiting" fellow castmembers and telling them, "it's time."

The drip-feed of announcements started on 23 February when Fillion, who played Captain Malcolm Reynolds, met up with Gina Torres, who played his second-in-command Zoe Washburne. Two days later he recruited Morena Baccarin, who played Inara, and another two later, Sean Maher, who played Dr. Simon Tam. On 2 March Summer Glau, who played River Tam, joined the party. Then Jewel Staite, who played engineer Kaylee Frye, joined the team on 4 March. Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne Cobb, signed on on 8 March.

The only regulars not featured so far are Ron Glass as Shepherd Book, who sadly passed away in 2016, and Alan Tudyk, whose character Hoban "Wash" Washburne was killed in the 2005 spin-off movie Serenity. What will be interesting to see is if any of the extended cast of recurring characters, like Christina Hendricks' Saffron or Mark Sheppard's Badger, also join the project...whatever it is.

We do, however, have a date for an announcement: Sunday 15th March. That's when the cast will be attending a convention together, so they'll probably confirm what they're teasing then. Fillion has already confirmed it won't be "a podcast, convention or crossover."

Several possibilities then arise. The one all the fans want is a live-action reunion movie, special or even full TV series. A single movie or special is certainly possible, a full series less likely due to the actors' other commitments: Fillion on The Rookie, Baccarin on Sheriff County and Torres on Memory of a Killer makes long-term commitments doubtful. Even squeezing six episodes in during the off-season for those shows may be tricky. But a one-off is very doable, especially considering that Firefly is now effectively owned by Disney, who have deep pockets and might find a Firefly movie attractive, especially if it's relatively low-budget (by their standards, anyway).

Another possibility is animation. Animation has become a big deal, and requires much less of a time investment from the actors, who could fit it in around their existing schedules more easily. Animation would also allow them to set the show just after the movie or even between the series and movie, and bring back Tudyk (and, with another voice actor, Book).

A big question will be if creator-writer Joss Whedon will return to be involved with the project. Whedon has been persona non grata in Hollywood circles for several years due to revelations about his behaviour on the set of multiple projects, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the 1990s to his work on the movie Justice League in 2017. However, Adam Baldwin has also had some controversies and his return to the franchise is clearly possible, so perhaps Whedon's is as well. 

It is possible that one of the other writer-producers will be involved: Tim Minear arguably had as big a role on Firefly as Whedon and may be available to write or produce (he's currently a writer-producer on the 9-1-1 franchise).

We should find out what the fuss is about in six days' time.

Relics of Ruin by Erin Evans

The exiled nations of Semilla are in danger as never before, as the changelings beyond the Salt Wall test their defences...and possibly now have an ally to help them. Amadea Gintanas and her archivists are once again called to aid the kingdom when the discovery of the bones of a missing saint triggers both internal political intrigue, endangering the realm's stability when it needs it the most, and casts more light on the threat gathering beyond their borders.

Empire of Exiles was a splendid opening novel in the Books of the Usurper series by Erin Evans, the author of the acclaimed (unrelated) Brimstone Angels series. It featured interesting worldbuilding and sympathetic characters, as well as knotty, interesting plot.

This second volume is certainly a worthy follow-up. We follow several of the characters from the first novel, such as Amadea, Yinii, and Richa, although Quill has a less prominent role this time around, with Tunuk instead coming to the fore as a new primary character. However, I'd say it's a less immediately impactful novel than the first one. The first novel opens with a character committing a murder and then suicide in front of dozens of witnesses, which is the definition of opening with a bang. With this one, the inciting incident for the resulting events is the discovery of the bones of long-dead saint, which is equally momentous from the perspective of the cultures of Semilla, but is less immediately obvious to the reader.

The plot does move with some momentum and there's more going on with, with the Empress not coping well with the events of the first book and in danger of breaking down, with her aide (also something of an antagonist to Amadea, despite them being on more or less the same side) having to work hard to prevent that from happening. We have the embers of the last civil war still smouldering, ready to erupt at any moment, and a mixture of people trying to cover up the events of the last book and expose them. We also have a whole subplot taking place beyond the Salt Wall, as we follow a brave-but-possibly-unwise expedition across the changeling-occupied continent to remote lands which may hold the key to Semilla's final destruction.

It's all reasonably compelling stuff, though several weaknesses persist from the first book. Keeping track of the ten different human-adjacent species' physical characteristics can still be a pain, solved in the paperback which has illustrations of the different types but not much help in the tradeback (with much better cover art). The character focus is also a bit up and down. Amadea still gets a ton of development (badass middle-aged librarian POVs rock), and the real winner from the book is Richa, who overcomes his initial hardboiled detective cliches to get a much more interesting backstory. Quill is not a main focus any more (though usually knocking around) and new POV character Tunuk (promoted from a minor figure in the first novel) is interesting here but fades a little in the second half of the book. We also get a new Big Bad who is seriously hyped up through about three-quarters of the book, but when he shows up is seriously underwhelming, though that might be the point.

It also feels like the main story hinges a little on the intricate cultural norms of these factions which haven't entirely been well spelled-out. You certainly get what's going on, but the intricacies and nuances can feel obtuse. Perhaps reading the two books much more closely back-to-back would help with that.

Still, the worldbuilding remains fascinating, the story is pacy and the characters interesting enough, even if the stakes and motivations aren't always the clearest. A series of cliffhanger endings leave things in an interesting place for the forthcoming (but untitled and undated, so far) third volume in the series. Relics of Ruin (***½) is available now.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

RIP Dan Simmons

News has broken that science fiction author Dan Simmons, best known for his Hyperion Cantos series, has passed away at the age of 77.

Born in Illinois in 1948, Simmons did not break into writing fiction until he was already in his thirties, having instead worked as an elementary school teacher. He credits Harlan Ellison's mentorship with getting him into writing workshops and programmes. He published his first short story, "The River Styx Runs Upstream," in 1982, and another, "Remembering Siri," in 1983. This story is notable as being the first set in his Hyperion setting. Another 1983 story, "Carrion Comfort," inspired his horror novel of the same name.

Despite his reputation as a major science fiction author, Simmons actually broke through as a horror author with his first two novels, Song of Kali (1985) and Carrion Comfort (1989). He attracted critical attention and approval from Stephen King, and won the World Fantasy Award for Song of Kali, with Carrion Comfort picking up a Bram Stoker Award, Locus Award and British Fantasy Award.

In 1989 Simmons also published his first major science fiction work and also his best-known single novel, Hyperion. An SF take on The Canterbury Tales, the book forms a series of narratives told by travellers on their way to confront a mysterious alien entity known as the Shrike. The sequel/continuation (Simmons would occasionally suggest the two books had been written as one ultra-long novel, split in half for practical reasons and a major shift in formal), The Fall of Hyperion (1990), won a British Science Fiction Association Award. The two books were retrofitted as a duology called The Hyperion Cantos and published in omnibus under that title in 1990. After detouring into other settings, Simmons would return to the same universe for Endymion (1996) and The Rise of Endymion (1997), which were not quite as well-received, but still solid. Simmons got to experience the joys of Hollywood development hell, with Hyperion optioned for both film and television multiple times (most recently by actor-producer-director Bradley Cooper, a big fan of Simmons) but never quite making it.

Simmons would continue to write in other settings. The five-volume Seasons of Horror series was published intermittently from 1991 to 2002, and was followed by the Joe Kurtz trilogy (2001-03), which saw him move into contemporary detective fiction. Phases of Gravity (1989) and The Hollow Man (1992) were science fiction, whilst The Crook Factory (1999) was a historical thriller. His next major work was the Ilium duology, consisting of Ilium (2003) and Olympos (2005).

Simmons entered a new phase of his career with arguably his second-best-known novel, though perhaps better-known to a more general audience. The Terror (2007) expertly merged elements of historical and speculative fiction into an engrossing account of the infamous Franklin Expedition. It was adapted as a TV series in by AMC in 2018. Drood (2008) tackled the mystery around Charles Dickens's final novel. Black Hills (2010) attracted less interest, and Simmons experienced significant opprobrium for his 2011 novel Flashback, which some commentators regarded as Islamophobic. Simmons noted the novel was an expansion of a earlier short story in which the antagonists are instead Ronald Reagan-influenced capitalists, which attracted no criticism at the time, though commentators also pointed out his long, post-9/11 history of political commentary on the issue over the previous decade. Despite criticisms, the book sold well and was optioned for television. Simmons rallied to deliver the novels The Abominable (2013) and The Fifth Heart (2015). His final completed novel, Omega Canyon, was due for publication last year but was delayed for unspecified reasons.

At his best, Dan Simmons could be an atmospheric writer, skilled in character, setting and story. His novels could trend long, sometimes to tremendous effect (in his Hyperion Cantos duology and The Terror), but sometimes invoking filler. But he was a restless author, always happy to explore new ideas and new genres rather than resting on his laurels and bashing off a dozen, easy Hyperion sequels. Bradley Cooper, Stephen King and Guillermo Del Toro were major fans, Harlan Ellison regarded him as a protege and George R.R. Martin published him in anthologies.

Dan Simmons passed away today from complications resulting from a stroke. He is survived by his wife Karen and daughter Jane, two grandchildren and his brother. With Hyperion and The Terror, he achieved the rare feat of writing two genre novels which crossed over into mainstream awareness and praise, which is no small achievement.