{"id":11484,"date":"2026-02-27T15:36:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/?p=11484"},"modified":"2026-02-27T15:50:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:50:34","slug":"dan-simmons-rip-another-sf-writer-dies-too-late-to-salvage-his-rep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/2026\/02\/27\/dan-simmons-rip-another-sf-writer-dies-too-late-to-salvage-his-rep\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Simmons RIP: another sf writer dies too late to salvage his rep"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nI have to admit at being a little bit triggered by this obituary<\/a> by Eric Berger over at Ars Technica<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

\nDan Simmons, the author of more than three dozen books, including the famed Hyperion Cantos, has died from a stroke. He was 77.<\/p>\n

Simmons, who worked in elementary education before becoming an author in the 1980s, produced a broad portfolio of writing that spanned several genres, including horror fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. Often, his books included elements of all of these. This obituary will focus on what is generally considered his greatest work, and what I believe is possibly the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Hyperion.
\n[…]
\nIn any case, fans of epic fiction have lost a giant, a great writer and epic storyteller with a gift for dark twists and colorful characters. We can only hope he has found a tree ship to take him to a celestial paradise rather than become infected with a cruciform.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nTo only talk about a science fiction writer’s most famous work in his obituary is an understandable choice, especially since it seems to have meant so much to Eric. But I wish he had paid some attention to another, more infamous text of Simmons<\/a> too:\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI mean the Century War with Islam,\u201d interrupted the Time Traveler. \u201cYour future. Everyone\u2019s.\u201d He was no longer smiling. Without asking, or offering to pour me any, he stood, refilled his Scotch glass, and sat again. He said, \u201cIt was important to me to come back to this time early on in the struggle. Even if only to remind myself of how unspeakably blind you all were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean the War on Terrorism,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean the Long War with Islam,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Century War. And it\u2019s not over yet where I come from. Not close to being over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have a war with Islam,\u201d I said. \u201cYou can\u2019t go to war against a religion. Radical Islam, maybe. Jihadism. Some extremists. But not a . . . the . . . religion itself. The vast majority of Muslims in the world are peaceloving people who wish us no harm. I mean . . . I mean . . . the very word \u2018Islam\u2019 means \u2018Peace.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you kept telling yourselves,\u201d said the Time Traveler. His voice was very low but there was a strange and almost frightening edge to it. \u201cBut the \u2018peace\u2019 in \u2018Islam\u2019 means \u2018Submission.\u2019 You\u2019ll find that out soon enough\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nPublished in april 2006 on Dan Simmons’ own website, “the Time Traveler’s Tale” wasn’t fiction, but intended as a terrible warning of the grim future Simmons saw ahead of him. Yes, he had his brain fried by 9\/11 and the ensuing War Against Terror. Just another dime a dozen islamophobe echoing the same tired rhetoric about Islam you saw on every other warblog at the time. For me, that completely ruined any enjoyment<\/a> I could get out of Hyperion<\/cite>. Rereading it made clear that the vileness that fully erupted in that essay in 2006 was already present in Hyperion<\/cite> in 1989, just hidden better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to admit at being a little bit triggered by this obituary by Eric Berger over at Ars Technica: Dan Simmons, the author of more than three dozen books, including the famed Hyperion Cantos, has died from a stroke. He was 77. Simmons, who worked in elementary education before becoming an author in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11486,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11484\/revisions\/11486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}