One thing that really stood out though was the aliens. The Muse of Fire is one of the few remaining human spaceships, a troupe of theater actors who play Shakespeare pieces for all the humans on these worlds, trying to bring some culture but mostly some light and fun entertainment into their lives.Īt the start, the whole story reads pretty dour and hopeless, and you have no idea where it will go. The human race is subjugated by aliens, Earth destroyed (mostly), humanity spread and forced to work on countless worlds for our conquerors, our technology is broken, as is the will of humanity. On the surface its a science fiction story. People occasionally accuse Simmons of being pretentious, but here he fully blows past any pretentions and just does something beyond. Not just saying these are good or worthwhile to keep as canon, but transcending them into a position where they represent a value judgment on humanity is just balls. It’s Dan Simmons doing his usual stick, glorifying old pieces of western culture, aggrandizing them to a status of almost myth-like, god-making proportions. This is one of the odder, weirder pieces in the collection.
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