A novella.
Since the publication of Song of Kali in
1985, Dan Simmons has produced a substantial body of fiction notable
for its vigor, variety, and sheer imaginative reach. His latest, a
novella-length tale of startling originality, beautifully embodies
these qualities, reaffirming Simmons's position as one of the finest
storytellers of our time.
Muse of Fire takes
place in a remote future age in which the human enterprise has all but
ground to a halt. Earth, drained of its oceans and populated largely by
the dead, is little more than a distant memory. The scattered human
remnants occupy the lowest rung of a Gnostic hierarchy that dominates
both their secular and spiritual lives. Against this backdrop, Simmons
introduces the Earth's Men, a wandering troupe of players dedicated to
presenting the works of Shakespeare to every accessible corner of the
settled universe.
The story begins on the planet known as 25-25-261B, a regular stop on the players' interstellar tour. A routine performance of Much Ado About Nothing is in progress when an unprecedented event occurs. A band of Archons – members of the usually invisible ruling caste – enter the makeshift
theater and join the audience. In doing so, they change the course of
human – and non-human – history.
What follows is an
intellectual adventure story of astonishing richness and depth in which
disparate species face each other across an insurmountable divide,
their only point of contact the indelible language of William
Shakespeare, the story's true muse. Skillfully deploying the elements
of traditional science fiction – advanced technologies, alien
encounters, strange new worlds – Muse of Fire entertains
and illuminates while celebrating the best, most durable elements of
our cultural legacy. It is a work of wit, erudition, and tightly
compressed grandeur that only Dan Simmons could have written.
