OK! I slogged my way through The Terror and was unimpressed but decided to give Dan Simmons another try.So I started Carrion COmfort(about 900 pages long).I have been stuck on page 300 for a week and have decided to abandon this book which I HATE to do. So-I have Summer Of Night By Dan Simmons on my shelf and am wondering if it's worth even starting.It seem like Dan Simmons is a "detailaholic"!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean seriously!!!!!!!!!

Any opinions (good bad or ugly) would be appreciated!! :)

Stacy

The Summer of Night...excellent.  I did not like second book tho, A Winter's Haunting, tho many people did.

I think his Hyperion series is his best work. I like it much better than his "horror" novels.

I also liked his Joe Kurtz novels which are, what? Crime? Thrillers?

Darwin's Blade was fun too.

Carrion Comfort I got through somehow a long time ago. I tried to reread it about ten years ago and couldn't do it.

Summer of Night was OK. Song of Kali I thought was excellent

I read A Winter Haunting (not knowing that Summer of Night came first), and enjoyed it (I assume Children of the Night is related?).  I wanted to like Song of Kali, but it didn't do much for me.  I have The Crook Factory TBR, and I imagien that I will get to it someday (like all the others).

Thanks for all your input:0 So Is Summer of Night part of a series then?

Stacy

I tried to read The Terror- got less than a 100 pages in and gave up. I really wanted to like Song of Kali but it took too long to get involved and I quit that too. Haven't given him another chance since. Maybe someday I will change my mind.

Summer of Night was my first Simmons' book and I loved it. Reminded me of  Stephen King's It.  I then hunted down alot of his books but was kind of disappointed by what I read.  I really didn't care for Song of Kali or Carrion Comfort. 

Wow, another author who writes 800 page novels with about 250 pages worth of good story?  He and S. King have a lot in common.

I loved the Terror, but haven't read any of his other books.

This is an horrifyingly scary book and I loved it.  It is a haunting and compelling read, and I highly recommend that you follow it up with A Winter Hauting.  Honestly, after reading "Summer", I found myself running up the basement stairs as fast as I could!

Ok this is my first post on the PBS boards. Yea to me!! I would recommend Children of the Night. It was one of my first Simmons books and still one of my favorite. It seems like most people posting didn't like Song of Kali but I will put in a vote for it since it is my favorite Simmons book. I thought is was a fantastic story. It's not a fast moving story so if that's the kind of books you like then I would go with some of the other suggestions.

I really liked Carrion Comfort, Summer of Night and A Winter Haunting.  Song of Kali, good but not my favorite. If you like his ideas but want a little bit faster pace, you could look for Fires of Eden.

Dan Simmons is on a short list of my favorite authors.  Have you read "Summer of Night" yet?  IMO that book defines the coming-of-age horror story.  I also enjoyed Fires of Eden, but as horror it didn't feel nearly as intense to me as Summer.

Dan Simmons also wrote my favorite scifi series, Hyperion.  The first time I read it, I had trouble getting through the first 20 or so pages and almost gave up on the book.  I'm so glad I hung in there.  It is awesome!

Like others have said Simmons' books can be too heavy in detail at times.   I found that to be true of Hyperion, but not Summer of Night--maybe because he was writing from a child's perspective.   That problem doesn't really bother me too much though--whenever I'm bogged down by too much detail, I will scan through to the more interesting parts.  If the book turns out to be really good, I can always go back and revisit those parts.