Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

Original Title: Song of Kali ISBN: 0575076593

ISBN13: 9780575076594 Autor: Dan Simmons Rating: 5 of 5 stars (3698) counts Original Format: Paperback, 320 pages Download Format: PDF, FB2, DJVU, iBook. Published: March 10th 2005 / by Gollancz / (first published 1985) Language: English Genre(s): Horror- 196 users Fantasy- 144 users Fiction- 134 users Thriller- 33 users Cultural >India- 26 users

Description: Calcutta: a monstrous city of immense slums, disease and misery, is clasped in the foetid embrace of an ancient cult. At its decaying core is the Goddess Kali: the dark mother of pain, fourarmed and eternal, her song the sound of death and destruction. Robert Luczak has been hired by Harper's to find a noted Indian poet who has reappeared, under strange circumstances, years after he was thought dead. But nothing is simple in Calcutta and Lucsak's routine assignment turns into a nightmare when he learns that the poet is rumoured to have been brought back to life in a bloody and grisly ceremony of human sacrifice.

About Author:

Dan Simmons grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art. Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then

worked in elementary education for 18 years—2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York—one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher—and 14 years in Colorado. ABOUT DAN Biographic Sketch His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national languagearts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop. Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life." Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado—in the same town where he taught for 14 years—with his wife, Karen, his daughter, Jane, (when she's home from Hamilton College) and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Fergie. He does much of his writing at Windwalker—their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike—a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels—was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.

Other Editions:

- Song of Kali (Paperback)

- Song of Kali (Paperback)

- Song of Kali (Kindle Edition)

- Song of Kali (Kindle Edition)

- Song of Kali (Paperback)

Books By Author:

- Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)

- The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #2)

- Endymion (Hyperion Cantos #3)

- The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos #4)

- The Terror

Books In The Series: Related Books On Our Site:

- Darker Than You Think

- The House on the Borderland and Other Novels

- The Mark of the Beast and Other Horror Tales (Dover Horror Classics)

- Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories

- Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams

- The Dragon Waiting

- In a Lonely Place

- The Second Book of Lankhmar (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser #5-7)

- The Well of the Unicorn

- Gloriana

- Freehold

- The Emperor of Dreams

- Time And The Gods

- The Dark Country

- The Pet

- The Conan Chronicles: Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (The Conan Chronicles, #1)

- Glimpses

- The Green Pearl and Madouc (Lyonesse, #2-3)

Rewiews:

Aug 29, 2011 Stephen Rated it: really liked it Shelves: fantasy, horror, award-nominee-locus, award-nominee-world-fantasy, multiple-awardnominee, award-winner-world-fantasy, signed-first-or-limited-edition, mythstories-and-legends, 1980-1989, mystery

Thus begins Dan Simmons’ visceral, violent travelogue through the dark, murderous underbelly of Calcutta. This was an excellent read, but you should know going in that this is NOT a warm, fuzzy, feel better about humanity story. In fact, you might want to have your favorite blankie or stuffed animal or a bottle of Scotch and some happy pills with you before you begin reading this to help hold back the glooms. Here’s the basic set up. PLOT SUMMARY M. Das, one of India’s greatest poets, mysterio

Thus begins Dan Simmons’ visceral, violent travelogue through the dark, murderous underbelly of Calcutta. This was an excellent read, but you should know going in that this is NOT a warm, fuzzy, feel better about humanity story. In fact, you might want to have your favorite blankie or stuffed animal or a bottle of Scotch and some happy pills with you before you begin reading this to help hold back the glooms. Here’s the basic set up.

PLOT SUMMARY

M. Das, one of India’s greatest poets, mysteriously disappeared many years ago and was believed dead. Recently, however, new material purporting to be Das’ work has begun circulating in Calcutta. Robert Luczak, writer, columnist and our main character, is sent with his family to Calcutta by Harper’s Magazine to find and interview Das, verify the new work is authentic and bring back a copy for publication in the United States. Luczak’s search for M. Das leads him to an ancient, brutal cult of Kali worshippers who practice a whole host of depravities including human sacrifice of children. As Bobby delves deeper and deeper into the history and customs of the cult, he discovers a bizarre connection between the cult and the re-emergence of Das whose new verse is a celebration of the goddess of death.

From there…you’re on your own. That’s the plot in a nutshell, but it doesn’t convey the feel of the novel and the dark, deeply disturbing atmosphere that Simmons manufactures with his sense-laden depictions of Calcutta. **Quick Aside: For the record, I’m not endorsing Simmons extremely negative portrayal of Calcutta (I’ve never been there) and my praise is for the effectiveness of Simmons' writing while ignoring any judgments on the accuracy thereof. From the moment Bobby arrives in India with his wife and baby girl, he is swallowed up into a grim netherworld of festering violence, callousness and a palpable sense of evil. Simmons prose makes you perceive Calcutta as a living presence. The stifling, sticky heat, the claustrophobic “pressing in” of the crowds and the filth and squalor of the living conditions. All of this comes right off the page and Simmons imbues it all with an overarching sense of tangible, directed malevolence. Can you tell that I think Simmons is a pretty special writer. As very good as this was, it is important to note that this was Dan Simmons first published work. Thus, fans of Simmons should know going in that Song of Kali does not reach the level of quality and polish of his later works, most notably the Hyperion Cantos. However, since only a handful of speculative fiction works have EVER reached the level of the Hyperion Cantos, I don’t think this is much of a criticism. This an accomplished tale a real horror and at just over 300 pages, is considerably shorter than his later works which generally approach the size of doorstops. I'm very glad to have finally scratched this off my “to read” list. But be warned, despite being a fast and relatively easy read, it has the potential to leave a chilling impression on you lasting far beyond the final page. It certainly had that effect on me. 4.0 stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Winner: World Fantasy Award for Best Novel Nominee: Locus Award for Best Horror/Dark Fantasy Novel 62 likes 22 comments