- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing; New edition edition (17 Aug 1987)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747230447
- ISBN-13: 978-0747230441
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11.2 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 404,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Song Of Kali (Fantasy Masterworks)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Robert Luczak travels to Calcutta to interview Das, a noted Indian poet who has mysteriously reappeared years after he was thought dead. Das is reputed to have been brought back to life in a bloody ceremony of human sacrifice and Robert becomes caught up in the dark design of ancient forces.
About the Author
Dan Simmons won the World Fantasy Award for SONG OF KALI, his first novel, inspired by his travels in India. In the 1990s he rewrote the SF rulebook with his Hyperion Cantos quartet. He has also written thrillers. Alongside his writing he maintains a career as a college lecturer in English Literature in the USA.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As with other novels by Dan Simmons, the worst horror is the reality so movingly depicted. The real monster is Calcutta, a city dedicated to Kali, goddess of death, with its open morgues and its fresh dead on the morning streets - something that should be dead, but putrefyingly persists. This is not the only source of horror, however - at least one scene in an unlit room had me reading with my hand over my mouth in fear. And the ending is heartbreakingly desolate. As Mr Simmons says, don't blame him that his books are marketed as horror, and don't blame him for the artwork. He is a highly literate author whose novels are driven by character, not incident. A satisfyingly frightening and surprisingly moving read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first read this book in 1989. I found it unputtdownable then. Now, twenty years later I got hold of copy on ebay and lent it to a friend. My friend was also spellbound and finished it in three days.
The book brings Calcutta alive in way that I have not seen any author do. The story is well paced. There is mystery and suspense. The brooding, evil underside of Calcutta is really well structured. Not that Calcutta is like that - but its a fictional device that works very well.
The shock ending really got me - I was truely suprised and upset - so I won't spoil it for you.
The way he creates M Das as a student of Tagore is entirely believeable. The character Krishna leaves many unanswered questions. I would LOVE to see a sequel to this book.
I would recommend this books to anyone interested in India / Kali.
The book brings Calcutta alive in way that I have not seen any author do. The story is well paced. There is mystery and suspense. The brooding, evil underside of Calcutta is really well structured. Not that Calcutta is like that - but its a fictional device that works very well.
The shock ending really got me - I was truely suprised and upset - so I won't spoil it for you.
The way he creates M Das as a student of Tagore is entirely believeable. The character Krishna leaves many unanswered questions. I would LOVE to see a sequel to this book.
I would recommend this books to anyone interested in India / Kali.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'll admit that I bought and read this novel expecting it to be more of a pacy bestseller style read. Instead, the book I discovered had more of a literary air to it - although plenty of chills and gripping episodes were included - in a read that proved quick and enthralling.
Yes, as other reviews on this site point out, the plotting is very minimal, but in my opinion nonetheless engaging for all of that. One of Simmons' strengths as a writer is his rendering of atmospherics and place - he uses the backdrop of Calcutta to instill a nagging sense of misery and unease in the reader - the perfect backdrop to his central motif of the goddess of death and destruction. But he is also aware enough to address the problematics of a Western perspective on India, including wry - and not dry - discussions about this within the body of the text.
Without going into the details of plot, the narrative follows a downwards spiral which is quite compelling for the reader in its bleakness - in the way that say, Stephen King's Pet Semetary is. Rather than follow that well trodden path into the void however, Simmons ultimately, is able to produce a quiet, hopeful ending that lifts the book above run of the mill horror shockers.
Yes, as other reviews on this site point out, the plotting is very minimal, but in my opinion nonetheless engaging for all of that. One of Simmons' strengths as a writer is his rendering of atmospherics and place - he uses the backdrop of Calcutta to instill a nagging sense of misery and unease in the reader - the perfect backdrop to his central motif of the goddess of death and destruction. But he is also aware enough to address the problematics of a Western perspective on India, including wry - and not dry - discussions about this within the body of the text.
Without going into the details of plot, the narrative follows a downwards spiral which is quite compelling for the reader in its bleakness - in the way that say, Stephen King's Pet Semetary is. Rather than follow that well trodden path into the void however, Simmons ultimately, is able to produce a quiet, hopeful ending that lifts the book above run of the mill horror shockers.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The song of Kali has begun...
I really enjoyed this book, its very pacy, increasingly so beyond the first chapter or two, and really does belong perfectly within the fantasy genre, while much of the horror... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lark
A dark journey into horror
Song Of Kali is only the second book that I've read of Dan Simmons's novels, the first being the truly superb Drood. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jakabok Botch
Will scare parents senseless!
I read this about five years ago just after our second child had been born and within that context the themes in the book scared me senseless! Read more
Published 10 months ago by R. P. Wright
Atmospheric.
This reads a little like an old fashioned horror, all about the atmosphere rather than the events themselves with lots of exotic native colour. Read more
Published 19 months ago by plot hound
A one-way ticket to Calcutta for the price of a paperback
Robert Luczak, poet and editor, has just been hired to hop on a plane to Calcutta and investigate the claims of a man who says he wants to publish new material by a celebrated... Read more
Published on 10 Sep 2006 by George Eliot
Not a classic
The Song of Kali was Dan Simmons' first novel. As such, it is something of an apprentice work. The themes which appear in his beter known works (the Hyperion Cantos and the... Read more
Published on 23 April 2005 by Alex Fell
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