Product 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, four-armed and eternal, her song the sound of death and destruction. Robert Luczak has been hired by a New York magazine 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 before long Luczak's routine assignment turns into a nightmare . . . it is rumoured that the poet has been brought back to life, in a bloody and grisly ceremony of human sacrifice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99068 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Dan Simmons won the World Fantasy Award for his first novel, SONG OF KALI,. inspired by his travels in India. In the 1990s he rewrote the SF rulebook with his Hyperion Cantos quartet. As well as horror and aSF, Simmons writes fantasy and thriller. Alongside his writing career he maintains a career as a college lecturer in English Literature in the USA.

Customer Reviews

Fears and tears
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.

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 Olympos series) are present: scholarly heroes, writers and great literature, and doomed children and the effect on their parents. The setting (Calcutta in the 1970s) is also extremely vivid and well described - there is an awful lot of wading around in filth, and a clammy, miasmic feeling is very strongly evoked.

But it has to be said, not a lot really happens. Our hero arrives in Calcutta to see a supposedly deceased poet, has a few stories related to him about the cult of Kali, a few nasty things happen to him (and one very nasty thing) and then he heads off again. The plot does seem a bit thin, and becomes fairly incoherent towards the end. And the tone is not really very fantastical or horrific - it is probably deliberate on the author's part, but we never really find out if his fantastical expreiences are real or not, or just figments of his imagination.

Overall, this is a good book and a worthwhile read if you like Dan Simmons. But it is not his best, and if you are new to this author, try Hyperion or Olympos first.

Totally underrated!
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.